Munster Will Face Wasps

Wasps eased into their
first-ever
European Cup semi-final with a 34-3 win over English rivals
Gloucester at
the Causeway Stadium on Sunday.

The English champions had the quarter-final all but wrapped up at
half-time
where they had established a 16 point lead.
Now they will travel to Dublin to face Munster in
the last
four at Lansdowne Road on April 25.

Last season Wasps were the first club to win the English title
following a
play-off final, thrashing Gloucester 39-3 at Twickenham.
That result was made all the more bitter for the Cherry and
Whites, coached
by former Wasps chief Nigel Melville, as they had finished the
regular season
15 points clear of their second-placed rivals.

And it was a similar story on Sunday when Wasps established a 19-3
half-time lead. They outscored Gloucester three tries to nil in the
opening
period – including a controversial penalty try awarded by French
referee Joel
Jutge.
It was not until the 18th minute that hosts Wasps opened the
scoring after
dominating territory.
England lock Simon Shaw won a lineout on the far side and the ball
was
worked across field where hooker Trevor Leota fed Rob Howley.
The former Wales scrum-half exchanged passes on the blindside with
Stuart
Abbott before bursting through the cover for a well-worked try.
Fly-half Alex King converted and Wasps were 7-0 up.

But barely a minute later Gloucester hit back when, following
flanker Paul
Volley’s late tackle on scrum-half Duncan McRae, Henry Paul landed a
penalty.

Wasps dominated territory but struggled to convert that into
points with
King missing three goalkicks.
But that chnaged in the 37th minute.

The hosts drove from a lineout and Gloucester initially infringed
by coming
in from the side of a rolling maul.
When the maul collapsed closed to the Gloucester line, Jutge
signalled a
penalty try although it was by no means certain that Wasps would have
crossed
for a score. King converted and Wasps were 14-3 up.

Worse followed for Gloucester when hooker Chris Fortey was
sin-binned by
Jutge in first-half injury-time, the official losing patience with
the
visitors after they had repeatedly come in from the wrong side.

Wasps capitalised immediately on their man advantage, taking an
attacking
penalty and driving over England captain Lawrence Dallaglio, the No.8
buried
under a pile of bodies as he went over for the try in the fifth
minute of
stoppage time.

Then, just two minutes into the second half with Gloucester still
down to
14 men, Samoa’s Leota powered over for Wasps’s fourth try.

Dallaglio was sin-binned for a needless fracas with fellow England
World
Cup-winner and Gloucester prop Trevor Woodman in the 58th minute but
Melville’s side were unable to make anything of their man advantage.
Instead King’s penalty and a stoppage time try by replacement
Ayoola Erinle
piled on the misery for Gloucester.