Wasps capitalise on Bristol slip

Wasps survived another avalanche of penalties to grab the luckiest of wins seven minutes into injury-time yesterday, then threatened to drop their serial offenders.

The house-warming party at their gleaming new home in High Wycombe had been within seconds of going horribly wrong when Bristol's Argentina fly half Felipe Contepomi ruined an otherwise almost immaculate performance by conceding the decisive penalty try.

The Puma had nailed nine goals from 10 attempts and a 75-yard intercept try for good measure, a personal haul of 30 points. Alas for him he then put his foot in it, allowing himself to be caught on the wrong side of a maul as Wasps hammered away at the try line.

Referee Roy Maybank had warned Bristol that one more offence would mean a penalty try, and he was as good as his word. To add insult to injury, Contepomi and Lawrence Dallaglio wound up appearing to trade blows, an argy-bargy

the Wasps captain shrugged off as 'harmless banter'.

Therefore Felipe could be credited with an unprecedented total of 37 points, 30 for and seven against. The final whistle went the moment Alex King's conversion sailed over.

Adams Park, infinitely more user-friendly than Wasps' previous quarters at Loftus Road, welcomed a crowd of 7,000-plus, almost 25 per cent up on last season's average. But these fans knew Wasps could hardly push their luck any more in a display which will not have fooled Warren Gatland, their New Zealand coach, who admitted his team 'got out of jail, big-time'.

After conceding 26 penalties at Newcastle the previous week, they gave away another 19 yesterday. Contepomi landed a double hat-trick in the second half of a helter-skelter match during which the lead changed hands no fewer than nine times.