Champions Cup round-up: Saracens rout Oyonnax to extend Pool 1 lead

Saracens 55 Oyonnax 13

Chris Ashton scored a hat-trick of tries as Saracens remained unbeaten in all competitions this season with a convincing 55-13 European Champions Cup Pool 1 victory over Top 14 strugglers Oyonnax at Allianz Park.

This was their 10th consecutive win and one which virtually guarantees them a home quarter-final.

Saracens scored eight tries in all, with three from Ashton, two from Samuela Vunisa and one each from Alex Goode, Jamie George, and Mike Ellery. Owen Farrell added a penalty and four conversions and replacement Charlie Hodgson added two conversions.

Oyonnax were competitive in the first half an hour but fell away badly to concede three tries in 11 minutes and could only manage one try from Fetu'u VaInikolo, which Rory Clegg converted. Regis Lespinas added a further two two penalties.

Bath 10 Wasps 36

Fly-half Jimmy Gopperth scored 23 points as Wasps recorded a second away win of their European Champions Cup campaign to remain firmly on course for the knockout phase.

After suffering a dramatic late defeat against Pool Five rivals Bath in Coventry last Sunday, Wasps proved in no mood to let history repeat itself, winning 36-10 at the Recreation Ground.

Gopperth claimed a try, while the New Zealander kicked four penalties and three conversions — he also added the extras to centre Elliot Daly’s first-half touchdown and a late Alapati Leuia try — with Daly slotting a drop-goal and leaving brittle Bath sunk without trace.

The home side, who have still to face Champions Cup holders Toulon home and away next month, now face an arduous task in terms of quarter-final progression.

But they could offer few complaints after being heavily outgunned in the forward exchanges and seeing the early promise of a Semesa Rokoduguni try quickly evaporate.

England’s new head coach Eddie Jones looked on as a much-vaunted Bath back division — with the exception of an excellent Rokoduguni — struggled for fluency without a consistent platform up-front

And even Rokoduguni’s afternoon ended in disappointing fashion when he was sin-binned by French referee Romain Poite for a deliberate knock-on, as Bath’s poor Aviva Premiership form this term transferred to a European environment.

Wasps, though, lead the group with three wins out of four, and Bath need to regroup quickly, or their European and domestic campaigns could slip into anonymity sooner, rather than later.