Leeds Carnegie 8 Wasps 17: Long wait for elusive victory continues for Leeds

Given the footballing standard of so many Aviva Premiership games this season, Leeds and Wasps were never likely to put on the sort of open, free-flowing spectacle produced by Australia and New Zealand in the weekend's high-point.

But at least Leeds attempted to play some football which made it all the more galling to see them come away with nothing once more. Their last league win was against Worcester in April.

Early in this insipid contest, Wasps spent fully two minutes in possession methodically going through the phases without actually gaining any ground.

Leeds's defence proved well-organsised and steely, so much so that, after more labouring, Wasps scrum-half Joe Simpson finally gave up and hammered the ball into touch.

Such was the visitors' lack of adventure following that initial foraying, it seemed they had already deemed their opponents' impregnable and would resort to the basics.

Leeds dominated the territory and possession for the rest of the half through a collection of marked incisions.

The excellent captain Marco Wentzel picked off a loose off-load from Wasps counterpart Tom Rees, Kearnan Myall nicked a line-out and caused further disruption in that set-piece while Leeds doggedly turned a scrum to underline another area of initial dominance. Yet it all reaped no reward.

A mixture of indecision or over-eagerness led to the gains being wasted with a succession of handling errors and yet more frustration as they slipped to a seventh successive league defeat. It has been the story of their campaign so far.

In all truthfulness, they created no real try-scoring chances until Luther Burrell slid over in the 55th minute.

Moments before that sole try, Wentzel – the marauding lock who seems to be omnipresent out on the field – had produced a delicate chip and gather to lift the slumbering crowd of 5,495.

Initially it was wonderful to see but then the realisation dawned that Leeds should not be relying on one of their engine room forwards for such creative magic.

Ceiron Thomas's conversion attempt struck an upright but they still only trailed 14-8 and were in touching distance.

However, their hopes of further making inroads on the deficit were hampered by Mark van Gisbergen's penalty on the hour mark.

Spirited Leeds probed again but they never held the penetration – be it through sheer force or subtly – to genuinely scare them.

As they pressed further, Wasps crucially turned a five-metre scrum to deny them their best chance and then conceded a penalty to alleviate the pressure further.

It was a sign of the hosts' eventual disarray that, with the 80 minutes up and no mathematical chance to overturn the deficit, they ignored the chance to kick a penalty from halfway and potentially earn a bonus point.

They instead tried eking out a few more metres to hand Thomas's replacement Leigh Hinton a better chance of reaching the target but – systematic of their afternoon – coughed up the possession and Wasps scrambled clear.

Leeds were without England pair Steve Thompson and Hendre Fourie and lost centre Scott Barrow with a slight bang to the hamstring on 28 minutes, but at times had Wasps sweating.

However, their obdurate rivals – who had endured an embarrassing 37-10 home loss to Northampton a week earlier – then scored a splendid try out of nowhere in the 34th minute.

Simpson picked up from a scrum-base, in a relatively harmless central location inside his own line.

The lively scrum-half exploited a gaping hole in the Leeds defence at the set piece, sped away from blindside Myall and then confidently arced around full-back Thomas to dive over for a 55-metre score between the posts.

Van Gisbergen converted to augment their unlikely lead but the Yorkshire side at least gained some reward for their first-half endeavours when Thomas landed an excellent touchline penalty two minutes before the break after Wasps were found wanting – not for the first time – in the scrum.

He had already missed one penalty and Leeds had earlier ignored potential chances preferring to kick to the corner and see their strong line-out go to work.

Unfortunately, Wasps generally combatted that weapon and it was Tony Hanks's side who started the second period with added vigour.

They made the most of some sustained pressure on the Leeds line when captain Rees bundled over in the 47th minute, the England flanker bumping off a disappointed Rhys Oakley and allowing van Gisbergen a comfortable conversion.

Despite all Leeds's toil and effort, that was enough to see them home.

Leeds Carnegie: Thomas (Hinton 62); Stephenson, Burrell, Barrow (Blackett 28), Fa'afili; Mackay, Mathie (Fury 58); Hardy (Alonso 48), Titterrell (Nilsen 25-35 BB), Gomez (Swainston 60), Denton (Paul 48), Wentzel, Myall, Oakley, Browne (To'oala 60).

Wasps: Wallace; Varndell, Waldouck, Kefu, Lemi; Van Gisbergen, Simpson; Payne, Ward (Webber 58), Broster (Hobson 48), Veale, Ward-Smith, Worsley (Betsen 19), Rees, Powell. Unused substitutes: Cannon, Berry, Jewell, Daly, Taulafo.

Referee: D Richards (RFU).