Wasps 21 La Rochelle 3: Elliot Daly brace helps make Champions Cup 'mission possible' for Dai Young's team

There was no four-try bonus point, an oversight Dai Young admitted could come back to haunt his team, but this was a brilliant riposte from Wasps after their shellacking in La Rochelle the previous weekend.

A brace of tries from Elliot Daly – who was a constant threat until hobbling off with an ankle injury midway through the second half – and one from replacement hooker Tom Cruse made it ‘mission possible’ again for Dai Young’s team in this competition.

Wasps now have 10pts in Pool 1, three fewer than Ulster and five fewer than leaders La Rochelle. But with two matches remaining they are back in with a “fighters’ chance”.

“If we can win both those games we've got a chance of sneaking through,” Young said. “You'd like to have got the bonus point but it was a great win for us playing against one of the best teams in Europe and one of the best teams I've coached against. We are in with a fighter’s chance now.”

With Eddie Jones shivering in the stands on a freezing wet day in the Midlands, Daly was not the only England player, or England hopeful, who would have warmed his cockles.

Dan Robson was made man of the match, the Wasps scrum half showing his usual box of tricks. But that award could just as easily have gone to Nathan Hughes, immense on his return from a knee injury, or to Danny Cipriani whose return to the Wasps backline has given them the extra dimension they have been lacking for most of the season. Or even to captain Joe Launchbury, who personified Wasps’ refusal to be bossed about by their visitors as they had been over in France.

La Rochelle, in typically perverse French fashion, had made eight changes to the team who bullied Wasps on their home patch. And Wasps took full advantage, shrugging off a mistake from Thomas Young – who spilled the ball straight from the kick-off – to dominate the first half an hour.

Hughes was particularly prominent in those opening exchanges, charging into contact and requiring multiple French bodies to bring him down.

It was one of the England No 8’s bullocking runs that led to Wasps’ first real attack, the ball worked out to the right where Ashley Johnson released Robson with a deft offload. Hughes then almost released Robson on the blindside after a good pick-and-go, Robson just overrunning the ball.

Wasps were bossing the contact area and looking dangerous in possession. Cipriani in particular, caught the eye, taking the ball flat, releasing his runners, with Willie Le Roux and Christian Wade both looking dangerous alongside Daly.

Wasps took a couple of risks en route to their first try, opting to kick for the corner rather than take the points. Hughes then took a quick tap penalty and was held up over the line. But the ball was switched back left where Daly, showing good strength, dropped his shoulder and ran straight through the challenge of his opposite man, the admittedly diminutive Gabriel Lacroix. The England wing then produced an equally impressive conversion from way out on the left touchline.

With the rain falling hard, and the pitch cutting up, the game began to descend into a bit of an arm wrestle. And despite their early dominance, Wasps only led 7-0 at the break. It did not take Daly long to double Wasps’ lead in the second half, though, after a touchline-to-touchline move from Wasps.

La Rochelle finally got on the scoreboard an hour into the contest with a penalty from Brock James, who had come on for Ryan Lamb, and Le Roux then had to produce a brilliant tackle to stop Pierre Bourgarit from scoring as La Rochelle threatened to come back into the contest.

Wasps, though, made the game safe when Tom Cruse dived over from a driving lineout. It was then a question of whether they could get that bonus point. They couldn’t, despite a late cameo from Joe Simpson.

Young declared himself happy nonetheless, shrugging off concerns about Daly’s ankle. “He is walking about – he was not stretched (off) or anything like that,” he said. “He’s a doubt for the Gloucester game (on Sat) but by his reaction it does not look like something that will keep him out for a long period”. Gopperth, who hurt his knee early on and had to be replaced by Kyle Eastmond, was “more of a concern” with Young saying he would need a scan. “Those two injuries are the dampeners on a very good afternoon,” he concluded. “But we were on top in most areas of the game. We’re really pleased to get the result. With two games left in the group we've got a chance."