WASPS will spend another week naval gazing after slumping to a 25-14 defeat in Sale this afternoon that owed an awful lot to their own shortcomings.

Apart from gifting their hosts a try in the first half, Wasps appeared bereft of idea when they had possession – and they had enough of it to amass substantially more than 14 points.

But two converted tries was their only reward despite long periods camped inside the Sale 22 while, at the other end of the field, Sale didn’t have to work anywhere near hard enough for their points.

Next week’s opponents Bath will be hoping this is the Wasps team that turns up next weekend.

The build up to this match was dominated by speculation of Wasps’ long-term future off the pitch.

Internet forums have been swamped with debate about a potential move to Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, with many supporters of the black and golds unimpressed at the prospect of the club moving even further away from their traditional London base.

Fans from Bucks were also concerned, with questions raised about the financial impact a Wasps move away from Adams Park would have on Wycombe Wanderers.

On the pitch though, Wasps’ future looks solid – despite this result - with Dai Young emphasising the depth of talent available to him by naming a squad that didn’t include Elliot Daly, Joe Launchbury, Tom Varndell or James Haskell.

Welsh international Bradley Davies was included on the bench for the first time since his summer signing from Cardiff, alongside fellow internationals Matt Mullan, Lorenzo Cittadini, Andrea Masi and Sailosi Tagicakibau.

They could have done with some of that muscle in the opening minutes as Sale established field position deep inside Wasps’ 22 and then let their forwards try to barge through.

They couldn’t do it, but they softened up Wasps enough to create an overlap for Tom Arscott.

Danny Cipriaini’s conversion attempt was wide, and gradually Wasps eased themselves into with Christian Wade nearly skipping through on the touchline and then Will Helu threatening from Nathan Hughes’ offload.

The pressure was mounting though, and after kicking a series of penalties to the corner, drawing a yellow card for Sale lock Michael Paterson, they got their reward when Hughes barrelled over.

Andy Goode converted to make it 7-5 and in this nip and tuck match Wasps looked to be taking that slender lead to the interval.

However, a harsh yellow card for Helu for taking out Tom Brady in the air handed the initiative back to the hosts, and they made it count with a try from scrum half Chris Cusiter after 36 minutes.

Wasps did it to themselves though, with a succession of errors opening the door for Sharks.

First Charlie Davies was charged down behind the scrum and then, when the ball bounced into Wasps’ in goal area, Wade spilled it trying to touch it down.

It was a repeat of his Harlequins howler, and Cipriani’s conversion made it 12-7 at the break.

It would have been even worse for Wasps had their former playmaker not missed four first half kicks out of five.

He went some way to making up for it with a drop goal and penalty after 43 and 49 minutes to stretch the lead to 18-7, and with little spark about them Wasps were slowly being dropped off the back.

It didn’t help that James Gaskell’s try-scoring pass sailed over Guy Thompson’s head when did mount a concerted attack, and to pep things up Young turned to his bench.

Mullan, Davies, Simpson and Sam Jones were all introduced for the final 25 minutes, and Cittadini followed soon afterwards.

But it wasn’t clicking.

Simpson’s tap and go made ground but he lacked support, Miller weaved inside but Wasps were penalised for blocking and even their trusted line out drive failed them when the unusually fallible Ashley Johnson dropped the ball.

The final throw of the dice saw Masi on at full back, with Miller moving to fly half for the final 15 minutes.

And the reward was almost instantaneous; concerted pressure led to Wade wriggling through and Miller’s conversion made it 18-14 with more than ten minutes to go.

But while it was attack against defence for the next seven minutes, Wasps were one-paced and didn’t really threaten to break Sale.

Instead, it was the hosts who wrapped it up when they caught Wasps dead on their feet in defence to send Tom Brady over.

Cipriani’s conversion wrapped up another forlorn trip north for Wasps.