Premiership: Wasps 19-20 Gloucester - Twelvetrees penalty wins it for visitors

Josh Bassett's converted try had put Wasps ahead for the first time in the contest, but Billy Twelvetrees won it for Gloucester

Billy Twelvetrees' penalty three minutes from time helped Gloucester snatch a 20-19 victory at Wasps, having played with 14 men for 52 minutes.

Tries from Santiago Socino and Chris Harris, either side of Ollie Thorley's red card after 28 minutes, put Gloucester 17-0 ahead at half-time.

Wasps rallied with scores from James Gaskell and Rob Miller before Josh Bassett's try looked to have won it.

But Twelvetrees was on target from 40 yards out to claim a brave victory.

It was just a third win of the season for Gloucester and exceptionally hard-earned after Thorley was sent off having chased a box kick and made an upright tackle on Wasps full-back Miller during which there was a clash of heads.

The initial view of the television match official Graham Hughes was that no foul play had taken place but referee Matthew Carley overruled, deciding there was no mitigation to reprieve Thorley because the winger had not lowered his tackle height.

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By then Gloucester had driven Socino over for his first Premiership try and scored again before the break after Wasps centre Malakai Fekitoa was sin-binned as Twelvetrees' flat pass sent Lewis Ludlow through a hole, who offloaded for Willi Heinz to put Harris over.

Wasps quickly responded with two tries within seven minutes of the restart.

Brad Shields sent Miller away up the left touchline before prop Tom West offloaded for Gaskell to score his fourth try of the season.

Jacob Umaga then put prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen through a gaping hole in the Gloucester midfield before a magnificent behind-the-back offload put Miller through to the line.

Gloucester still led into the final 10 minutes but Wasps kicked a penalty to the corner and, after their initial drives were repelled, the ball was spread wide to winger Bassett, who spun out of two tackles to score.

Replacement Jimmy Gopperth kicked a splendid touchline conversion to give Wasps the lead but, almost straight from the restart, the home side knocked on and a scrum penalty gave Twelvetrees the chance Gloucester needed.

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett told BBC CWR:

"The thing we've spoken about recently is our discipline. You cannot give that many penalties away and expect to win Premiership matches.

"We're giving an image at the moment that we're indisciplined because referees are whistling us off the park.

"We struggle to build pressure. We had a couple of massive scrum penalties against us, we lost a few line-outs. We can't be making those errors."

Gloucester head coach George Skivington:

"We've had a few practice runs with 14 men, unfortunately, so to actually fall on the right side of it is great - but it's not something we want to continue doing.

"It does make life hard. We're giving people opportunities to come at us a little bit, but you can't fault their character. The way they stick together is a testament to them.

"We all want the game to get safer. There are measures in place now where, if your head touches someone else's head it's a red card, so, within the context of the law, it's fine. But it's tough as there are a lot of lads who haven't had a card in their lives who are suffering on these split-second decisions."

Wasps: Miller; Kibirige, Fekitoa, Le Bourgeois; Bassett, Umaga, Porter; West, Oghre, Toomaga-Allen, Rowlands, Gaskell, Shields (capt), Young, T Willis.

Replacements: Cruse, Harris, Thomas, Douglas, Vailanu, Vellacott, Gopperth, Minozzi.

Sin-bin: Fekitoa (29).

Gloucester: Moyle; Carreras, Harris, Twelvetrees; Thorley, Barton, Heinz; Seville, Socino, Balmain, Slater, Alemanno, Reid, Ludlow (capt), Ackermann.

Replacements: Walker, Ford-Robinson, Stanley, Craig, Clement, Chapman, Seabrook, Sharples.

Red card: Thorley (28).

Referee: Matthew Carley.

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