Wasps Gopperth puts former team Newcastle to Premiership sword

A sublime display by New Zealand fly-half Jimmy Gopperth propelled an out of sorts Wasps to a 31-6 defeat of his former club Newcastle in their English Premiership clash on Sunday.
The 33-year-old former Leinster playmaker scored two tries in his 21 points as Wasps kept the pressure on leaders and champions Saracens — they are a point behind the only side to have beaten them this season after seven matches.
Wasps, though, lost Irish international prop Marty Moore to what looked like a serious neck injury in the first-half.
At the other end of the table, Bristol lost 31-13 to Sale — their seventh defeat in seven Premiership matches on what is turning out to be a humiliating return to the top tier.
Making things worse for the bottom side is they lost former Wales star Gavin Henson to injury, the 34-year-old — who had already missed several matches earlier in the campaign because of a leg injury — going off after just 12 minutes after falling on his shoulder.
The day’s other game saw last season’s Premiership finalists Exeter lose in the last minute to Bath in a low scoring West country derby.
Fiji-born England international wing Semesa Rokoduguni shrugged off two tacklers to touch down with England fly-half George Ford converting to give the visitors a 13-10 victory.
“I think that’s why we love sport, isn’t it?” Bath’s head coach Todd Blackadder told BT Sport after the last minute dramatics.
“We had a lot of belief throughout that game — it just shows the commitment and belief within the team.
“I’m just so pleased for the players — to see them grind it out and go through some real ‘can’t we can we’,” added the 45-year-old former All Black skipper.
His Exeter counterpart Rob Baxter was gracious in defeat.
“It was a tough old finish for us really, but I think great credit to Bath — I think they just edged that resilience battle,” he told BT Sport.
“We’re in an interesting position now — these games are going to have a different connotation for us now.
“Games that go on one decision are always hard to take, but I don’t want to look for excuses, I want to look at ourselves.”
Reigning English and European champions Saracens strengthened their grip on top spot in the Premiership ahead of the end-of-year internationals with a 24-10 win at home to Leicester on Saturday.
Yet despite dominating the match, the north London side failed to secure any bonus points — much to the frustration of coach Mark McCall.
“The half-time score of 17-3 was about right, but when we got to 24-3 we were really sloppy,” said McCall.
“It’s a big lesson for us because we didn’t get the job done that we wanted to. We spent the last 15-20 minutes defending which is not what we wanted to do.”