Wasps 38-30 London Irish: Clinical attack helps hosts beat Exiles

Ali Crossdale's try set Wasps on their way to victory at the Coventry Building Society Arena

A clinical Wasps attack helped them beat London Irish 38-30 in an entertaining Premiership match.

Two early tries helped Wasps build a 14-3 lead before Ollie Hassell-Collins' pace enabled the winger to go over unopposed to keep Irish in the game.

Hooker Dan Frost twice crashed over for Wasps, either side of a brace by his opposite number Agustin Creevy.

Irish missed four conversions which gave Wasps breathing space to secure a much-needed fourth win of the season.

Victory moved them up to eighth in the table, a place and three points behind the Exiles, who scored five of the game's nine tries but just missed out on a second bonus point.

Paddy Jackson's early penalty put Irish in front, only for Ali Crossdale's explosive break down the left to give the home side the first try moments later.

Crossdale was tackled just short of the line but momentum took the full-back over, and Irish again cursed their luck when loose play resulted in a knock-on and Frost opportunistically touched the ball down.

Hassell-Collins responded by pulling Wasps out of shape with electric speed, with Jackson's missed conversion keeping the score at 14-8.

Jimmy Gopperth's kicking was more consistent as he scored a penalty, before converting after Alfie Barbeary sucked in visiting defenders following a maul to score on the blind side.

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Just as Wasps looked comfortable, Creevy scored from close range and then pushed his way over following a great drive to trail 25-18 at the break.

Frost then got his sixth try in just six Premiership appearances to earn a bonus point with an easy fall over the line, before another Gopperth penalty extended the home side's lead to 17 points after an hour.

Irish substitute hooker Tadgh McElroy hoped to set up a tense finish with his try, but those hopes were crushed when team-mate Curtis Rona had a try ruled out for an obstruction.

Wasps fly-half Jacob Umaga was shown a red card for a high tackle and the man advantage helped Ben White score but, with only two minutes left on the clock, the home side were undeterred.

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett told BBC CWR:

"Delighted with the result. There are plenty of things we could work on as well. The positive thing is we got five points - much needed.

"We obviously made a couple of errors early on. We scrapped pretty well though, to keep them out.

"Our forwards had a good day. We took our chances and 38 points in actually quite difficult conditions out there - it is quite greasy - I didn't see that sort of scoreline before the game."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"All credit to Wasps. They won a few of the pressure points, they won the breakdown area and one or two other areas. That put us under pressure and they came away with the points.

"We probably had our chances as well. These things are always on tight margins - we've won games like that before and lost games like that before and we just have to get better at not losing them.

"You can talk about different turning points over the course of the game and Wasps definitely won more of those today than we did."

Wasps: Crossdale; Hougaard, Bassett, Gopperth, Mehson; Umaga, Wolstenholme; West, Frost, Alo, Fifita, Stooke, Barbeary, Shields (capt), Young.

Replacements: Cruse, Martinez, Toomaga-Allen, Cardall, Young, Porter, Le Bourgeois, Kibirige.

London Irish: Parton; Rowe, Rona, Van Rensburg, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Hoskins, Mafi, Simmons, Rogerson (capt), Pearson, Cracknell.

Replacements: McElroy, Dell, Van der Merwe, Nott, Gonzalez, White, Williams, Cinti.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys.