Saracens progress to play-off after Wasps' 26-7 win over Ulster

Wasps 26-7 Ulster, Ricoh Arena
Scorecard

Wasps managed to end their European Champions Cup campaign with a 26-7 victory over Ulster in the final round at Ricoh Arena on Sunday but failed to acquire a berth in the knock out stage.

Wasps finished their campaign in the second place in Pool 1 with 17 points which wasn't enough for their qualification but the result meant their Aviva Premiership rivals Saracens have reached the knock out stage and will remain the only English club in the play-off.

Guy Thompson got the proceedings off with a 10th minute try while a conversion from Danny Cipriani took the Quins to seven points but Ulster went on to level the scores at the start of the second quarter with Sean Reidy touching down and was improved by John Cooney.

Tom Cruse provided Dai Young's side with an advantage heading into the break with a touchdown and Cipriani's conversion meant the score remained 14-7 in favour of the hosts at the end of the first half.

Willie le Roux extended Wasps' lead to 12 points with an early try in the second half though the conversion was missed. The bonus point for Wasps soon came with the fourth try coming from Jake Cooper-Woolley and with the Irish regional side failing to add any point in the second half, Wasps sealed a 26-7 victory but could not quite make it to the second stage.

“This competition is unforgiving and we played really well here today and against La Rochelle but we had a poor 10 minutes at Ulster and a disastrous last 20 at the Stoop last week, said Wasps rugby director Young.

“We responded very well to that and showed how much we cared and learnt from that defeat.

“We bombed a couple of tries but we showed real spirit in defence and controlled much of the game but we gifted them a try by not being sensible as we forced two impossible passes.

“After losing last week, qualification was always a long shot but we gave it as much as we could but we needed more than one result to go our way.”