HARLEQUINS 33, WASPS 17.

AFTER the week they've had, Monday morning can't come soon enough for Wasps.

It all looked rosy after they beat Gloucester in their last Premiership match – but since then they've lost in a European quarter-final, their owner has been arrested, their take over deal has collapsed and everyone at the club is operating under a genuine fear that administration will cost them their jobs this summer.

It's a wonder they even got out of bed this morning, because a trip to the title-hunting Premiership leaders wasn't exactly the tonic they needed and after 20 minutes they must have wished they'd pulled their duvets up a little higher when the alarm rang.

The score was only 11-3 to Harlequins, but the contest was as one-sided as any Wasps have played in this season and with an hour to go there was already a sense that it was a case of how many for the hosts.

Rory Clegg had banged over two penalties to go with an Ugo Monye try to put them in control, and their lead would have been greater had they went for points instead of position with a couple more penalties won in a muscle-flexing opening quarter.

In response, Nick Robinson had claimed three points of his own after eight minutes, but even that was a bolt out of the blue as Wasps had had no territory to speak of and even less possession.

To continue a now familiar black and gold trend, the injury net had by then scooped up Ryan Davis - a ten wearing 12 with Riki Flutey, Dom Waldouck and Chris Bell sidelined - and when George Robson thundered over before the half hour to make it 16-3 the away fans could have been forgiven for slipping away quietly.

If they stayed though, they'd have seen a quite unbelievable half time score.

With five minutes of the half remaining Wade shot through from Robinson's inside offload to touch down his 12th try of the season and eighth in the Premiership to go level with Sale's Rob Miller at the top of try-scoring charts.

Robinson added the extras and with Quins snubbing a potential ten points from the tee the margin was only six points on the scoreboard.

On the pitch it looked at least treble that – Sam Jones and Joe Launchbury had worked tirelessly to slow down Quins through the middle and out wide, despite the home team working overlaps time and again, a combination of poor decisions and at least one try-saving tackle from Tom Varndell had frustrated them repeatedly.

There was also a stand-out Jack Wallace tackle on Mike Brown in full flow.

But all these moments were simply delaying mechanisms.

The chasm between the sides was absolutely immense and Clegg had missed his third kick of the afternoon by the time Chris Robshaw trotted under the posts soon after the restart.

The conversion made it 23-10 and when Jordan Turner-Hall added try number four to go with five more points from the boot of Clegg, the game was well and truly done.

Quins withdrew their big hitters and with the pressure on Wasps' jugular slightly relieved they sprung back to life with Ross Filipo going over after 40m darts from Wade and then Charlie Davies.

It was never going to ignite a comeback though, and if there is any more room left in the doom drawer Wasps fans can shove Newcastle's result in the space - the Falcons beat Gloucester to cut the gap at the bottom to four points.