Gloucester vs Wasps match report: David Young glad to see back of Wasps' away win 'monkey'

Gloucester 23 Wasps 30

James Haskell of Wasps charges upfield during the Aviva Premiership match between Gloucester and Wasps at Kingsholm Stadium (GETTY IMAGES)

The Wasps director of rugby, David Young, was delighted as his side recorded their first away win in the Premiership this season on Sunday.

The visitors continued their recent improved form by winning a compelling game against Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Wasps were in control at the interval when they held a 24-14 half-time lead but Gloucester rallied with three penalties in quick succession from Greig Laidlaw before the away side regained their superiority to win the day.

“I’m really pleased to get this monkey off our back as you have to win on the road and beat the sides below you in the table if you want to stay in the mix,” Young said.

“We put in a poor performance at Exeter but, apart from that, we haven’t been a million miles away.”

Tom Varndell, Christian Wade and Nathan Hughes scored the Wasps tries, with Andy Goode converting all three and kicking two penalties. Elliot Daly’s late penalty sealed the win.

“We were in control for the first 37 minutes but I was really disappointed with our second-half performance,” Young added.

“We knew Gloucester would come back at us but we turned over the ball seven times at first phases. We found a way to win as we were composed in the last five minutes, which was pleasing as we’ve thrown away a lot of games at that stage in the past.”

Gloucester scored two tries through Jonny May and Matt Kvesic, with Greig Laidlaw converting both and kicking three penalties as they went down to their second successive home defeat following last week’s heavy loss to Bath.

Director of rugby David Humphreys admitted this was a cause for concern and said: “We wanted to make Kingsholm a difficult place to play but it’s not happening. We were flat and lacked edge in the first half but we had strong words at half-time and were much better afterwards.

“Kingsholm is a great place to play – with our second sell-out crowd – but we are not where we want to be. We know we have to get better and another home defeat will be a worry but if we show the energy that we did in the second half we will win matches.”

Next up for Gloucester is an away game at fourth-placed Exeter before facing a home one against Saracens, who lie in third.

“This was an important group of four matches, we are two down and it’s not getting any easier. Going down to Exeter will be a huge challenge for us.” added Humphreys.

Gloucester: Tries May, Kvesic; Conversions Laidlaw 2; Penalties Laidlaw 3. Wasps: Tries Wade, Varndell, Hughes; Conversions Goode 3; Penalties Goode 2, Daly.

Gloucester McColl; Sharples, Atkinson, Twelvetrees (capt), May; Hook, Laidlaw; Wood, Hibbard, Afoa, Savage, Palmer, Kalamafoni, Kvesic, G Evans. Replacements Burns (McColl , 41), Hudson (Palmer, 67), Dawidiuk (Hibbard, 70), Robson (Laidlaw, 70) Thomas (Wood, 72), Knight (Afoa, 72), Moriarty (Evans, 76).

Wasps Masi; Wade, Daly, Jacobs, Varndell; Goode, Simpson; Mullan, Shervington, Cittadini, Gaskell, Myall, Johnson; Haskell (capt), Hughes. Replacements Miller (Masi, 21), Festuccia (Shervington, 52), Cooper-Woolley (Shervington, 59), Davies (Myall, 61), Jones (Johnson, 65), McIntyre (Mullan, 69).

Referee D Richards (RFU).