WASPS lost their first ever match at the Ricoh Arena after they were beaten 26-17 by fellow play-off hopefuls Saracens.
In front of another large crowd of over 16,000, Wasps enjoyed their best start to a match for some time and took a 17-3 lead thanks to two superb individual tries from Christian Wade and Elliot Daly.
Coventry-born Andy Goode added the extra points from the conversions and also scored a penalty to put Wasps seemingly in control.
But Saracens took control and the hosts found themselves camped inside their own half for most of the second period as the visitors clocked up 23 unanswered points.
“We’re frustrated and disappointed.” said Wasps’ director of Rugby Dai Young. “We knew what to expect coming into this game.
“Saracens play a simple yet effective game plan – kick the ball in the air and chase really hard and during the first 20 minutes we defused their bombs. If you diffuse them, you can play off them, which was the case for the first 25 minutes.
“Certainly after that we struggled and failed to deal with their aerial bombardment.
“There are things we need to get right initially like the set piece and our patterns, but we know when we get those basics right we have individuals who can light up stadiums.
“We still have plenty of things to work on and we know that. Saracens are a unique team to play. They don’t play a lot of rugby, so they also don’t make a lot of mistakes. You know what’s coming and you have to match it. Today we didn’t do that.”
A second defeat in their last eight league matches sees Wasps fall back down to sixth in the Premiership table ahead of the trip to Northampton Saints on March 29.
Young added: “We are working hard to be the team we all want to be and our target hasn’t changed from the start of the season – to be a top six team this season, which we can build on next season.
“We’re still in that battle, although we’re obviously disappointed not to have come away with another win today.
“There’s still a lot of rugby to be played, a lot of points to be won or lost, so we just move forward. The next match will bring different challenges, going to Northampton, so it doesn’t get any easier.”
