Daly boots Wasps to crucial Gloucester victory

Elliot Daly kicked a last minute penalty to earn London Wasps a vital 26-24 Aviva Premiership victory over Gloucester at Adams Park on Sunday.

Wasps made the perfect start to the match and were ten points up within the first five minutes.

First, Nick Robinson booted over a penalty then, shortly after, Billy Vunipola broke before finding the supporting Nic Berry, who crossed under the posts. Robinson added the conversion.

But the visitors rallied and they were level thanks to a penalty and converted try of their own.

Freddie Burns’ three-pointer reduced the deficit to seven points before Scott Lawson finished off a well-worked move to score Gloucester’s first try.

Burns’ conversion made it 10-10, but Wasps headed into the break in front, courtesy of a Robinson penalty on 37 minutes.

Robinson’s third penalty of the afternoon early in the second half put Wasps six in front, before Hugo Southwell collected Elliot Daly’s flick pass to crash over in the corner.

Robinson was again on target with the extras to make it 23-10, but Gloucester roared back and held the lead heading into the final ten minutes courtesy of two tries.

On 52 minutes Charlie Sharples capitalised on good movement with the ball from team-mates Luke Narraway and Nick Runciman to score, and 15 minutes later Akapusi Qera crossed after Jonny May had created the opportunity.

Both conversions were added giving Gloucester a single-point advantage, but there was yet more drama still to come.

Robinson missed the opportunity to put Wasps back in front when he pulled a penalty wide, Southwell’s mammoth drop goal attempt missed and then another long-range Robinson penalty fell short.

But, where his team-mates had failed, Elliot Daly stood up when it counted and booted over the penalty from half-way to hand Wasps the win.

Final Score Wasps (13) 26 Gloucester (10) 24

Scorers

Wasps
Tries: Southwell, Berry
Cons: Robinson 2
Pens: Robinson 3, Daly

Gloucester
Tries: Sharples, Qera, Lawson
Cons: Burns 3
Pen: Burns

Referee: Andrew Small (69th Premiership game)

Teams

London Wasps

15. Hugo Southwell (c) , 14. Jack Wallace , 13. Elliot Daly , 12. Paul Emerick , 11. Richard Haughton , 10. Nick Robinson , 9. Nic Berry , 8. Billy Vunipola, 7. Sam Jones , 6. Joe Launchbury , 5. Richard Birkett , 4. James Cannon 3. Ben Broster , 2. Tom Lindsay , 1. Tim Payne

Replacements , 16. Vladislav Korshunov , 17. Sakaria Taulafo , 18. Simon McIntyre , 19. Ross Filipo , 20. Tinus Du Plessis , 21. Charlie Davies , 22. Ryan Davis , 23. Tom Prydie

Gloucester Rugby

Jonny May; Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Tim Molenaar, James Simpson-Daniel; Freddie Burns, Nick Runciman; Dan Murphy, Scott Lawson, Rupert Harden; Tom Savage, Jim Hamilton; Peter Buxton, Akapusi Qera, Luke Narraway (capt)

Replacements:Darren Dawidiuk, Yann Thomas, Shaun Knight, Alex Brown, Alasdair Strokosch, Dan Robson, Ryan Mills, Mike Tindall