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Wasps win epic match

10/11/2007

European champions Wasps staged a remarkable comeback to beat Munster 24-23 in a nail-biting match at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Munster led 20-13 at half-time in the Heineken Cup Pool 5 clash, but George Skivington's try and two penalties from Dan Ciprinani saw Wasps claim a famous win.

Irish international Ronan O'Gara was instrumental in all of Munster's attacking play and it was from one of his many high kicks which gained Munster a penalty, with the fly-half converting the kick.

O'Gara and Cipriani shared a penalty each before a brilliant Munster move saw the first try of the game.

O'Gara was again the main man and his flat pass allowed Lefeimi Mafi to break through the Wasps defence and he offloaded the ball Rua Tipoki who crossed over. O'Gara added the two points.

The home side could have come back into the game straight away as Cipriani touched the ball down on the Muster try-line, but the referee disallowed the try citing a forward pass by Paul Sackey during the build-up.

But Wasps tied the score at 13-13 with a penalty and try within a few minutes. First Cipriani kicked a penalty and then Riki Flutey scored a try after Munster winger Anthony Horgan failed to hang onto a high ball.

Wasps' good work was undone in the final minute of the half as Munster scored another try through Shaun Payne. He got onto the end of an O'Gara grubber kick to add five points to the Munster total. The brilliant O'Gara was predictably successful with his kick.

O'Gara again extended his side's lead to ten points as he kicked a penalty at the start of the second half.

But Wasps refused to lie down and Marcus Horan's sin-binning allowed the English side to go on and win the game.

Cipriani kicked two more penalties to bring the score to 23-19. Wasps then won the game when Flutey evaded the tackles of two Muster players to pass the ball to wing Tom Voyce who setup Skivington for the winning try.