Depleted Wasps fall to on-song Harlequins

London Wasps were stretched beyond breaking point as a 32-10 defeat at Harlequins left them only one point off the bottom of the Guiness Premiership.

With nine of their top players away on international duty, Wasps were outplayed and director of rugby Ian McGeechan admitted the situation was getting serious.

"It does make a difference when the experienced players aren't there," he said. "We know we always have the biggest challenge when international rugby is on."

But McGeechan claimed his side should have done better against a Harlequins outfit whose win took them up to second in the table.

"We missed too many tackles in the first half and had a mountain to climb after that.

"The players stuck at it and did better in the second half but we have to do it for 80 minutes.

"There were a lot of easy points given away - six penalties. We will look at what we are doing. At the moment we aren't happy with some of the things."

Reflecting on Wasps' league position, he said: "No other team is going to help us. We have to concentrate on what we are doing and make sure we are competitive and accurate, which we weren't in the first half."