Brave Wasps couldn't fight back after Shark attack

Sale Sharks 25 – 14 Wasps

Sale got back to winning ways in hard fought victory against Wasps thanks to tries from Tom Arscott, Chris Cusiter and Tom Brady.

The Sharks only won once this season to newly promoted London Welsh prior to the clash against the Londoners at the AJ Bell Stadium.

It was Steve Diamonds men who got the first score of the game after just six minutes as the home side put pressure on the Wasps defence in the opening stages and a good pass by lock Mike Paterson to Arscott which opened a gap for the winger to score – his fifth of the season – in the left corner.

Danny Cipriani missed the conversion which would be the start of a mixed and for the fly – half.

The visitors began to have a foothold in the game and on 25 minutes the pressure resulted in Paterson being yellow carded and within seconds Wasps took advantage of the extra man as No.8 Nathan Hughes forced his way through to touchdown and they took the lead with Andy Goode adding the conversion.

Cipriani was still missing his kicking boots as a penalty went wayward. However, the biggest talking of the game happened when Wasps themselves went down to 14 men as Will Helu was wrongly sin – binned for taking down Brady mid-air and compare to other mid-air tackles Dai Young should feel hard done with the only upside being Cipriani missing another kick from the tee.

Then four minutes before half – time the hosts finally took advantage as a superb chargedown by Cusiter was awarded with a try after Christian Wade fumbled the ball for the scrum half to quickly touchdown.

Cipriani finally got some points on the board as he scored his conversion to give the home side the lead 12 – 7 but he went back to old ways and missed a penalty before half – time.

Half – Time – Sale Sharks 12 – 7 Wasps

However, two minutes into the second half the former Wasps fly – half made some amends as his sweetly kicked drop goal extended Sale’s lead and three more points were added as the 26 year old scored a penalty extending the lead to 11 points.

For the rest of the match Wasps were battling back and putting pressure on the Sharks defence, but the game did get a bit boring around the hour mark.

Finally the game burst into life around 69 minutes as winger Wade made amends of his earlier fumble to squeeze past three Sale tackles to go over the try line and with fullback Rob Miller adding the two points the visitors were within four points.

It did look like Wasps secured a losing bonus point, however, Brady had the final say scoring the vital try in the right corner and with Cipriani scoring the conversion the visitors went home with nothing. 

Scorers

6 mins – Arscott (Try) – 5 – 0

26 mins – Hughes (Try) – 5 – 5

27 mins – Goode (Con) – 5 – 7

36 mins – Cusiter (Try) – 10 – 7

36 mins – Cipriani (Con) – 12 – 7

Half – Time – Sale Sharks 12 – 7 Wasps

42 mins – Cipriani (Drop Goal) – 15 – 7

48 mins – Cipriani (Pen) – 18 – 7

68 mins – Wade (Try) – 18 – 12

69 mins – Miller (Con) – 18 – 14

76 mins – Brady (Try) – 23 – 14

77 mins – Cipriani (Con) – 25 – 14