IF Wasps were the side they hope to become they’d have won this match with little drama, instead it was another case of the should haves as they lost 26-23 to Harlequins.

Harlequins were a team on the ropes after losing 39-0 to Saracens the last time they played on this ground and for the first half today they were there for the taking.

Wasps though, were lacklustre and careless and although they reached the interval 13-9 in front the intensity that underpinned their win over Saints last weekend was non-existent.

They did score the game’s first try, but individual errors and a general lack of bite kept inviting their hosts back and eventually they came – scoring twice in a telling spell at the start of the second half and then locking arms to see the game out.

Wasps though, will be hugely irritated with themselves.

The talk before this game was all about backing up their heroic display against Northampton but, until it was too late, this was most certainly a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show.

The signs were there from the start, as Wasps kept losing momentum with a string of penalties out of range of the posts and also blowing hot and cold in the set piece.

But when they got it right with 15 minute gone they sliced through Quins.

A raking Andy Goode kick to the corner gave them the platform they needed and Tom Varndell provided the incision when he sidestepped half the Quins defence in a lateral run from left to right.

The ball eventually went wide to Elliot Daly, and he just about stayed in touch before feeding Guy Thompson inside him, who had the gas to get home from the 22.

Goode converted for 7-0, but Wasps were still struggling to eradicate the mistakes that kept inviting Quins onto them and two penalties in the next ten minutes made it 7-6.

Goode cancelled them out with two penalties of his own after 30 and 37 minutes - either side of another kick off the tee that hit an upright - and the sense remained that Wasps could make light work of it if they could find their game.

It remained patchy though.

Ben Botica landed his third kick with the last act of the half, and Wasps went down the tunnel 13-9 in front when anything like last weekend’s performance would have been enough to run roughshod over their hosts.

But it only got worse after the interval with two tries in ten minutes turning the game completely on its head.

Danny Care chips created them both but on each occasion Wasps were their own worst enemies.

First Christian Wade failed to gather cleanly in the in-goal area to allow Chris Robshaw to score the easiest try of his life, and then Kearnan Myall was yellow-carded for a trip on the England scrum half as he tried to race onto his own kick.

Referee JP Doyle awarded a penalty try anyway, and suddenly Wasps, who had been in cruise control, were 23-13 down and a man light.

It was a catastrophic loss of focus; a game that had been meandering had suddenly been snatched away from them and with 25 minutes to go they had a mountain to climb.

An audacious drop goal from Care only sharpened the include, but a belated injection of life came from the bench as Jake Cooper-Woolley, Thomas Young, Ashley Johnson, James Gaskell and Leius Alapati all came on in quick succession.

And it was the latter who sparked an immediate response as he hunted down Mike Brown in his own 22, Wasps snatched the ball back and Joe Simpson burst through a gap to send Varndell over.

Goode’s conversion went wide but, trailing 26-18 with 15 minutes left, Wasps finally found the urgency that had been missing for most of the match.

Their third try came with 77 minutes on the clock when Young was driven over, but it all felt a bit like firefighting by that stage.

Again Goode’s conversion was wide to leave it at 26-23, and those three missed kicks from Goode began to really stick in the gut.