WASPS fans might look ruefully at a marginal call in the last minute after yet another agonising Twickenham defeat on Saturday, but director of rugby Dai Young admits that would be papering over the cracks.

His team were clear underdogs before they began their Aviva Premiership campaign against Saracens, and were living up to the role as they trailed 20-6 at the interval.

However, they’d actually dominated their fancied opponents for much of the first 40, and their superiority told on the scoreline after the break when they ran in three quick tries to lead 28-20.

Not for the first time though, they succumbed to a dizzy spell after reaching the top.

Young said: “It’s getting a little bit tiresome saying the same thing week in and week out; we struggle with an 80 minute performance and have done for 12 months.

“Our first 40 just wasn’t good enough. We had most of the territory and almost all of the possession but we failed to cause them problems and came in with a mountain to climb.

“That was the story of last season.”

“In the second half we played some really good stuff for 35 minutes. We delivered what we talked about and with three minutes to go we had it in our hands.”

By then their lead had been cut to a point by David Strettle’s second try, but Wasps were within a few yards of the Saracens line and their pack had the ball in their hands.

Young said: “We were deep inside their 22 and only had to keep the ball. But we got a little bit isolated when we didn’t need to. We should have kept more patience and composure.

“We committed suicide.”

Despite that though, they might still have escaped with victory had they been on the right end of a TMO decision at the death.

Strettle went over in the corner but the ball bobbled out of his grasp as he slid for the line under Elliot Daly’s last-gasp tackle.

Despite almost a dozen replays, it was unclear if he’d applied downward pressure and a try that looked a foregone conclusion in real time suddenly had a huge question mark.

When David Sainsbury eventually found in favour of Saracens his decision was greeted with a chorus of boos.

Young said: “I didn’t agree with it. There were two decisions I felt didn’t go our way – I thought the first try was a bit of a push [Strettle on Rob Miller] “But let’s not point to that. We’ve we’ve got to look at ourselves. We’ve got to be big enough to accept that.

“That’s the champion team Sarries are. Any opportunities they get they’ll take and that’s what we’ve got to try to emulate if we want to be up there.

“That’s how clinical we have to be.

“With regards TMOs, some will go with you and some will go against you.

“I’m certainly not going to sit here and say we lost because of a poor decision.

“It could’ve gone either way. It didn’t go our way but we shouldn’t have been in that position.

“And it wouldn’t be a London Double Header if we didn’t lose the game in the last minute.”