Varndell hat-trick stings Welsh
Tom Varndell grabbed a hat-trick against London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium as Wasps recorded their first away Premiership win of 2015.
Despite defeat last time out against Bath confirming that London Welsh will finish 12th this season, the hosts trailed by just four points shortly after half-time as they proved they will fight until the bitter end.
But Ashley Johnson dotted down and Varndell added to the two tries he grabbed in the first half, before Sailosi Tagicakibau secured Wasps the bonus point and Alapati Leiua got in on the act with the last play of the game for a 40-13 triumph.
And despite going down to another defeat Welsh can be proud of how they battled, with Opeti Fonua and Chris Elder going over in each half for the home side.
The visitors found the tryline after only four minutes as Varndell broke down the right flank and scored in the corner, veteran flyhalf Andy Goode converting well from a tight angle.
Welsh then went down to 14 men eight minutes later when Koree Britton was sin binned for pulling down a maul and Wasps instantly capitalised as Varndell grabbed his second try.
The Exiles crept back into the game, however, keeping the pressure on the Wasps defence and Fonua forced his way through to make it 5-12.
Tristan Roberts was wide with the conversion, and while Wasps ended the half in the ascendancy they were unable to add to the scoreline in the first 40 minutes.
Welsh started the second half well and Roberts made amends for his earlier miss as he calmly kicked a penalty between the posts to reduce the arrears even further.
But Wasps soon began to dominate and a line-out close to the try-line was bundled over by Johnson in his first start as hooker.
Then a swift break down the right saw Varndell free to run back around the Welsh defence and score under the posts for his hat-trick.
Elder scored a try out of nowhere four minutes later for the Exiles on his Premiership debut, as he found space on the left wing to score in the corner.
Wasps instantly replied though as Tagicakibau finished a great run through the centre by reaching for the line.
And the game ended on a high for Wasps as Leiua finished the scoring with a darting run through the middle.
The scorers:
For London Welsh:
Tries: Fonua, Elder
Pen: Robinson
For Wasps:
Tries: Varndell 3, Johnson, Tagicakibau, Leiua
Cons: Goode 4, Lozowski
Yellow cards: Koree Britton (London Welsh, 9), Carlo Festuccia (Wasps, 70)
Teams:
London Welsh: 15 Will Robinson, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 Nic Reynolds, 12 Tom May (captain), 11 Chris Elder, 10 Tristan Roberts, 9 Rob Lewis, 8 Opeti Fonua, 7 Darren Waters, 6 Pete Browne, 5 Matt Corker, 4 Ben West, 3 Ben Cooper, 2 Koree Britton, 1 Nathan Trevett.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Dobson, 17 Eddie Aholelei, 18 Jack Gilding, 19 Josh McNally, 20 Richard Thorpe, 21 Paul Rowley, 22 Olly Barkley, 23 James Lewis.
Wasps: 15 Andrea Masi, 14 Tom Varndell, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Alapati Leiua, 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau, 10 Andy Goode, 9 Joe Simpson, 8 Guy Thompson, 7 Thomas Young, 6 James Haskell (captain), 5 James Gaskell, 4 James Cannon, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Ashley Johnson, 1 Matt Mullan.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 Lorenzo Cittadini, 19 Kearnan Myall, 20 Sam Jones, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 James Downey.
Referee: Greg Garner
Assistant referees: Paul Dix, Peter Huckle
TMO: Graham Hughes
Source: @premrugby