RUGBY UNION: DAI Young expressed his disappointment after watching his Wasps side come admittedly second best in every department in a 36-18 defeat away at Gloucester.
Wasps trailed by just five points at the Kingsholm Stadium on Saturday despite the home side dominating the opening period and the visitors actually edged in front soon after the break.
But Gloucester scored two tries in as many minutes and although a late Thomas Young try gave Wasps hope, it was the hosts who scored twice again late on through Charlie Sharples and Henry Purdy to recorded a well-deserved victory.
“Losing is a big pill to swallow, but not performing is an even bigger pill and that was a pretty disappointing performance by us,” said Young.
“We were pretty loose in all aspects, our set piece creaked and we gave too many penalties away at set piece time. Ball in hand, I don’t think we were accurate enough and defensively I thought they ate us up with their line speed.
“The best team won, but I thought we could have come away with a losing bonus point and I think we would have deserved that, but we didn’t deserve much more to be totally honest.
“We need to improve in all areas. I’m pretty disappointed and I don’t want to brush it under the carpet. At the same time I don’t think we are going to go all season without losing another game. These things happen, but the most important aspect is how you respond to it.”
James Hook opened the scoring for Gloucester with a fourth minute penalty but it was Wasps who scored the first try of the match when a drive to the line ended with Thomas Young touching down but Jimmy Gopperth’s conversion drifted wide.
On 17 minutes the hosts regained the lead after going for the corner twice instead of kicking for goal and Richard Hibbard crossed, with Hook adding the extras for 10-5.
Danny Cipriani and Christian Wade both missed scoring opportunities and two minutes before half-time Wasps were penalised at the lineout five metres inside their own half but the distance was too big for Hook’s penalty attempt.
The visitors started the second half strongly with Gopperth being stopped close to the try line before Gopperth scored an excellent penalty to reduce the deficit to two points and he scored another to put his team one point in front on 50 minutes.
An error by Cipriani allowed Mark Atkinson to dive over with Hook adding the extras and with Wasps rattled Gloucester struck another crucial blow with Matt Scott scoring and Hook’s conversion put the hosts 13 points in front.
With time ticking away, Wasps kept up the pressure and they were rewarded for their efforts when Ashley Johnson’s driving run gave Young the chance to go over for his second try, seven minutes from time. Gopperth converted to bring Wasps within six points.
Wade missed a great chance to snatch it for Wasps but he was tackled and Gloucester went straight down the other end for Charlie Sharples to score an unconverted try and Henry Purdy scored another, which was converted by Hook, for a final score of 36-18.
“We have had a couple of good performances, but we have a really honest group and we are all in it together,” Young added. “We’ve got ourselves to blame and we’ve got to say well done to Gloucester as well.”
