Times match report

[Heathen]

14-man Wasps struggle past Worcester Warriors

Wasps 23 Worcester Warriors 19

Chris Jones

Wasps consigned struggling Worcester to an 18th successive loss in all competitions despite having flanker Ben Morris sent off for a dangerous tackle.

Morris was sent off after 57 minutes when his shoulder connected with the head of England centre Ollie Lawrence during a torrid second half for the home side, who are shadow of the team that lost to Exeter Chiefs in last season’s Gallagher Premiership final.

In their previous eight games, Wasps have been ahead in six of them with three minutes to go but won only two, leading head coach Lee Blackett to claim before this match that his side could, if they had held on, still be in Europe and in the top three of the Premiership. This time they managed to hold out for a much-needed win.

Worcester’s only “wins” since beating London Irish six months ago on the opening day are the two four-pointers they were handed by a panel for the Covid-postponed games against Harlequins and Newcastle Falcons. They have been badly hit by injury and this match only compounded those problems with both starting props Ethan Waller and Richard Palframan being replaced in the first half. Palframan lasted only two minutes before a hand injury forced him off and Scott Andrews, on loan from Cardiff Blues, was given a torrid introduction to rugby on this side of the Severn Bridge.

The Worcester scrum was a disaster in the first half, gifting a series of penalties that should have brought more points for Wasps, but the heavy rain caused them to knock on at crucial times. They had started strongly with Brad Shields marking his 50th game for the club with an opening try after a series of forward drives which Jacob Umaga converted.

This cancelled out Billy Searle’s early penalty goal for Worcester, who only occasionally broke out of their own territory and it was inevitable that the penalties would start to hurt their cause. Umaga succeeded with two kicks and, after Lawrence replaced the injured Francois Venter, Worcester were given a late chance with a high kick causing problems and earning a five-metre scrum. However, the opportunity was lost as their front row gave away a free kick and Wasps went in 13-3 ahead at half-time.

Worcester were transformed after the restart thanks to the powerful running of centre Venter, who created a try for Sam Lewis. And with Searle punishing Wasps’ slow start with the boot, the visitors were 19-16 ahead against 14 men. Wasps held their nerve and Tommy Taylor scored from a lineout drive and Umaga’s conversion put them ahead again. Lewis was shown a yellow card but Worcester regrouped, forced two penalties to move into the Wasps 22 but had to settle for just a losing bonus point.

Star man: Dan Robson

Scorers: Wasps: Try: Shields (5), Taylor (65) Con: Umaga 2 Pen: Umaga 3. Worcester: Try: Lewis (49) Con: Searle Pen: Searle 4

Wasps: C Atkinson (Miller 62); Z Kibirige (Vailanu 65), P Odogwu, M Fekitoa, (Gopperth 57) J Bassett; J Umaga, D Robson; T West (McIntyre 65), G Oghre (Taylor 56), B Alo (Toomaga-Allen, 27), W Rowlands, J Gaskell, B Morris, T Young, B Shields (capt). Red Card: Morris (57).

Worcester: J Shillcock; P Humphreys, F Venter, A Beck, (Lawrence 29), H Doel (Fidow 62); B Searle, F Hougaard (Simpson 74); E Waller (Thomas 30), N Annett (Miller 69), R Palframan (Andrews 2), A Kitchener, (Bresler 69), J Clegg, T Hill (capt), S Lewis, M Kvesic (Batley 73). Yellow Card: Lewis (72).

Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).

[Rossm]

And here's The Telegraph:

Dan Robson calls for consistency over red cards after Wasps comeback sees them beat Worcester

Dan Robson called for more consistency from referees over red card decisions after Wasps defied going down to 14 men to recover and defeat Worcester at the Ricoh Arena and keep their top-six hopes alive.

The England scrum-half claimed Ben Morris was unlucky to be dismissed for what referee Ian Tempest decided was a dangerous hit to the head on centre Ollie Lawrence 20 minutes from the end.

Wasps fell behind but hooker Tommy Taylor’s try five minutes later sealed the victory which puts them eighth in the Premiership table with three games remaining. But Robson insisted: “I’ve seen yellow and red cards given for virtually nothing. The frustrating thing for all the players is getting consistency.

“Charlie Ewels’ one last night in Bath’s game with Sale was a very similar one and he gets a yellow but Ben gets a red for his. We are all watching it on the big screen and going: ‘pick a number out the hat!’ all we want is consistency and if we get that it will be fine and there will be no problem.

“Fortunately the pack were excellent today and so was our set-piece. We kept calm and got the job done. We managed to win one from behind for once because we’ve lost so many games near the end after leading. To come back with 14 men and finish the way we did was pretty good. We wrestled the momentum back and showed real desire to get across the line.”

The hosts made it 14 successive Premiership wins over Worcester while the visitors have still not managed to win a game actually on the field since the opening day of the season.

Warriors had fought back from a 10-point deficit to lead and looked the more likely to win until replacement hooker Tommy Taylor barged his way over in the left hand corner for the decisive try 15 minutes from time.

Billy Searle kicked an early kick at goal after the hosts were penalised for holding onto the ball but the visitors lost Richard Palframan sustained an arm injury and was replaced by Scott Andrews. Brad Shields bull-dozed his way over for the opening Wasps try and Jacob Umaga added the conversion. He thought he would be having another attempt a few minutes later but Josh Bassett knocked on before grounding the ball behind the Warriors line.

Warriors lost Ethan Waller to head injury with the prop coming off worst attempting a tackle and the visitors had already lost two of their starting front rowers within half an hour. Umaga stretched the lead with a penalty after the weakened Warriors pack quickly retreated at a scrum.

England scrum-half Robson was running the show with his kicking, quick thinking and equally quick hands, but Wasps still struggled to put the points on the board they required to be able to breathe easier at the break.

All they could conjure was another Umaga penalty while Robson needed to be swift on his feet in defence when, on a rare occasion, rival No 9 Francois Hougaard managed to put his side on the front foot. Robson raced back to ground a chip through behind his own goal line and the hosts held a 10-point half-time lead.

Searle and Umaga exchanged kicking blows in the opening seven minutes of the second half as the sun showed its face for the first time during the game. Warriors were clearly intent on changing to a more attacking game and England centre Ollie Lawrence, who had appeared as a first half replacement for Ashley Beck, produced the kind of barnstorming run through the middle which has earned him international recognition. He was thwarted in his bid to get to the line. But a few moments later Francois Venter made the criticial surge through the Wasps defence before off-loading to Sam Lewis to cross for the visitors’ first try, converted by Searle.

Jamie Shillcock’s long range kick from just inside the Wasps half levelled matters as it sailed just inches over the crossbar. Just like the weather, the game had changed complexion with Wasps giving away a series of penalties and Searle’s next penalty edged the visitors’ ahead.

The hosts’ problems mounted with flanker Morris sent off for a dangerous hit to the head on Lawrence as the centre was in full speed. It took a while before referee Tempest made his decision having studied several replays of the incident.

Yet Wasps still managed to galvanise themselves and produced a strong finish to grab the spoils. Taylor powered his way over in the left corner following a Wasps maul for the decisive try which Umaga converted.

Warriors had flanker Lewis sent to the sin bin seven minutes from time for helping to collapse a scrum and the visitors endured another painful defeat.   Fly-half Billy Searle admitted: “We have to just take this new frustrating defeat on the chin and make sure we finish the season with at least a couple of wins. We had our chance but couldn’t take it at the end.”

[13thWarrior]

That Times report is pretty sparse...