Danny Cipriani has won the Guinness Premiership Player of the Month award for April after spearheading London Wasps’s charge into Premiership play-off contention.

The month saw Wasps win their sixth, seventh and eighth consecutive league matches in which Cipriani scored 48 points in total, all bar five coming from what has become an unerring boot.

Wasps have scored 118 points in those three matches, including 29 points at Adams Park in what may yet prove a crucial win against a committed and physical Sale Sharks team on the 15th April.

Those wins leave Wasps in third place, with matches against Gloucester, Newcastle Falcons and Leeds Carnegie still to play. A home semi-final could yet be within their grasp, a fantastic achievement given their league placing of eighth at the turn of the year.

Bath Rugby’s Head Coach Steve Meehan took the coaching award for April after his side won both their matches, a re-scheduled round 19 match against Leicester Tigers and a thrilling 20-23 win over an improving Worcester Warriors side at Sixways in round 20.

They sit in second place in the Guinness Premiership table with two matches to go. The first is this Saturday evening against Heineken Cup semi-finalists, Saracens, followed by a massive clash against their local rivals Gloucester at Kingsholm in the final round.

The battle at the top of the Premiership is one of the tightest ever, meaning only two wins at this stage would guarantee them a home semi-final and a chance to reach their first Premiership Final since 2004.

Cipriani’s award means England’s potential half-back pairing in New Zealand have scooped the last two player of the month awards, with Harlequins’ Danny Care having won the award in March.

Special mention was also given to Bath Rugby’s England prop, Matt Stevens. Stevens has been truly on-song in April, providing both the power and deft touches that Bath’s high tempo style demands and leading one panellist to describe him as ‘currently the best prop forward in Europe’.