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Rugby Union

Wasps sneak past Clermont

16/12/2007

Wasps beat Clermont Auvergne by the narrowest of margins 25-24 to maintain their hopes of defending the Heineken Cup at Adams Park yesterday.

However they were left to rue a series of missed chances as the French side secured themselves a vital losing bonus point with the last move of the match.

When the two sides faced each other last week Clermont denied Wasps a losing bonus point when they scored a try and history virtually repeated itself when Emmanuel Etien crashed over in stoppage time yesterday.

Earlier Wasps had dominated the first half. Fly-half Danny Cipriani was at the heart of everything, creating tries for Tom Voyce and Paul Sackey.

Scrum-half Eoin Reddan got Wasps off to a great start when he kicked a loose ball towards the Clermont goal-line and was able to collect it for the score.

Cipriani then showed both pace and vision in creating Wasps' next two tries. Some superb passing in the midfield gave Voyce space to score their second try and Cipriani sprinted half the length of the field before releasing Sackey for the third.

Former Wasps favourite Alex King slotted over a penalty before the break for Clermont but the home side still led 22-3 after the first 40 minutes.

Clermont started the second half with renewed vigour and were rewarded when Aurelien Rougerie broke the length of the field to score their first try.

Clermont were reduced to 14 men when flanker Jamie Cudmore was sin-binned for punching Tim Payne as the two sides clashed on the halfway line.

However that did not deter them and they reduced the deficit further when Vilimoni Delasau ran 70 meters to score the French side's second try.

Wasps came close to claiming a bonus point but Rafael Ibanez was held up just short of the line and they had to settle for a Cipriani penalty to increase the gap to eight points.

As time was running out Wasps were glad of the two-score gap when Etien rumbled over and King added the conversion to complete the scoring.