NORTHAMPTON 39, WASPS 3.

WASPS' brave new world will have to wait a little longer.

Tony Hanks might have gone but the ability to fold in on themselves in adversity still remains and all pretensions of a top-four finish can now be conclusively scrubbed out after a second hammering in a season at the hands of Northampton Saints.

Preparations for the black and golds were disrupted by a spate of centre injuries, but that can't sweep aside a first half performance that had Wasps fans watching through their fingers.

By the time the half-time whistle went Wasps had conceded three tries, were 22-3 down and not even Josh Lewsey's name among the list of replacements could provide much comfort to their fans.

Strangely though, they actually began fairly well and for the first ten minutes look full of vim. But Wasps' confidence this year is built on a house of cards and all too often the first thing that goes against them is the thing that bursts the balloon.

This time it was a try that wasn't. Steve Kefu was the culprit with less than ten minutes on the clock and the score at 3-0 to Saints, but with the line gaping ten yards in front of him the outgoing centre plodded towards it from Dave Walder's offload in third gear.

Northampton got back when they should have got nowhere near and, to cap it off, Kefu then lost the ball forwards in the tackle.

Just minutes later Northampton showed no such uncertainty to charge over for their first score and, after a penalty try had put them in control, the outcome was virtually settled when England full back Ben Foden out-paced Joe Simpson and Richard Haughton – neither of whom are slower than him – in the final moments of the first half.

That made it 22-3 and after that the final 40 minutes was just a case of winding down the clock and trying to deny Saints a bonus point, which they couldn't.

Lewsey did get his first run out as he came on after 70 minutes to applause from all four sides of the ground. But this isn't what he came out of retirement for and, in this game and this season, the time to have an influence has gone.

But it all looked so different 90 minutes earlier.

Wasps were hindered by a hamstring injury to Ben Jacobs and their centre options shrunk further when Dom Waldouck pulled out in the warm up.

Despite that the black and golds were sprightly early on and after Stephen Myler had given the home team the lead with an early penalty it was the visitors who made the early running.

Rob Webber was back at hooker and he and John Hart were both prominent in the move that should have brought about the first try.

Their muscular efforts earned some valuable yards in centre field before Nic Berry danced away from trouble to feed Walder.

The fly half looked outside him where three runners were in the gates, but a step infield cut Saints open and when Foden came across an offload to Kefu gave the centre a clear run in from inside ten yards.

Fans were already celebrating, but Kefu never got out of third gear and Paul Diggen made him pay with a telling tackle a yard short.

Walder did get Wasps' first points with the boot a moment later after good work from the pack, but three points should have been seven and when Brian Mujati finished off a fine attack barely a minute later, barrelling over in the corner where Simpson was, Kefu must have felt the pain more than anyone else in a black and gold jersey.

Myler rubbed it in with a touchline conversion and with almost a quarter gone Wasps were 10-3 down.

Kefu might have had an excuse – not long afterwards he limped off with heavy strapping around his thigh – but that doesn't wash on the scoreboard and his exit exposed a gaping wound in the Wasps squad.

Without Jacobs and Waldouck and not wanting to risk Josh Lewsey for an hour, it was left to inexperienced full back Jack Wallace to fill in at centre.

Hardly ideal, but that had no bearing on the next try Wasps conceded – a penalty try after they brought down a scrum on their own line – and with Myler adding the extras from in front of the posts a match that had been pretty even for ten minutes was quickly turning into a landslide.

Typifying the way things had turned sour for Wasps, Richard Haughton provided a rare moment of hope when he made 40 yards with a fluid burst through the Saints line. But he was isolated, the ball was lost and while he was trotting back a Saints pass arrowed into his shins.

Penalty.

Saints kicked for touch instead of taking three points and from that attacking line out kept Wasps pinned in their own half for the rest of the period.

It shouldn't have cost Wasps though. With Joe Worsley immense, they survived the ten minutes to the break and were just about ready to limp away to regroup when Saints applied the coup de grace.

Again, it shouldn't have happened. Foden is probably no quicker than Haughton and he is certainly slower than Simpson but he beat both to his own grubber and the match was over.

Chris Ashton touched down Northampton's bonus point try in the second half and Stuart Commins ploughed over at the death to complete the 39-3 hammering.

After the Adams Park debacle last October, that's an accumulated score of 76-13. Ouch.