| Wasps: (15) 39 |
| Tries: Young 2, Bassett, Le Bourgeois, Odogwu Cons: Umaga 3 Pens: Umaga 2 |
| Bath: (5) 29 |
| Tries: Reid, McNally, Obano, Spencer Cons: Bailey 3 Pens: Bailey |
Thomas Young scored two tries on his 100th Wasps appearance to help his side beat 14-man Bath 39-29 in a thriller.
Young’s early try was cancelled out by Miles Reid after half an hour before Josh Bassett raced in for Wasps.
Michael Le Bourgeois got Wasps’ third try before Bath’s Josh McNally and Beno Obano both forced their way over.
Ben Spencer put Bath ahead with 10 minutes left, but Obano was sent off three minutes later and Youngs was mauled over from the resulting penalty.
Paolo Odogwu’s try in the final minute put the gloss on a win which had seemed unlikely just 10 minutes earlier after Bath had overhauled a 12-point second-half deficit and looked set for a famous comeback win.
Wasps remain ninth after the bonus-point win while Bath are a point behind sixth-placed London Irish after collecting two losing bonus points.
The first half was marred by a serious-looking knee injury to Wasps captain Joe Launchbury. The 30-year-old England lock had to be helped from the field after painfully twisting his left knee as he tried to tackle Jonathan Joseph shortly after Bath’s opening try.
Wasps started and ended the first half well as Young went over from close range following a number of phases after a lineout before Reid replied from a rolling maul for the visitors.
The hosts recovered from losing Launchbury as the excellent Jacob Umaga kicked a penalty before the young fly-half set up Bassett’s try.
The England Under 20 player showed some superb footwork on his own 22 as he beat a couple of defenders before a giving a perfectly timed pass on the half-way line to Bassett for the winger to race in down the left flank.
Orlando Bailey landed a Bath penalty early in the second half before Umaga was again the star for Wasps’ third try – he started an excellent flowing move with a lovely dummy and after a couple of phases he was on hand to release Le Bourgeois out of the back of his hand.
Bath responded almost instantly as McNally went over after a pick-and-go on the Wasps line after a nice break by Sam Underhill had setup field position, and after an Umaga penalty Bath again went over from close range as England prop Obano benefitted after a number of phases.
Spencer capped a fine flurry of passes to break through and score as Bath thought they had done enough to win it, but they can have no complaints about the red card as Obano clashed heads with Ben Morris as he went to tackle the Wasps flanker, leaving his opponent with a bloody nose and the Bath man with a red card for a high hit.
Wasps kicked for a lineout from the resulting penalty which saw Youngs mauled over, and with an extra man Odogwu finished on the right wing late on as Bath’s defence could not cope.
Wasps: Miller; Odogwu, Fekitoa, Le Bourgeois, Bassett; Umaga, Robson; West, Taylor, Brookes, Launchbury (capt), Rowlands, Morris, Young, Shields
Replacements: Oghre, Harris, Toomaga-Allen, Douglas, Willis, Porter, Atkinson, Kibirige
Bath: Watson; Cokanasiga, Joseph, Redpath, Muir; Bailey, Chudley; Schoeman, Dunn, Thomas, McNally, Ewels (capt), Reid, Underhill, Mercer
Replacements: Du Toit, Obano, Judge, Stooke, Bayliss, Spencer, Clark, Gray
Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).
