Wasps (20) 34
Tries: Flutey 2, Voyce, Shaw Cons: Cipriani 2, Staunton 2 Pens: Cipriani 2
Gloucester (3) 3
Pens: Barkley
 Flutey holds off Rory Lawson to score Wasps' first try |
Wasps denied Gloucester a play-off spot and earned a potential Heineken Cup place next year with victory in the final match of the regular season. The home side led 20-3 at the break after tries from Riki Flutey and Tom Voyce before Flutey added a second and Simon Shaw scored late on. Champions Wasps finished seventh and could make the Heineken Cup if Bourgoin win the European Challenge Cup. Gloucester, who topped the table for the last two years, ended sixth. The West country side needed to win at Adams Park, ideally with a bonus point, to have a chance of making the play-offs but their season petered out limply just a week after capitulating to Cardiff Blues in the EDF Cup final at Twickenham. Wasps, who had given up hope of defending their crown long ago, ended the season in positive fashion, marred only by Danny Cipriani's half-time withdrawal because of a leg injury.  | 606: DEBATE |
"It's not that serious. He's just rolled his ankle a little bit after someone fell on it," said Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards. While Gloucester had already claimed a place in next season's Heineken Cup, Ian McGeechan's Wasps side must wait for the outcome of the Challenge Cup to discover if they will be involved. McGeechan, though, will be pleased that all four of his Wasps' Lions tourists for South Africa - Flutey, Shaw, Phil Vickery and Joe Worsley - emerged unscathed. Wasps veteran Josh Lewsey, a World Cup winner with England in 2003, played the 262nd and final game of a trophy-laden 13-year career with the club. The 32-year-old will attempt to climb Mt Everest before beginning work as a management consultant. "It's been a very emotional week," he said. "Wasps is a very special place and I believe I'd had my best year for six or seven years. "I'm always at the end of the phone as a sounding board for any of the players at the club. "We've underperformed this season but there's nothing broken, things just need to be tweaked."
Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards: "We're gutted we're not in the play-offs because we're hitting form at the right time. "We can't defend our title because of what happened earlier in the season." Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan: "There's a lot to learn from clubs like Wasps. There's a celebration of seventh and a destruction of sixth yet Wasps are the champions. "Wasps have taken some pain this season but understand that when all their arrows are pointing in the right way it's still a good club. "It's not just a case of it hasn't worked for us, everyone out. There's a review going on and we'll understand the problems. "I expect to be here. We've got to rebuild Gloucester. We can't just destroy something just because it's not going well. "Most of the desire to pull it apart seems to have from external forces like the media."
Wasps: Mitchell; Voyce, Waldouck, Flutey, Lewsey; Cipriani, Simpson; Payne, Webber, Vickery; Shaw, Skivington; Worsley, Betsen (capt), Hart
Replacements: Ward, Beech, Birkett, Haskell, Robinson, Staunton, Ellis Gloucester: Morgan; Sharples, Trinder, Allen, Foster; Spencer, Lawson; Dickinson, Lawson, Somerville; Eustace, Bortolami; Narraway, Satala, Delve (capt)
Replacements: Titterell, Wood, Brown, Williams, Lewis, Barkley, Burns.
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