ON Wednesday Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks said the following things:

1: “We’ve really targeted the next four games.”

2: “The next four games are really important to us.”

3: “It’s a good opportunity for us over the next four weeks.”

4: “We want to get the results we need over the next four weeks.

5: “The next four weeks are about being a contender for the title.”

Sale on Sunday is the start of a four-week burst that means an awful lot to Wasps.

Sale, Saracens and Gloucester at home are broken up by a trip to Leeds, and Hanks admits that these games have been on his mind for weeks.

He said: “There is another bounce in the step this week. We’ve got some quality coming back and we’re back to the Premiership, which is what you live and die by every season.

“To say I’ve been grumpy about some of our home defeats would be an understatement. It’s really got under my skin.

“But with the injuries we’ve had we’ve done well to get where we are and be in contention. We’ve given ourselves a chance.

“We’re 11 points ahead of where we were last year, when we were starting to battle and rely on other people.

“This year it’s still very much in our hands and the next four to seven weeks are about being a contender for the title.”

To get where they want to though, Hanks thinks they will need to improve.

He said: “We’ve got to be producing rugby better than what we produced before Christmas, because teams are only going to get better and better through the season.”

But, according to Hanks, that includes Wasps and he fully expects his team to show it over the next month.

He said: “We’ve really targetted the next four games. We said after Leicester that, while we were fully committed to Europe and the LV Cup, the break was about getting a few things right in our game for the return to the Premiership.

“I think we’ve done that and we’ve made some good strides.

“The top four teams are going to lose a handful of games, but we don’t want to drop too many more and it’s a good opportunity over the next four weeks to make sure we’re in contention come the last five or six games. The next four games are really important for us.”

Wasps are currently six points behind fourth-placed London Irish and ten off the top.

A defeat to Sale would make it three losses in a row in the Premiership.

Hanks said: “We’ve really hurt losing games we shouldn’t have lost, but we’ve got a proud home record and we want to get back to winning ways.

“We’ve got good support in Wycombe and we want to reward those supporters with good performances.”