Wasps Impress in New Nest

Wasps 48 – 16 London Irish

“When we were in the huddle in the warm – up I said to the boys, look around, this is a special day” said Wasps captain James Haskell.

What a special day it was for Wasps playing in their new fortress of Coventry not only did they get the bonus point win, but also broke TWO Aviva Premiership records with local boy Andy Goode scoring 33 points in one game and a record attendance for a home crowd as 28,254 fans journeyed from Adams Park to the Ricoh Arena.

Even the director of rugby Dai Young was emotional saying “I’m not an emotional man, but I did feel a bit emotional before the game because two years ago we weren’t far from going bust.

“So to see the crowd here and playing at a fantastic stadium that we can call home shows we have come a long way.”

The game itself was a fantastic spectacle as the hosts got off to a comfortable start with two penalties from Goode, however, it was the visitors who got the first try in the new Wasps nest as Scott Steele disrupted Joe Simpson’s clearness for Blair Cowen to pick up the loose ball to fed prop Geoff Cross for a simple finish on 16 minutes.

The rest of the half was determined by poor discipline by both teams with the home side regaining the lead as Goode scored three penalties two of which were sandwiched in between penalties from Tom Homer leaving the score 15 – 13.

There was just enough time before the interval for Goode and Homer to exchange kicks with Irish just two points behind.

Half – Time – Wasps 18 – 16 London Irish

Little did Irish know those were going to be the last points they’d score in this game as Wasps flew out and gave their fans some Christmas cheer as four minutes into the second half the hosts' finally got their first try in their new stadium.

It was Christian Wade’s magic break, which opened the opponent's defence and the winger had great support from Ashley Johnson and Ed Shervington who showed quick hands to offload to Simpson to score as they extended their lead to 23 – 16.

Then in a space of 19 minutes Goode scored 13 points with two coming from penalties and it got even better after a good offload by Haskell to set up a magical moment for the Coventry lad to score the second try in front of his home fans to which he added the conversion on 67 minutes.

A minute later the home side had their third after another scorching break by Wade down the right side of the pitch then after some poor handling by both teams the ball was in Elliot Daly’s hands to score and the conversion by Goode did not only broke the Aviva Premiership record but was also his last act on this historical day.

Andrea Masi rounded off the perfect afternoon as the fullback scored in the final minute to secure the bonus – point victory.

Scorecard

5 mins – Goode (Pen) – 3 – 0

11 mins – Goode (Pen) – 6 – 0

15 mins – Cross (Try) – 6 – 5

16 mins – Homer (Con) 6 – 7

19 mins – Goode (Pen) – 9 – 7

23 mins – Homer (Pen) – 9 – 10

30 mins – Goode (Pen) – 12 – 10

34 mins – Goode (Pen) – 15 – 10

37 mins – Homer (Pen) – 15 – 13

39 mins – Goode (Pen) – 18 – 13

40 + 2 mins – Homer (Pen) – 18 – 16

HT – Wasps 18 – 16 Irish

43 mins – Simpson (Try) – 23 – 16

48 mins – Goode (Pen) – 26 – 16

60 mins – Goode (Pen) – 29 – 16

66 mins – Goode (Try) – 34 – 16

67 mins – Goode (Con) – 36 – 16

68 mins – Daly (Try) – 41 – 16

69 mins – Goode (Con) – 43 – 16

79 mins – Masi (Try) – 48 – 16

FT – Wasps 48 – 16 Irish