Match Centre: Bath Rugby 17-27 Wasps

Bath Rugby 17-27 Wasps, Recreation Ground

Wasps managed to return back to winning ways as they edged out Bath Rugby 27-17 in the seventh round of the Gallagher Premiership at Recreation Ground on Saturday.

This is third win for Wasps in six matches as they climbed to the seventh place in the table while Bath's winless campaign continues as they have now lost all the six games.

Wasps started the proceedings early after they went aerial through a kick from Jacob Umaga and eventually Josh Bassett allowed Vaea Fifita to go over the line in the seventh minute. Jimmy Gopperth kicked the conversion as the visitors raced to a 0-7 lead.

Orlando Bailey helped Bath open their account with a penalty goal at the end of the first quarter. The 22nd minute saw Dan Robson limped off the field and three minutes later Gopperth kicked a three-pointer restoring the seven point lead for Wasps.

Around the half-hour mark, the scores were levelled with Max Clark's offload found Tom de Glanville as he touched down and Bailey improved it making it 10-10. As the break was approaching, Gopperth kicked his second penalty goal as the visitors had a slender three-point lead at the end of the opening half.

The start of the second half saw Wasps lost Jeff Toomaga-Allen to yellow card for illegally bringing down the maul. Bath could not capitalise on the advantage as they saw Mike Williams sent-off in the 46th minute for taking on Gopperth in a ruck. The visitors extended their lead further with Gabriel Oghre raced on to Umaga's score to dot down and the fly-half also followed with the conversion making it 10-20.

Any chance of a Bath comeback was put off with Josh Bayliss also sin-binned for a deliberate knock on and with two-man advantage on their side, Tom Willis dived from close range with Umaga improving it making it 10-27. With six minutes left in the game, Semesa Rokoduguni collected a cross kick from Jonathan Joseph to touchdown and Danny Cipriani's conversion took them close to a losing bonus point but Wasps ensured there was no further slip as they completed a 27-17 victory.

Team line up:

Bath: De Glanville; Rokoduguni, Clark, Ojomoh, Muir; Bailey, Fox; Boyce, du Toit, Rae, McNally, Williams, de Carpentier, Reid, Bayliss

Reserves: Dunn, Schoeman, Jonker, Richards, Mergian, Green, Cipriani, Joseph

Wasps: Watson; Kibirige, Le Bourgeois, Gopperth, Bassett; Umaga, Robson; Hislop, Oghre, Toomaga-Allen, Fifita, Stooke, Shields, Young, T Willis

Reserves: van Vuuren, Nearchou, Millar-Mills, Cardall, Carr, Porter, McHenry, Crossdale.