Wasps relinquished their Premiership crown last night. Their 11th league defeat condemned them to finish outside the top four and they will have a chance, albeit remote, of playing in the Heineken Cup next season only if an English club wins the current tournament.
Bath moved to third in the table, although their satisfaction at the hardest earned of victories was tempered by a serious injury to their captain, Michael Lipman. Bath on Saturday face the new leaders of the Premiership, Harlequins, who put 60 points on Worcester last night to go above Leicester.
The England flanker Lipman was carried off the field with his neck in a brace in the second half, a worrying sight as Lipman only recently came back after being concussed for the fifth time this season in the Heineken Cup draw here against Toulouse in January. The player was taken to hospital but Bath's director of rugby, Steve Meehan, said after the game that Lipman was not concussed and may be suffering a whiplash injury.
The campaign had effectively been long over for Wasps but while a chance remained, no matter how long it was, of winning a trophy for the seventh consecutive season, they swarmed with intent. The opening was typically brutal. Wasps used Danny Cipriani to assault the air with high balls and they chased effectively but Nick Abdendanon fielded the fusillade. The Bath outside-half, Butch James, also kicked out of hand liberally, but he varied his, moving the full-back Mark van Gisbergen around by targeting the corners.
Wasps scored the game's opening try on 34 minutes when Bath were leading 6-3 through two James penalties to one from his opposite number Cipriani. The Wasps' fly-half, who missed two penalties in the opening period, drifted right from a ruck and gave to Danny Waldouck, who straightened after making an inside run. Waldouck clattered through Abendanon and fed Riki Flutey with a perfectly timed flat pass. Cipriani badly missed the none too difficult conversion but he extended his side's lead with a 50-yard penalty before James's third successful kick reduced the visitors' interval lead to 11-9.
After Lipman left the field a scrum broke up into a fight that Simon Shaw and David Flatman continued after the whistle. The tension rose and with it surged Bath's resolve. They opted for a quick heel and the No8, Jonny Fa'amatuainu, encountered little resistance from Tom Voyce. James's conversion gave Bath a five-point lead which Jeremy Staunton, given the kicking duties in place of Cipriani, soon narrowed. But James had the final word with his fifth penalty.
Bath Abendanon; Maddock, Crockett, Hape, Banahan; James, Bemand; Flatman, Mears, Bell, Harrison, Short (Hooper, 43), Beattie, Lipman (capt; Scaysbrook, 52), Fa'amatuainu.
Tries Fa'amatuainu. Con James. Pens James 5.
London Wasps: Van Gisbergen (Staunton, 47); Voyce, Waldouck, Flutey, Mitchell; Cipriani, Simpson; French, Ward (Webber, 52), Payne, Shaw, Birkett (Skivington, 53), Worsley, Betsen (capt; Rees 67), Hart (Haskell, 52).
Try Flutey. Pens Cipriani 2, Staunton.
Referee R Debney (Leicestershire). Attendance 10,600.
