Wasps replaced Gloucester in second place in the Aviva Premiership with a bonus-point 49-24 victory before a crowd of 26,296 at the Ricoh Arena.

There was little between the teams until 49th minute when Thomas Young's breakaway try turned the game Wasps' way.

Christian Wade crossed for a brace of tries, with Guy Thompson, Dan Robson, Willie Le Roux and Young also going over for the hosts and Danny Cipriani converted five and kicked three penalties.

Will Heinz, Tom Marshall, Freddie Clarke and Mark Atkinson scored tries for Gloucester with Billy Twelvetrees converting two.

Wasps made the better start and took a 12th-minute lead. A burst from flanker Jack Willis put the visitors' defence on the back foot before Willie Le Roux bemused his opponents with an elusive run to score the opening try.

Gloucester soon responded with their first try. They declined a kickable penalty and from the resulting lineout, Twelvetrees' power took them to within inches of the line before Heinz saw a gap to dart over.

Twelvetrees converted but Gloucester immediately suffered a setback when prop Paddy McAllister limped off to be replaced by Josh Hohneck.

Wasps appeared to have regained the lead when swift off-loads from Le Roux and Kyle Eastmond sent Wade flying down the right flank. The wing looked a certain scorer but brilliant work from Ollie Thorley prevented Wade from touching down.

The two wings were both heavily involved in the next try. A long pass gave Thorley the chance to evade Wade and the Gloucester flyer made substantial ground along the left flank, Wade got back to haul Thorley down but Atkinson was up in support to score.

Atkinson was then forced to leave the field for a head injury assessment before Cipriani reduced the arrears with a penalty.

The topsy-turvy game continued with Wasps scoring their second try when slick passing from Eastmond and Le Roux saw Wade evade some poor Gloucester tackling to score but it was the visitors who held the lead at the interval as Marshall side-stepped past Joe Simpson to score his side's third for a 17-15 interval score line.

Atkinson was back for the second half but against the run of play, Wasps scored the first try of the second half. The visitors were pressing in the opposition 22 when they lost possession for Le Roux to break away and send Young on a 55-metre run to the line.

Cipriani converted and added two penalties as Young's breakaway try seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of Gloucester before more errors from them gave Thompson the chance to score the bonus-point try.

With seven minutes remaining, Josh Bassett was helped off with a leg injury which left Wasps playing with 14 men with Gloucester capitalising when Clarke scored their bonus-point try but late tries from Robson and Wade sealed victory.