Which team will host a Heineken Cup quarter-final?
Munster(37%)
Toulouse(22%)
Leinster(15%)
Biarritz(17%)
Ospreys(4%)
Leicester Tigers(2%)
Stade Français Paris(3%)
Wasps kept their Heineken Cup quarter-final qualification hopes alive with a hard-earned victory at Adams park – now the next stop is Twickenham in the New Year.
Back to back victories over Edinburgh, along with Leinster’s surprise defeat by Castres in France at the weekend, means former double champions Wasps are now just three points adrift of the Irish province with the Twickenham showdown in Round 5 set to have a huge bearing on the eventual Pool winner.
“It will be like a mini international – both teams are packed with international,” said Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan.
“I am very pleased with the back to back wins because they have put us back in the competition and that is the most important thing of all.
“We knew they would want to make a statement against us today and I thought we handled that pretty well.
”I was delighted with Dave Walder’s performance, he defender were well, was 100 per cent with his kicking and attacked the line well for his try.”
Walder got the scoring going when he sliced through the Edinburgh defence in the 12th minute for what ultimately proved to be Wasps’ only try. He added the conversion but Edinburgh hit back to lead by a point at half time.
Full back Hugo Southwell finished off a flowing attack, albeit aided by some weak Wasps tackling and then Phil Godman added a penalty with the last kick of the half.
Wasps had dominated most the half and will have been disappointed not to have made more of the chances they created.
Three Walder penalty goals came them the cushion of a two-score lead before replacement fly half David Blair added a penalty for the Scots to remind Wasps they still had some work to do.
Walder also had the last word with his fourth penalty to clinch the win and keeps Wasps’ interest in the tournament well and truly alive.