Wasps' play-off ambition lifted by Sackey flourish

*RUGBY UNION

NEWCASTLE 13 WASPS 32

The last time Wasps were at Kingston Park they were confronted by gale-force winds that broke one of the goalposts, damaged the West Stand roof and forced the postponement of this Premiership fixture. Three months on, Ian McGeechan's men did not exactly breeze it on a balmy early-summer night on Tyneside. Indeed, before the interval, the wind was somewhat taken out of their sails by a severely weakened Newcastle side.

But with one sweeping counter-attack three minutes into the second half the European champions of 2007 effectively wrapped up the win that puts them third in the table - behind Gloucester and Bath - going into Saturday's final round of fixtures.

The rapier move was launched from deep and finished with a flourish on the right wing - Paul Sackey taking a slick feed from Danny Cipriani. Still, it took Wasps until the 75th minute to claim a bonus point score - courtesy of Josh Lewsey - that sends them to Leeds on Saturday with hopes of clinching a home tie in the play- off semi-finals, should a victory for the Londoners against the Premiership fall guys coincide with a defeat for Bath at Kingsholm.

"We were a bit careless with some of our handling and some of our decision-making," McGeechan, Wasps' director of rugby, acknowledged, "but we've put ourselves in a position where we can have a big say on the final day."

Newcastle were without Jonny Wilkinson, Toby Flood, Jamie Noon and Mathew Tait but Wasps struggled to break them down early. There were 26 minutes on the clock when flanker James Haskell dived over from a close-range ruck for their opening try

Not that there was an opening of the floodgates. Indeed, Tom May hared away to score in the right corner for Newcastle before Wasps stung again, Haskell and No 8 John Hart making the hard yards in an attack that was finished with a close-quarter dive over the line by the third member of the Wasps back-row union, Tom Rees.

Cipriani's conversion gave Wasps a seven-point cushion but they were pegged back to 15-13 just before the interval, May slipping a scoring pass inside to wing Ollie Phillips.

Sackey's score early in the second half put an end to the game as a contest, although the bonus point came with just five minutes left on the countdown clock, Lewsey breaching the defensive line to touch down to the right of the posts.

Newcastle: Tries May, Phillips; Penalty May. Wasps: Tries Haskell, Rees, Sackey, Lewsey; Conversions Cipriani 3; Penalties Cipriani 2

Newcastle: A Tait (R Miller, 12); O Phillips, T May, T Visser, J Rudd; S Jones, H Charlton (M Young, 59); M Ward (D Wilson, 48), M Thompson, C Hayman, A Perry, M Sorensen (A Perry, 61), P Dowson (capt) (P Browne, 53), B Wilson (E Williamson, 48), R Winter.

Wasps: R Flutey; P Sackey, F Waters (M van Gisbergen, 41), D Waldouck, J Lewsey; D Cipriani (J Staunton, 76), E Reddan; T Payne, J Ward (J Buckland, 59), P Barnard (T French, 50), G Skivington (S Shaw, 59), R Birkett, J Haskell, T Rees, J Hart (capt) (J Worsley, 68).

Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire).

Premiership table, digest, page 55

Haskell: Close-range try

Copyright c 2008 Independent Newspapers UK Limited. All rights owned or operated by The Independent.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.