Wasps sting sloppy Saracens
The visitors were fantastic as they raced into a 19-0 lead inside 10 minutes, had the four-try bonus point wrapped up midway through the first half and notched a fourth consecutive league win for the first time since the 2012/13 season.
Nathan Hughes was a constant thorn in Sarries' side as he, Charles Piutau and Dan Robson all scored two tries while Thomas Young and Jimmy Gopperth also crossed the whitewash for Wasps. Brad Barritt and Jim Hamilton dotted down for Saracens but that couldn't stop them slipping to just a second loss of the season and ended their run of nine consecutive victories over the visitors.
Wasps took the lead in the third minute when Piutau capitalised on the overlap to score in the corner and although Gopperth dragged the conversion wide, he made no mistake in slotting the extras when Young went in under the posts following Josh Bassett's offload shortly after.
And incredibly, the visitors stunned the shell-shocked hosts further with a third try on eight minutes when George Smith broke the line and Robson was on his shoulder to dot down. Charlie Hodgson finally stopped the rot with a 12th-minute penalty and Sarries further reduced the arrears in the 23rd minute as Barritt joined the back of a driving maul and burrowed his way over the line.
But Wasps looked a completely different side to the one that could only score three penalties against Newcastle Falcons a week ago, as they secured a four-try bonus point on 28 minutes – Hughes crashing through three defenders and over the line from five metres out.
Two further penalties from former England international Hodgson before half-time briefly stopped the bleeding but between those was a fifth Wasps try and a second for Hughes. The No.8 rode a couple of tackles to charge over and Gopperth hammered his third conversion to make it 31-16 at the interval.
Saracens had overcome half-time deficits in their two previous matches against Bath and Exeter but any dreams of a miraculous turnaround were soon quelled after the break, as Gopperth shrugged off a tackle and jinked his way through the defence for try number six.
With Sarries lock Alistair Hargreaves in the sin-bin, the New Zealand-born flyhalf added a penalty to take the score to 41-16 before Piutau cut a beautiful line to collect Smith's pass and dot down under the posts to compound the hosts' misery.
Mammoth second row forward Jim Hamilton snuck over the line with a pick-and-drive on 55 minutes for the hosts but Hughes rampaged forward once again and offloaded to Robson for the scrum-half's second try before Elliot Daly booted a 57-metre penalty and Alex Lozowski also notched a three-pointer to complete the scoring.
Scorers:
For Saracens:
Tries: Vunisa, Hamilton
Cons: Hodgson 2
Pens: Hodgson 3
For Wasps:
Tries: Piutau 2, Young, Robson, Hughes 2, Gopperth, Robson
Cons: Gopperth 6
Pens: Gopperth 2, Daly, Lozowski
Yellow card: Alistair Hargreaves (Saracens, 46)
Teams:
Saracens: 15 Marcelo Bosch, 14 Mike Ellery, 13 Nick Tompkins, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Charlie Hodgson, 9 Ben Spencer, 8 Samu Vunisa, 7 Jacques Burger, 6 Michael Rhodes, 5 Alistair Hargreaves (captain), 4 Jim Hamilton, 3 Petrus Du Plessis, 2 Schalk Brits, 1 Richard Barrington.
Replacements: 16 Jared Saunders, 17 Rhys Gill, 18 Titi Lamositele, 19 Hayden Smith, 20 Will Fraser, 21 Richard Wigglesworth, 22 Nils Mordt, 23 Ben Ransom.
Wasps: 15 Charles Piutau, 14 Christian Wade, 13 Elliot Daly, 12 Siale Piutau, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Ruaridh Jackson , 9 Dan Robson, 8 Nathan Hughes, 7 George Smith (captain), 6 Thomas Young, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 James Cannon, 3 Jake Cooper-Woolley, 2 Ashley Johnson, 1 Simon McIntyre.
Replacements: 16 Carlo Festuccia, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Phil Swainston, 19 Will Rowlands, 20 Alex Rieder, 21 Jamie Stevenson, 22 Jimmy Gopperth, 23 Rob Miller.
Referee: Ian Tempest
