Wasps 30 Worcester Warriors 15.

FROM the thrills of last week’s comeback win over Newcastle Falcons to the spills of Saturday’s mistake-ridden defeat at Wasps.

It is this sort of inconsistency which drives even the most hardy supporter mad and leaves Worcester Warriors still trapped in the bottom two.

With Wasps on home soil and targeting a place in the top four it was always going to be a giant task to secure back-to-back wins for only the third time this season.

But Warriors simply played into the hands of their opponents by gift wrapping the ball to them with a catalogue of handling mistakes, poor kicks and turnovers.

Christian Wade has often been a thorn in Worcester’s side as he memorably scored six tries at a stunned Sixways in 2016.

And the wing was at it again at the Ricoh Arena as he struck twice in the opening period.

Despite facing a 20-point deficit at half-time Worcester had their chances to claw their way back as Wasps found themselves a man down on two occasions.

Jack Willis was yellow carded in the first two minutes of the second period before Jimmy Gopperth took his place in the sin-bin.

But Warriors failed register a point in both 10-minute periods and when they did finally cross the whitewash with Dean Hammond and Josh Adams scoring the game was already lost.

The defeat now extends the agony for Worcester’s fans as they head into the final two matches with relegation fears still lingering.

Director of rugby Alan Solomons will hope to be boosted by the return of Francois Hougaard for next Saturday’s crucial home clash with Harlequins (3pm).

The influential scrum-half has not featured in almost two months due to an ankle injury and their sorry display at Wasps emphasised how much they needed him.

After impressing off the bench in the 27-13 triumph against Falcons, Michael Dowsett and Dorian Jones were handed starting spots.

But the half-back pairing did little to cement their places with fly-half Jones missing an early long-range penalty.

Wasps then opened the scoring on 10 minutes as they moved the ball wide and Willie Le Roux fed Wade who dived over in the corner.

Gopperth failed to add the conversion but landed a penalty on 23 minutes to increase the home side’s lead to 8-0.

Jones replied with three points of his own but with Danny Cipriani and Dan Robson controlling things Wasps soon got their second try.

Chris Pennell stopped Juan De Jongh and then Will Spencer halted Will Rowlands only for Joe Launchbury to smash his way over from close range. Gopperth added the extras.

Warriors then suffered a further setback as the impressive Le Roux darted through a gap and teed up Wade who sprinted down the wing to score.

Gopperth, who missed the conversion, dispatched another three-pointer to leave Worcester trailing 23-3 at half-time.

Looking to respond the visitors were given a window of opportunity when Willis saw yellow for a tip-tackle on Pennell.

But errors continued to blight their game as Sam Lewis and David Denton spurned chances to score.

On 66 minutes Wasps received a double blow when Guy Thompson’s try was ruled out after Gopperth was adjudged to have pushed Andrew Kitchener while he was in the air and was sent to the sin-bin.

However, Worcester then gifted Wasps a try as Jamie Shillcock’s pass was intercepted by Josh Bassett who eased home and Elliot Daly improved the score.

Solomons’ men refused to give in and were rewarded with two tries in the final three minutes.

Hammond went over after receiving a pass from Kurt Haupt before Adams combined with Jonny Arr to touch down at the death which Shillcock converted.