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Wasps in semis after downing Falcons
Wasps 24, Newcastle 6.
WASPS are in the semi-finals of the EDF Energy Cup after over-powering Newcastle Falcons at Adams Park for the second week running this afternoon.
Their 24-6 victory means they top group A and join Leicester and Saracens in the semi-finals, to be played at the Millennium Stadium next March.
Harlequins and Ospreys play for the fourth spot tomorrow.
Wasps welcomed back England captain Phil Vickery, while Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood both returned for the visitors and it was the England fly half who had the first opportunity of the match when Lawrence Dallaglio was penalised for not rolling away.
But from just inside the Wasps half, Wilkinson missed a chance to make the first statement in the battle of the left-footers as, against the wind, the ball dropped just under the posts.
Four minutes later Danny Cipriani missed his first pot at goal as well, but if the 20-year-old's confidence was shaken it didn't show as he made no mistake with his next attempt to put Wasps 3-0 up after ten minutes.
Six minutes later, with hail lashing sideways through Adams Park, he did it again.
Six-nil ahead and Wasps were up and running, looking to use the conditions to build a first-half lead, and after 23 minutes Eoin Reddan translated their control to the scoreboard with a quite brilliant individual try.
The ace opportunist collected a loose ball 40 metres from the line and caught Newcastle napping with a blazing run down the flank.
Winger Tom May came across to block him but Reddan's neat chip took him out the equation and the scrum half then outsprinted the covering defenders to score the game's first try.
Cipriani's conversion attempt from the touchline went just wide but it hardly disrupted their rhythm and within moments Reddan thought he was in again.
When hooker Joe Ward accelerated down the wing it was the Irishman on his shoulder, but Ward opted to go alone and was bundled out of play before he could touch down.
On the touchline Ian McGeechan and Shaun Edwards would have been annoyed at the missed chance, but they didn't have long to wait to see their side stretch their lead as it was one-way traffic by now.
Wilkinson and the rest of Newcastle's glittering back line were on the fringes and inside their own 22 as Wasps monopolised possession. And after 33 minutes they scored again.
Newcastle were twice penalised for collapsing a five-metre scrum and when it happened again captain Phil Dowson was yellow carded. Joe McDonnell replaced him in the pack but made no difference and when the scrum collapsed for a fourth time referee Malcolm Changleng awarded a penalty try.
Cipriani's conversion stretched the lead to 18-0 and that's how it remained until Wilkinson stepped up to the plate early in the second period.
Two long-range penalty attempts from wide on the left arrowed straight between the posts to reduce Wasps' lead to 18-6, and suddenly with half an hour left it looked like game on again.
Not quite.
After 53 minutes Wasps won a penalty on just about the same spot as Wilkinson had kicked and missed from in the opening minutes.
Cipriani made no such mistake, taking off his skull cap before thumping the ball over to put Wasps 21-6 up and say to Newcastle, 'we can trump your trump card'.
To the Falcons' credit, they did not buckle and might have made it interesting in the final stages had Wilkinson kicked his penalties for the posts in the final quarter rather than kicking for touch and seven points.
They didn't get them, Cipriani added a fourth penalty for good measure after 79 minutes and Wales is now the next stop for Wasps in their EDF Energy Cup campaign.
A sixth consecutive trophy-winning season is still very much on the cards.
4:20pm Saturday 1st December 2007
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