Quins grab victory thanks to Casson and TV official

Tom Casson’s last-gasp score looked for the all the world like a knock-on but television match official Graham Hughes ruled that the ball had ricocheted forward off the centre’s knee, making the subsequent grounding legal.

Guy Armitage’s first-ever Premiership try and 23 points from the left boot of Ian Humphreys appeared to have set the Exiles on their way to victory, before Casson’s late effort broke their hearts.

Danny Care and Tom Williams also crossed for the defending champions who ended a run of two successive defeats to top the Premiership while the Exiles stay in 11th with only a losing bonus point to show for a titanic effort.

O’Shea admitted that on another day it could easily have been the Exiles celebrating a famous win.

“We know that at the end of the season you look back and you have games like this,” he said.

“It’s a massive four points for us to come away with because Irish played well and it’s a tough place to come.

“I think we really picked up the intensity in the final five or six minutes after we went behind and that was crucial.

“The whole team picked up in intensity and we saw more people carrying, more people getting into the game and looking for the ball.

“Everyone forgets certain games at the end of the season – it’s all about playing your best all season and fortunately this was one we got away with without playing at our best.”

As for Casson’s try, O’Shea said: “I think if you watch it in real time it doesn’t look like a try, it’s a great piece of covering work by Armitage.

“But by the letter of the law it’s a try so I think it was a good decision and it’s why we have the TMO system.”

London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith saw the controversial final play a little differently.

“The guy who had the responsibility made his call and while I don’t agree with it there might be some who do,” he said.

“The key thing for us is to take the spotlight off the incident at the end and focus elsewhere – we’re a good team.

“We played well against the champions of England and I think we deserved the win, but at the same time if you ask yourself, ‘Could that game have gone either way?’, you have to say, ‘Yes, it probably could have’.

“They are one hell of a team, they probably have a couple of years’ head start on us on where we want to be and fair play to Conor and his boys – they won the game and that’s what matters.”

Wingers Christian Wade and Tom Varndell scored a pair of tries each to earn the praise of both coaches in Wasps 29-19 win over London Welsh.

Wade was especially impressive, to further boost the 20-year-old’s England claims, with his two scores catching the eye at the start of each half.

Varndell also reminded of his class as Wasps grabbed back-to-back Aviva Premiership wins following their home success over Worcester last time out.

“Our wings were the major difference between the two sides,” Wasps director of rugby Dai Young said.

“Christian was outstanding and Tom wasn’t far behind. Christian must be in the frame for England, he is in the Saxons set-up but England are blessed with some high-quality wings and he must carry on the way he is playing to continue to impress them.”

Exiles coach Lyn Jones, who saw his side cross through Phil Mackenzie and Stranck Montanella in the second half, agreed with his counterpart’s assessment.

“Their back three was the difference in the game,” he said.

“They were hugely influential, when they had 50-50 opportunities they took them all.”

Wasps could have won by an even greater margin but were careless at times while it did not help that Nicky Robinson missed five from his six attempts.

Young’s side looked like they might break the game open at 21-6 but they were unable to shake off the Premiership’s newcomers to frustrate their coach.

“We put ourselves under pressure, I wasn’t pleased,” he said.

“There are a number of things to work on, we struggled up front especially in the second half and our ball retention was very poor.

“We need to play with more composure as we squandered three or four good chances.”

Jones was disappointed not to at least take a bonus point from the match.

“The mood in the dressing room is one of disappointment, we threw away a bonus point at the end and they are much sought after,” he said. “The first 20 minutes we went 8-0 down with some poor decision making and we need to be a lot tighter early on.

“We made too many unforced errors and it loses us points and yards in the Premiership.”

“However we were competitive and it was a big effort from our players who all gave 100 per cent.”

Wasps scrum-half Joe Simpson was taken from the field on a stretcher at the end of the first half with a knee injury, but Young said the problem was not serious.