Wasps power past Harlequins in the Premiership

Wasps remained in the hunt for the Aviva Premiership play offs when they beat Harlequins 37-6 with a bonus point at the Ricoh Arena on Sunday.

Sale moved into the top half of the table after the romp against at Kassam Stadium.

Steve Diamond said he was keen to avoid an upset pre-game, but there was never any chance of that happening in what turned out to be a stroll for the Sharks.

This will rank amongst one of the more disheartening performances for the relegation doomed Welsh, as they failed to build on an early try against a rampant Sale team.

After such a ruthless display, there may be some Sharks fans who will be dreaming of an unlikely charge towards the play-offs.

To say that Welsh’s return to the Premiership hasn’t gone to plan would be somewhat of an understatement, no wins in 13 before kickoff, but they showed a flash of promise with the first try of the game.

Rob Lewis intercepted a sloppy Sale pass 70 metres from his own try line, and charged all the way untouched to bring some cheer to his side’s beleaguered fans.

As has been the way this season, that early promise was extinguished moments later, with Mike Haley finishing off a slick Sharks attack to level the scores.

There was an inevitability about Sale’s second try, as Welsh’s scrum crumbled. That gave Dave Seymour a chance to break, and he fed in hooker Tommy Taylor who scored his first try of the season.

Sale were one try off a bonus point before the half hour mark, with Will Addison racing 40 metres to cross over. Welsh already looked a spent force in what has been a chastening campaign.

When Welsh looked at their remaining fixtures, they must have pinpointed this one as a potential first win, but when Taylor ran in his second try a few minutes before the break it was clear that the game was all but over.

That wrapped up the bonus point for Sale, as everything went to plan for Diamond’s side, including a fifth try by Tom Arscott try on the stroke of half time.

It was Arscott who continued the thrashing at the start of the second half with a well worked score.

Opeti Fonua got one back for Welsh as they looked to restore some pride, but it was ultimately a tame second period.

Mark Cueto rolled back the years late on with, running over half the length of the field for Sale’s seventh try. Will Addison brought up the half century with a late try.

Final Score Wasps 37 (23) Harlequins 6 (6)

Scorers

Wasps
Tries – Varndell, Daly, Penalty(2)
Pen – Goode (3)
Con – Goode (3)
Drop –
Cards –

Harlequins
Tries –
Pen – Evans (2)
Con –
Drop –
Cards –

Match Officials
Referee: Greg Garner
Assistant Referees: Nigel Carrick and Ross Campbell
TMO: Trevor Fisher

Teams

Wasps

15 Rob Miller, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 James Downey, 11 Tom Varndell, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 Thomas Young, 6 Ed Jackson, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 Bradley Davies, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Edd Shervington, 1 Matt Mullan (c)

Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 James Gaskell, 20 Guy Thompson, 21 Tom Bliss, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 Sailosi Tagicakibau

Harlequins

15 Ugo Monye, 14 Marland Yarde, 13 Matt Hopper, 12 Tom Casson, 11 Charlie Walker, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Danny Care, 8 Jack Clifford, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Joe Trayfoot, 5 George Robson (c), 4 Charlie Matthews, 3 Kyle Sinckler, 2 Joe Gray, 1 Mark Lambert

Replacements: 16 Dave Ward, 17 Darryl Marfo, 18 Seb Adeniran-Olule, 19 Sam Twomey, 20 Netani Talei, 21 Karl Dickson, 22 Ben Botica, 23 Ollie Lindsay-Hague