Wasps 7-9 Edinburgh: Jaco van der Walt strikes late to win it

Edinburgh players show their delight at the final whistle after a hard-earned win in the Midlands. Photograph: Nigel French/PA

They failed to score a try in the game despite dominating the second half and creating enough openings to have grabbed at least one, only for the Wasps scramble defence to deny them every time.

In the end, sheer determination saw out the win, vindicating the decision by Richard Cockerill, the head coach, to make nine changes from the side that won 31-20 at home. Many of their leading stars are still fresh for the 1872 Cup derby with Glasgow Warriors next week.

“They are a big physical side so we knew it would probably go deep,” accepted Duncan Hodge, the assistant coach, afterwards. “We had more ball in the second half and managed to create some pressure. We had chances but didn’t quite manage to score a try. But we managed to get there in the end. We’re delighted.

“We had a quality bench and knew we would need that. They made a real good impact, all of them. That was what was great to see – it’s great to see for the squad as well. We’ve played a lot of players over the last two weeks – a big chunk of the team – so from that point of view it’s great.”

The game turned out to be a slow burner with neither side able to show much in the early stages, and the late drama only partly redeemed a match in which neither side played with much fluency.

Wasps were lively enough running from deep but weren’t making breaks against the stiff visiting defence. In contrast, the Scots were cutting through tackles more often but struggling to hold on to the ball in good attacking positions.

Centre James Johnstone and wing Darcy Graham were both close to finding a way into open space but the cover caught the former and Wasps had just enough of the latter’s shirt tail to hold him back.

Edinburgh did get a penalty at the resulting ruck from Graham’s half break, on the end of a clever offload from Jamie Ritchie, the flanker, but that was all they had to show in the first half hour marked out more by resolute defence than slick attack.

The stalemate lasted most of the first half, but just as it looked as though Edinburgh would go into the break with that penalty lead, the defence fell asleep, allowing Wasps scrum-half Will Porter to find space next to a ruck and link with Nizaam Carr, the No 8, to canter in for the try.

With Lima Sopoaga adding the conversion, it was enough to send Wasps into the break with the narrowest of leads – though they were a bit lucky to hang on to it seconds after the restart when Jamie Farndale, the wing, was ruled to have put a foot in touch after collecting Johnstone’s kick-through and diving to ground the ball.

That signalled a return to the stalemate though the injection of the Edinburgh bench, loaded as it was with internationalists, allowed the Scots to raise the pace of the game. Farndale’s break from deep brought them close, and Darcy Graham was twice close to scoring, being illegally driven into touch the first time, producing a yellow card for opposite number Josh Bassett, and losing the ball as he stretched for the line the second time.

By the time Farndale went over only for the final pass to be ruled forward, it seemed even Edinburgh were wondering where the tries would come from, so the next penalty, they settled for the points from the boot of Van der Walt.

That proved the pattern for the rest of the game. “We had about seven minutes to get back up there. They used up three or four of them but we got there,” accepted Hodge, as Van der Walt landed the winning shot at goal two minutes from time.