Wasps produced another impressive performance to seal a 43-12 victory over Darlington Mowden Park Sharks. The hosts put themselves out of sight with five tries and a dominant performance in the first half, the pick of the bunch coming from Abby Dow on her return to the side.
Wasps opened the scoring after just two minutes after applying the early pressure. Club captain Kate Alder carried hard to the line before crashing through the defence to score.
Those in black and gold picked up two more tries in quick succession, the first coming from an outstanding break upfield from Maud Muir on her first start for the club, before finding Amy Cokayne out wide to finish the score. The second came from Lizzie Goulden, as she hacked through a loose ball before collecting and finishing under the posts.
Wasps fourth try came from a kick to touch that bounced short of the touchline, but Louise Dodd reacted first to collect the bouncing ball and dot down. The final score of the half began with a remarkable 20m cross field kick from Lizzie Goulden, which perfectly found Abby Dow on the wing, who fended off the final tackler to race in from 30m out.
Wasps dominated the opening 40 minutes, putting in an outstanding defensive shift to keep Darlington pinned deep inside their territory for the entirety, leading 33-0 at the break.
Darlington Mowden Park Sharks fought back early in the second half, crossing for two tries of their own through Ekoku Igemi and Roberts Georgina.
Wasps regained the ascendency on the hour mark with a scrum that had been solid for the entire game, providing an excellent attacking platform. A fantastic pass from the midfield from Louise Dodd found Kendall Templeman out wide who raced in to finish the score. Wasps final try came two minutes from time as Sarah Mitchelson’s strong carry from close range put the icing on the cake for Wasps, giving them a 43-12 victory.
Wasps will be delighted to have put such a strong first half performance together to put the game beyond Darlington, but will know they will need to maintain their levels for the entire 80 minutes as they face crunch games against Harlequins and Gloucester-Hartpury before the end of the season. The victory extends their lead in fourth position in the table to four points ahead of Gloucester-Hartpury in fifth.
Courtesy of Wasps
