TONY Hanks admits losing tonight’s Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final to Cardiff Blues has left him feeling empty.

Wasps were beaten 18-15 but the difference between the sides was greater than three points.

He said: “We wanted to respond after last week’s defeat and we were desperate to make the final.

“It’s a bit of an empty feeling at the moment and we have got to make sure we learn from this. We’re not going to enjoy watching the final.

“We want to be playing in finals, but people have to understand how blooming tough it is to make finals and win trophies.

“I don’t think you can question the effort. Sometimes you don’t get the result, but it wasn’t through lack of effort.”

Wasps had less than a third of the possession in the game, and in wet conditions possession and territory count for everything.

Hanks said: “In the first half I thought we managed the game pretty well and coped with the conditions.

“But we just didn’t have enough of the ball and lacked field position to launch any meaningful attacks “They got the better of the field position and in those conditions that allows you to dictate terms and ultimately the scoreboard.

“Let’s give them some credit though. Their experienced players, the guys you’d expect to perform, really did and a try count of 2-0 suggests they probably deserved to win.

“They made sure they hurt us when we made mistakes. I don’t think we made a lot, but when we did they capitalised on them.”

Despite being outplayed for most of the 80 minutes, Wasps were always in the match and three minutes from time Dave Walder lined up a long, touchline penalty which could have made it 18-18.

Hanks said: “It was a long kick and overall Dave kicked really well in the conditions.

“You saw how difficult it was. Ben Blair is a pretty good goal kicker and he struggled, so by no means do we look at the game and put it all on Dave’s penalty.”

But if that was a key moment, the match swung on the second-half sin-binning of Simon Shaw.

Wasps were 12-8 in front when the England lock left the field. When he returned they were 18-12 down.

Hanks said: “Cardiff also lost a player, but losing Shawsy did hurt. He’s pretty important to us and you don’t just fill the void for ten minutes.”