Wasps trip to Poland remains on despite Shaw's hat-trick

Saracens 31 Wasps 4

Simon Shaw, the England lock, scored a hat-trick of tries as Wasps battled back to beat Saracens in a thrilling Premiership London derby at Vicarage Road yesterday.

Richard Hill, the Saracens flanker, opened the scoring with a try in the fifth minute after tearing down the left. The centre Nicky Little supplied the conversion as he did again two minutes later after Tim Horan, had increased the Saracens lead.

Wasps hit back through Shaw who took advantage of a short pass to touch down, allowing Alex King to convert on 19 minutes to add to his earlier penalty. On 25 minutes King kicked another penalty from just outside the Saracens' 22-metre line.

Shaw's second try came on 34 minutes when he got the final touch as the Saracens defence collapsed under intense pressure from the Wasps pack.

Little converted a 30m penalty on 37 minutes to make the half-time score 25-17 to Wasps, and Saracens scored again soon after the restart. Thomas Castaignède stormed forward, kicked the ball high and ran on to catch it before completing a touchdown. But Wasps kept the pressure up, and on 53 minutes Paul Volley scored a try from a rolling maul. King again converted.

Saracens fought back and Richard Haughton scored a try which was converted by Little. But Wasps made sure when Shaw touched down with 10 minutes to go.

The Wasps director of rugby, Warren Gatland, repaid his team with the promise of hard labour in Poland – a trip he has planned to keep his players sharp. "We're sending a group of players to Poland to do some conditioning work," he said.

Gatland added he believed Wasps had earned victory by getting the simple things right. "Last week we took it all apart and kept it basic," he said. "The England guys have been under pressure and we wanted to help them."

Saracens: Tries: Hill, Horan, Castaignède, Haughton; Conversions Little 4; Penalties Little. Wasps: Tries Shaw 3, Kershaw, Volley; Conversions A King 4; Penalties A King 3.

Saracens: Horan; Haughton, Johnston, Little, O'Mahony; Castaignède, Bracken; Califano, R Russell, Storey, Yandell, Hooper, Roques, Hill, Chesney.

Wasps: Van Gisbergen; Lewsey, Waters, Abbott, Rudd; A King, Howley; Kershaw, Greening, Dowd, Shaw, Birkett, Worsley, Volley, Dallaglio.

Referee: C White (Cheltenham).