Gallagher Premiership: Wasps, Sale and Exeter Chiefs claim Saturday wins | Rugby Union News

Paolo Odogwu’s double helped Wasps to victory after Bath went down to 13 men on Saturday; Jimmy Gopperth’s move to Leicester confirmed; Manu Tuilagi triggered Sale’s second-half surge against Worcester; Exeter Chiefs bounced back from three successive defeats

Manu Tuilagi continues to come back strongly for Sale Sharks following injury

Wasps, Sale Sharks and Exeter Chiefs all recorded victories in the Gallagher Premiership on Saturday.

Following Leicester Tigers’ derby victory on Friday and London Irish’s win at Ashton Gate, the trio overcame Bath, Worcester and Gloucester respectively on Saturday afternoon.

Wasps’ head coach Lee Blackett also confirmed that centre Jimmy Gopperth, who turns 39 in June, will be joining Leicester in the summer.

The final Premiership match of the weekend takes place on Sunday, with Saracens hosting Harlequins at the StoneX Stadium.

Wasps 41-24 Bath Rugby

Paolo Odogwu saved Wasps for the second week in a row with a quickfire double, as Bath saw their seven-point lead crumble after finding themselves down to 13 men in a 41-24 defeat.

Wing Semesa Rokoduguni was sent off in the opening minute of the second half for a high tackle but Bath made light of his absence until 14 minutes from the end, when Tom de Glanville saw yellow for a deliberate knock-on.

Wasps have now won their last six Premiership matches against Bath

Wing Odogwu, who had won the match at Exeter with a try six minutes after the countdown clock had reached zero, took advantage of the extra space with two tries in as many minutes. A double from Alfie Barbeary then made the scoreline flattering for Wasps.

After, Wasps’ head coach spoke openly about the widely rumoured move of his veteran centre, Gopperth, away from the club.

“I had a chat with Jimmy in December,” Blackett said. “He has been playing superbly, but we were unable to make a decision then because of the reduction in the salary cap and the fact he will be 39 next season.

“Leicester nipped in and he has signed for them, but I know he will be giving his all for us in the next few months.”

Jimmy Gopperth will swap Wasps for Leicester Tigers next season

Sale Sharks 36-12 Worcester Warriors

Manu Tuilagi triggered a second-half surge on his first start for Sale since returning from injury, as they defeated Worcester 36-12 at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Sale went in front early on through Sam James but were reeled back by the Warriors, who took a 12-10 advantage into the interval via Tom Howe and Niall Annett tries.

However, Tuilagi touched down to give his side the lead in the second half and they never looked back.

“Manu was outstanding again,” Sale’s head coach Alex Sanderson said. “He will phone Eddie [Jones] tomorrow and they will make up their own plan.

“Fortunately – because it’s good for the country – he will go to England and will hopefully do as good a job there as he has here for the last two weeks.

“I’m really excited for him. He’s going to do well because he’s trained hard, he’s prepped well and his head is in a good place.”

Exeter Chiefs 24-15 Gloucester Rugby

Exeter bounced back after three successive defeats with a convincing 24-15 win over in-form Gloucester at Sandy Park.

Gloucester had claimed 24 points from their previous six Premiership matches, but their limitations were exposed by a fired-up Chiefs side, who were the better team in all facets of the game.

Exeter Chiefs gave themselves work to do after being level at 5-5 at the break against Gloucester

Jack Innard, Patrick Schickerling, Olly Woodburn and Tom O’Flaherty scored Exeter’s tries with Joe Simmonds adding two conversions.

Gloucester’s tries came from Freddie Clarke, Santiago Carreras and Charlie Chapman – the last two coming in the final 15 minutes when Exeter had a man in the sin-bin.

“We chucked a lot of emotion at that and could have easily dropped off but we didn’t,” Ali Hepher said. “We deserved to win today after a good week’s training with the fun and passion returning.”