WASPS director of rugby Dai Young pulled no punches after his side lost 23-20 to London Irish at Adams Park.

The black and golds were desperate for a win after last week's one-point defeat to Harlequins, but never got close to matching their performance at The Stoop.

Young said: "I don't think we lacked composure, we just didn't play at all to be honest.

"Irish showed more intent and aggression in everything they did and we lost all the collisions both with and without the ball.

"We got fed our dinner at the tackle area.

"Saying that, we were still in with a shout towards the end and being six points down when they went down to 14 men, we'd have to back ourselves with the wind behind us as well to come away with the win.

"But yet again we gave away silly little penalties that we didn't need to give away, which allowed them to relieve some of the pressure."

Wasps had come back strongly after going 17-3 down early on.

Young said: "We were also hugely disappointed with our first 25 minutes. We gifted them 17 points. "Individual error cost us the first try, individual error cost us field position for their second try and there was a silly penalty.

"I thought Irish were far better than us and deserved their win, but we've got to look at ourselves.

"In all reality, I don't think we looked like achieving much. I don't think we got past three or four phases all game. "We were having real problems at the tackle area and got turned over a number of times, and if we didn't get turned over they slowed the ball down so we struggled to get any pace into our game."

For Irish, this result follows their away win at Saracens and seriously damages Wasps' top six ambitions.

Young said: "We'll put our hand up and take it on the chin. We were beaten by a team that wanted it a bit more and were more aggressive in most areas. We didn't play anything like we can and made too many individual errors.

"We've got to move forward and keep improving, because today I thought we took a step back. "Last week was heart-breaking but I thought we played well. This week we were a shadow of ourselves. I thought we looked flat and tired and lacked that sparkle we had last week.

"We've got to get that back as quickly as possible. You won't get many more difficult places to go than Bath so that's going to focus our minds, that's for sure."