WASPS 16, EXETER 30.

WASPS had nothing to lose and even less to gain against Exeter Chiefs this afternoon, but you wouldn't have guessed it in the final quarter.

The black and golds were out of the LV Cup weeks ago and just about the best they could hope for today was to rest their worn out stars and avoid a battering.

Dai Young's week of networking meant they got the first part of that equation but, with an hour gone and the outcome already decided, they were in danger of being on the wrong end of a 50-pointer.

However, completely out of the blue, Wasps picked themselves up off the ground and in the final 20 minutes they carried the fight to Exeter splendidly.

Replacement fly half and boyhood Wasps fan Will Robinson was the catalyst with a shining cameo at ten, and his impact finally told in the 78th minute when Mike Powell charged over from more than 50m.

The game was gone by then, but the try was a fitting reward for a Wasps rally which might have brought them some reward a little earlier.

Zak Taulafo left the ball behind when he barrelled over and new signing Lee Robinson spilled after catching up with an astute chip from Will Robinson.

There was also a madcap 30-yard break from replacement front row Simon McIntyre before, in the dying seconds, Powell provided the moment of the match when he outstripped the covering defence to run home from inside his own half.

Robinson added the conversion to send the home fans home with something to smile about, but earlier in the day it had all been looking pretty bleak .

Ryan Davis was decent against his former club until he went off, and Billy Vunipola and Lee Robinson both enjoyed one or two charging rhinoceros moments, but once Exeter crossed the whitewash after 18 minutes there was only ever going to be one winner.

Davis and his opposite number Gareth Steenson had traded two penalties each in the opening stages to get it to 6-6, but even then the Wasps line was coming under mounting pressure and despite a few big hits and an enthusiasm for defence unusual in such a disparate team, Ewers' try came as no surprise.

It came after the black and golds had been sucked in by Exeter's mammoth pack and then caught short out wide, and although Davis perked Wasps up with his third penalty soon afterwards the game was put to bed after 33 minutes when Pat Phibbs' slicing run send Myles Dorrian in under the posts.

Steenson's conversion added to another penalty made it 23-9 at the interval, and Exeter went over for the third time through Ally Muldowney in the 49th minute.

At that stage the hosts looked on course for quite a beating, but a final half hour of Wasps bravado changed the atmosphere inside Adams Park completely.