Late tries help Wasps secure victory over Dragons in their Champions Cup opener
Wasps finished their first outing in this year’s Heineken Champions Cup in style as late tries secured them a 24-8 bonus point win at Welsh region Dragons.
Tries from hooker Tom Cruse, scrum-half Dan Robson and flankers Jack Willis and Thomas Young along with two conversions from centre Jimmy Gopperth saw Wasps home.
The Dragons scored a nice try from wing Jonah Holmes plus a penalty from fly-half Sam Davies and were close until the late burst.
It caused a reshuffle of the Dragons squad with European Professional Clubs Rugby, the governing body of the Heineken Champions Cup, issuing a statement to say that Wasps had agreed to play if the Dragons removed six players from their team.
And it is understood all the Wasps players were asked before the match if they were happy for the game to go ahead. All said they were.
A statement from EPCR said: “EPCR were informed yesterday (Friday) that two members of the Dragons tournament squad and staff had tested positive for Covid-19.”
The Dragons squad returned negative tests earlier this week and it is understood that only players were involved in the re-testing as part of the Track and Trace system, and not staff, after the discovery was made on Thursday.
The EPCR statement said consultation then took place with their medical staff after the positive tests and “once all contact tracing evidence had been examined, it was agreed that the Pool A match could be played safely provided Dragons replaced six players in their matchday squad as a precautionary measure”.
With the match going ahead, the Dragons were down to 14 men just before the first quarter as wing Jared Rosser was yellow carded for a no-arms tackle inside his own 22.
The Dragons held out but skipper Rhodri Williams then committed himself to a tackle on Cruse, and the Wasps hooker went past the scrum-half and jogged to the line.
Davies booted a penalty but two dummy passes, from Wasps full-back Lima Sopoaga and wing Josh Bassett, produced acres of space for Robson to also run over the line, with Gopperth converting.
That left Wasps leading 12-3 at the interval, but the visitors then went down to 14 men after the break when Sopoaga was accused of a no-arms tackle on home full-back Josh Lewis and was sent to the bin.
And the Dragons took advantage of their extra man with a superb try which saw the backs spread the ball wide before veteran Welsh centre Jamie Roberts sent the ball inside for Holmes to score.
Davies had the chance to bring the Dragons within a point from a long-range penalty but it fell short.
And two tries in the last 10 minutes from Willis and Young, with Gopperth converting the latter, allowed Wasps to pull away and claim the bonus point victory.
Comments on RugbyPass
A very good player.We are finally getting some balance in our team. Plummer..Heem ..Lam a solid..experienced combo who take the sensible options consistently. Clarke was a grt impact of the bench option until Lam moved to 13 to replace an injured Reiko. Cotter is doing a grt job building his team. .
1 Go to commentsSaturday was last straw. Terrible record in Premiership since Jan 23. Capitulation against Bath at home. There are 3 conclusions. Players aren't good enough. Coaching team aren't good enough or combination of both.
2 Go to commentsAs you say in your article Brett, the point was Hamish and his vanity - plain and simple. The crazy bit is that sua’ali’i has to be probably twice the player of mark N, no easy feat, just for RA to get their money's worth!?! And as you say, tahs aren't short of wingers, props on the other hand id like to see $1.6m spent on. I still shake my head at the absolute carry on in the media and comments section around the boon of getting sua’ali’i and the revenue it'd generate. It was all such hogwash imo and short sighted, real sugar hit stuff. And wasnt Waugh (and others) on the board at the time this money was spent? You say silver bullet, I'd say sugar hit but without the flavour.
2 Go to commentsNZR should play hard all a bit with some of these players and make them sign up to the next world cup. If they won’t, offer it to someone who will. Because what happens is the NH (especially France) swoop on a bunch of nz players coming off contract, weakening their depth, and nz scrambles less than 2 years out trying to get replacements up to speed.
1 Go to commentsNo thanks. Savea almost always leaves easy points out there and goes for the corner, no matter how many times it’s not working. He claimed he took “the learnings” from this when he kept making the same mistake against the Boks a few years ago. Then went out the very next week and did the same thing and SA snatched victory because of it. Years later he still does it, right up to and including the world cup final. Great player, not so great rugby nous.
10 Go to commentsIt certainly wasn't a rhetorical masterpiece coming from big E …. (just as a side remark: Eben is the better player, Siya by far the better talker - maybe that's why they don't seem to like each other very much) …. but could we please move on?
59 Go to commentsMan who wasn't there and hasn't held a conversation with those who were present weighs in on dead rubber debate and is presented as representative of the Irish Rugby Union’s spokesperson on subject he has no apparent knowledge of whatsoever.
59 Go to commentsanybody who bends at the waist when they tackle
3 Go to commentsThe evidence is not strong that this is necessary. Mounga choked on clutch kicks in the WRC final and lost the match by not performing his core goal kicking role to the level required. He also choked in the Semi final against England and was targeted as the weak point in the defence allowing them to score. Not a test great frankly. Why bend the rules for a player that is competent but not brilliant at test level?
11 Go to commentsDear Robbie, Please return to the Crusaders next season. Sincerely, Scott
1 Go to commentsDid the big E call the Irish the ‘White Can’ts’? That would’ve been good
59 Go to commentsDalton Papalii will be lucky to be selected on the Matchday 23. Ardie Savea, Ethan Blackadder, Luke Jacobson, and Peter Lauki are all as good or better openside flankers
10 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a lock and they have a much longer shelf life than a loose forward. Far more likely that Barrett will still demand a starting position based on performance at age 33 at RWC 2027 than Savea, whose explosive athleticism will have declined and he will in all likelihood have been surpassed by Hoskins Sotutu, Wallace Siti, Peter Lauki and Brayden Iose.
10 Go to commentsExtremely frustrating to get yet more speculation over whether or not Eben actually counted 12 players or not, but honestly big respect to McCloskey for keeping it classy and not pointing out Etzebeth’s hypocrisy. The Irish are a popular team outside of Ireland because they do their talking on the pitch, and its honestly a PR masterclass that they’re keeping it that way following Etzebeth’s provocation.
59 Go to commentsGood option for the lineout lost there.
1 Go to commentsIt’s not like Saffas have a long history of spouting absolute shite at any & every occasion. Oh wait… The dangers of an inferior third world education strike again.
59 Go to commentsI’m so glad we’re revisiting this. Really needs to be dissected further. I’m also so glad that a guy in the stands who wasn’t anywhere near the field when any of it would have been said (and even confirms this) has taken the lead and commented as Ireland. Definitely cleared it all up. This article would be hilarious if it wasn’t so misleading.
59 Go to commentsits such a shame he hasn’t achieved more success at club level. He’s really not been a potent finisher for a while now, but he’s still excellent in the kick chase. That’s the kind of skillset that generally only gets appreciated when you’re playing in premiership and european finals. I’m not sure whether the challenge cup counts given the quality of the competition seems lower than in previous years, but his duel with Mapimpi should be enthralling.
1 Go to commentsThe point is the irish players were arrogant,call it like you want sugar coat it aswell but they were you could see it in their way they handeled themselfs on the field when they got something right so dont tell me it was not arrogance it was,you can fool other people but not me,and to say to one of our players see you in the final put a nail in the coffin for this bullsh@t,just be grown men and accept it that you were arrogant,you could if seen it from a mile away, and then you lost to the allblacks what a cocky move that didnt work out for you ,Eben was right when he said u were arrogant,the point is you will deny it because you lost it all just grow some balls and move on we had won you lost accept it.
59 Go to comments“summer tour of North and South America” so its a summer tour of america?
1 Go to comments