A week before beginning the defence of their European crown Wasps may not yet be the force of last season but they are getting there. Yesterday they twice came back from being 18 points down in the second half to beat the side currently sitting pretty on top of the Premiership.
Since their Heineken Cup victory in May, Wasps have won once in seven matches and looked to be going down again yesterday when they trailed 21-3 seven minutes into the second half and then 26-8 when Iain Balshaw scored Gloucester's bonus point try after 61 minutes.
However two tries from the replacement James Haskell and then a second from the left-wing Tom Voyce took the European champions into the lead for the first time with three minutes left and gave them the lift their director of rugby, Ian McGeechan, was looking for ahead of the tie with Munster next Saturday.
McGeechan hopes to have Simon Shaw back for that game and there is a chance that Phil Vickery and Josh Lewsey will also play. "They're getting there and are not too far off," said McGeechan.
He had Lawrence Dallaglio and Paul Sackey in the starting line-up for the first time with Raphaël Ibañez on a star-studded replacements' bench that did much towards turning the match. But returning from distant parts and gelling immediately as a team are different things as Rory Lawson proved within four minutes.
The Gloucester scrum-half sold the most outrageous of dummies to skip through a gap caused by a lack of Wasps back-row cover, his touch down at the posts making Ryan Lamb's kick a formality. After a couple of weeks of mixing and matching, Gloucester returned to something like side which put them on top of the league and will probably take the field against Ulster at Ravenhill on Friday. Their common purpose and understanding showed a minute after Lawson's try, when Akapusi Qera, their Fijian recruit, not only plugged a similar gap in the Gloucester defence but sent the Wasps centre, Rob Hoadley juddering backwards.
Qera, playing open-side flanker, was spotted causing mayhem in National Division One last season and spent the first half doing something similar. He is adept at the tight stuff as well, being part of the red-shirted posse which extended Gloucester's lead in the 34th minute, by bundling Olivier Azam over the Wasps line. Lamb again added the extras and the European champions' only response before half-time was a Danny Cipriani penalty. The best they could offer in the first 40 minutes were largely individual efforts - a couple of breaks by Sackey and a delightful chip and catch from Cipriani which would have given him a clear path to the Gloucester line, but for a finger-tip tackle by Lamb.
The second half started no better. Qera was gone but Luke Narraway had shuffled across the back row and into the Fijian's shoes, zipping through the Wasps midfield with a break that took him to within inches of the try line. Cipriani dragged Narraway down but long before the Wasps defence had got itself organised, Olly Morgan was waiting in oceans of space out on the right wing, much as Balshaw was to be 14 minutes later when Lamb and Lawson again combined to get the ball wide for the bonus point try.
However the European champions are quick learners and they had Ibañez and Haskell to bring on. Voyce had scored their first try - thanks to a clever flick on by Fraser Waters in the 54th minute - but it was two tries in five minutes by Haskell, the World Cup reject, that totally undermined Gloucester. If the first was a muscle job, Haskell being the ball carrier his fellow forwards chose to drive over the line, the second was almost magical as the 22-year-old accepted the deftest of off-loads from the France captain.
Wasps Cipriani; Sackey, Waters, Hoadley, Voyce; Flutey (Van Gisbergen, 52), Reddan (Amor, 67); Payne, Ward (Ibanez, 70), Adams; Skivington, Birkett (Hart, 28); Leo, Rees, Dallaglio (capt; Hart, 61).
Tries Voyce 2, Haskell 2. Cons Cipriani 3. Pens Cipriani.
Gloucester Morgan; Balshaw, Simpson-Daniel, Allen, Foster (Vainikolo, 55); Lamb (Paterson, 70) , Lawson; Wood, Azam (Titterrell, 52) Nieto; Buxton (capt), Brown; Strokosch, Qera (James, h-t), Narraway (Delve 65).
Tries Lawson, Azam, Morgan, Balshaw. Cons Lamb 3.
Sin-bin Buxton, 70.
Referee W Barnes (Gloucestershire). Attendance 7,802.
