Walder boots Wasps to victory
Wasps came from behind to claim a 33-25 win over London Irish to prevent the visitors from reclaiming top spot in the Aviva Premiership.
Fly-half Dave Walder kicked 18 points after Irish had battled to an 18-16 lead heading into the last quarter.
Irish kept fighting and scored a third try in the 78th minute through Paulica Ion to seemingly snatch a losing bonus point, only for Walder to deny them with a last-minute penalty.
Ryan Lamb hooked a third-minute penalty well wide for the visitors, but Walder was more accurate three minutes later to edge Wasps in front before Lamb made amends to equalise for Irish.
The game's first try arrived on 21 minutes when Tom Varndell made yards up the left before stepping inside and, five passes later, Steve Kefu found Ben Jacobs with a snappy pass and the big centre smashed through four tackles to score.
Walder added the conversion but Irish were quickly back on the board. Number eight Chris Hala'ufia thundered up the left and smashed Richard Haughton out of his path before flipping the ball inside to Paul Hodgson to score.
Lamb failed to convert and Walder increased the home side's lead with another successful penalty, but three minutes from half-time, Tim Payne conceded a penalty, going offside as Topsy Ojo tried to make ground. Lamb kicked the goal and Payne was shown a yellow card.
Irish made a cracking start to the second half as Lamb chipped the ball over the Wasps defence, Ben Broster and Steffon Armitage challenged for it, Clarke Dermody knocked on and Daniel Bowden scooped up the loose ball and scored between the posts, a score greeted by howls of crowd protest. Lamb converted.
Walder chipped three points off the lead and on 65 minutes his pass sent Joe Worsley racing for the line. It took three defenders to halt the England flanker, but Joe Simpson dug it out and armed Kefu to score from close range with Walder converting.
And the game was settled on 74 minutes when Worsley slammed into Hala'ufia, turned over the ball and when Jacobs broke clear of the cover he lobbed a precise pass out to Varndell to raced home unchallenged.
