Leicester Tigers' away woes continued as they slipped to a 24-22 defeat by Wasps at Adams Park.

It represented a fourth consecutive away defeat and was Tigers' fifth reverse in a row at the hands of their fiercest rivals of the professional era.

Tries from Paul Sackey and Steve Kefu saw the London side to victory although Tigers' bonus point keeps them in fourth place in the Guinness Premiership table.

Richard Cockerill's side offered much more than they had in the 12-9 defeat at Gloucester and really had a go at the home side.

But they lacked a killer instinct with ball in hand.

Their game was also littered with the sort of individual errors that are the bugbear of any head coach.

A late score by Jordan Crane from a five-metre pushover try earned Tigers the almost obligatory bonus point.

But they had looked unlikely to breach a well-organised Wasps defence for much of the game, despite some good attacking ball.

Tigers started well with Scott Hamilton breaking through the Wasps' defence in just the third minute.

The visitors wasted some excellent field-position, however, with poor control at the base of the scrum giving Wasps a chance to clear.

The home side got points on the board with their first attack of the game.

Scrum-half Joe Simpson took a quick tap penalty and, with Tigers retreating, off-loaded to Sackey who made the most of the confusion in the visitors' defence to score in the corner on five minutes.

It turned out to be Wasps only incursion into the Tigers half in the opening quarter, though, as Leicester took a real grip on the game.

Time and time again, the visitors' pack pushed the Wasps front eight back at scrum time.

One particularly aggressive surge sent them back 30 metres and resulted in a third Toby Flood penalty in 14 minutes which gave Tigers a deserved 9-5 advantage. Dave Walder reduced that deficit to one point on 26 minutes but Tigers continued to enjoy the ascendency and Flood stretched the lead to 12-8.

A Tigers defence that has been water-tight all season was breached again on 34 minutes, though.

First-phase possession from a line-out led to Walder drawing contact before handing-off to centre Kefu who finished under the posts. It was all too easy from a Tigers' point of view.

Walder converted, added another penalty soon afterwards and there was even time for the home side to earn a five-metre line-out just before the interval, only for a knock-on to send the teams in after a cracking first half with the score at 18-12.

Tigers were their own worst enemies in the opening stages of the second half as poor line-out execution and then a knock-on by Lote Tuqiri cost them two promising positions.

Yet again, though, Wasps were clinical on go-forward ball and Walder stretched their lead to 21-12 after his side's first trip into the Tigers half, eight minutes into the second half.

Alesana Tuilagi replaced Johne Murphy on 50 minutes to try to inject some physicality into the Tigers backs but it was the hosts who went close to scoring again.

Ben Youngs delayed his pass, was tackled by Serge Betsen and former Tiger Tom Varndell kicked the ball dead with the try-line begging.

Wasps were now getting on top. Quick around the breakdown, they snaffled out any attacking intent at source and, when Leicester spun it wide, the home side were well organised and Tigers lacked a killer instinct.

When Walder knocked over his fourth penalty of the game, on the hour, it put them 24-12 up. Flood's kick a minute later closed the gap to nine points and broke a spell of 16 consecutive points for the hosts.

The Tigers fly-half missed a much easier kick three minutes later which would have brought his side back to within a converted try and, as it turned out, would have won his side the game.

Tigers chanced their arm late on to try to get back into it, but they still strived for a decisive line-break and, even on good turn-over ball on 71 minutes, made few inroads. Out of nowhere, though, Tigers grabbed a bonus point.

After a Tuqiri break, Wasps conceded a five-metre scrum and Tigers powered over the line with Crane applying the finishing touches.

Mauger drop-kicked the conversion but it was the last act of an exciting contest in front of a record Adams Park crowd of 10,116.