Danny Cipriani made a happy return to the Ricoh Arena with a 15-point haul for Gloucester to help defeat his former side Wasps.

Gloucester were deserved 35-21 winners as their forwards controlled long periods of the match with Wasps badly missing their talisman, Joe Launchbury, at the heart of their pack.

Charlie Sharples scored two tries for Gloucester, Ben Vellacott and Lewis Ludlow the others with Cipriani kicking three penalties and three conversions.

Dan Robson, Elliot Daly and Juan De Jongh scored tries for the home side, Billy Searle converting all three.

Wasps took a third-minute lead when from a ruck 30 metres out, Robson saw a gap to slip past Gerbrandt Grobler before rounding Tom Hudson to score.

Ten minutes later, Robson nearly had a second when Christian Wade and Daly combined in a flowing move which ended with Sharples just beating Robson to touchdown Daly's well-judged kick ahead.

Gloucester were second best at this stage but will managed to draw level. Cipriani received the ball in his own 22 to race away and inter-pass with Vellacott before chipping ahead for the scrum half to pick up and score.

Cipriani converted before Gloucester had the chance to take the lead with a straightforward penalty attempt but they opted for an attacking line-out and the chance was lost.

However they were soon presented with an even simpler opportunity and this time Cipriani knocked over the kick.

From the restart, Gloucester stunned their opponents with their second try after Tom Hudson had evaded Tommy Taylor's tackle to send Sharples away on a 40 metre run for the wing's seventh Premiership try of the season.

Gloucester should have had a third after Jake Polledri chased a Mark Atkinson chip ahead to boot the ball past Searle but the flanker knocked on as he tried to gather with the line at his mercy.

The second quarter belonged totally to the visitors and they extended their advantage with another Cipriani penalty to lead 20-7 at the interval with Wasps suffering a huge blow when Robson was helped off with a leg injury.

After the restart Wasps soon overcame this setback to reduce the arrears when Daly rewarded a period of sustained pressure to score a second try for his side.

The hosts introduced flanker, Thomas Young, for his first appearance of season after a long injury absence but it didn't pay immediate dividends as Wasps were penalised at a set scrum for Cipriani to succeed with a simple penalty.

The home side made more changes with Michael Le Bourgeois coming on in the centre with Daly switching to full-back and it had the desired effect with De Jongh winning the race to score Wasps' third try and set up a tense last 15 minutes.

Gloucester exerted pressure and were awarded a controversial try when replacement Jason Woodward's final pass to Sharples was allowed to stand when it appeared to be forward but Ludlow's late effort from close range ensured Wasps could have no complaints.