Red card wrecks any hope for Bath
BATH lock Mike Williams was sent off to ruin any hopes of his side getting off the mark for the season.
In the 47th minute, Bath were trailing 13-10 but were very much in the contest before Williams charged into a ruck to make contact with the head of Wasps’ centre, Jimmy Gopperth.
Gopperth received lengthy treatment and departed on a stretcher. He was up and about after the game but the damage was done so Bath crashed to the sixth straight defeat, their worst league run since 2002.
Wasps’ head coach Lee Blackett said “It’s a tough one. I’m a hundred per cent sure that Mike didn’t intend to cause any harm to Jimmy but he just got it wrong and the red card decision is the correct one in the modern game.”
Wasps deserved to win the battle of the depleted sides with both having 17 players unavailable. On the day there were further casualties with Wasps’ Dan Robson, Thomas Young, Vaea Fifita and Gopperth all failing to finish, as did Bath props Lewis Boyce and Johannes Jonker.
Despite the constant disruption, Wasps always had the edge with their back
row being crucial in securing victory.
Frequent carries from Tom Willis and Brad Shields put them on the
front foot and they were well supported by hooker Gabriel Oghre.
Bath also had players who impressed with Tom de Glanville their standout performer with creditable efforts from Semesa Rokoduguni and Josh McNally but they were always fighting a losing battle with a malfunctioning lineout and a high penalty count.
Wasps dominated the opening quarter but their only reward was a try from Tongan lock Fifita.
Jacob Umaga created it with a well-judged crossfield kick, which was collected by Josh Bassett to send Fifita over.
Orlando Bailey put Bath on the scoreboard with a penalty before Wasps suffered a key blow when Robson limped off to be replaced by Will Porter.
Gopperth kicked a penalty before, out of the blue, the home side conjured up a brilliant try.
It began on halfway after they managed to win a lineout for Max Ojomoh to step inside an opponent and put the defence on the back foot.
The ball was recycled for full-back de Glanville to burst into the line and easily round the covering Umaga to score.
Bailey converted but Wasps regained the lead with a second penalty from Gopperth to leave them with a deserved 13-10 advantage at the interval.
Five minutes after the restart, Jeff ToomagaAllen was sin-binned for dragging down a maul and Bath looked in business.
The red card for Williams put pay to that as a well-timed pass from Umaga saw Oghre race through a huge hole in the Bath defence to score.
Toomaga-Allen returned from the bin but the impressive Fifita limped off before Bath went down to 13 with Josh Bayliss receiving a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.
Wasps capitalised to seal victory as Willis forced his way over from close range but Bath had the final say when Rokoduguni collected Jonathan Joseph’s cross-field kick to score.