Harlequins 17-10 Wasps: Capital display by Quins

Victory over Wasps in the London derby at The Stoop took Quins, who had already beaten London Irish and Northampton since Christmas, up to fourth place in the table.

"The first half was a cracking game of rugby from both sides and then for 40 minutes of the second half we just did not have the ball, couldn't get out of our half and you credit that to Wasps," O'Shea said. "Our guys were tired and when you are defending, defending, defending, it becomes harder and harder. But we are delighted - three wins over Christmas against London Irish, Northampton and Wasps is a pretty good return for us."

And O'Shea believes his side, with 21 of yesterday's 23-man matchday squad England qualified, can only get better.

"We feel we are going to get stronger and stronger as a team this year and in years to come and we can play better rugby than we did today," he said.

"But we're where we wanted to be. We're also in the mix in the LV and the Amlin and we have a few tired bodies after this Christmas because they've given a huge amount."

Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks admitted panic cost his side their chance of stopping Quins leapfrogging them in the table.

He said: "We lacked composure a couple of times when we created breaks and opportunities. We had enough possession, our forwards did enough in terms of set-piece to give us the platform to win the game, but we forced a couple of chances and there were a couple of knock-ons.

"The last three or four minutes were disappointing for us in that we probably just panicked a little bit and were trying to score off every pass."

But he added: "It was tough conditions out there and you've got to give them credit. I thought they defended really well in that second half when we threw a lot at them."

Harlequins had done the damage with three first-half tries from Joe Marler, Mike Brown and Nick Easter and Wasps coach Shaun Edwards conceded: "Our defence wasn't good enough. Two tries came from turnovers and we didn't react quickly enough."

Moving the ball quickly from right to left, Quins created space for Marler to charge over and dive in near the flag.

Wasps hit back to take the lead five minutes later when full-back Mark van Gisbergen timed his run perfectly to link up as the extra man in the three-quarter line and provide the final pass which sent right-wing Richard Haughton racing in for a try which was duly converted by Van Gisbergen.

Harlequins responded with a wave of attacks which ended when scrum-half Danny Care, looking to regain his England starting spot from Ben Youngs, moved the ball quickly from the base of a ruck to put Brown over in the left corner. Evans converted to increase their lead to 12-7 and Harlequins went further ahead three minutes before half-time when Easter drove in through a crowd of players as Wasps defended desperately on their own line.

The visitors rallied in the second half and substitute Dave Walder kicked a penalty but that was all Wasps were able to add to their tally.

Scorers: Harlequins: Tries: Marler, Brown, Easter. Con: Evans Wasps: Try: Haughton. Con: van Gisbergen. Pen: Walder .

Harlequins: Brown; Williams, Lowe, Turner-Hall, Monye; Evans, Care; Marler, Gray, Lambert, Kohn, Robson, Guest, Robshaw, Easter. Subs: Brooker, Buchanan, Collier, Vallejos Cinalli, Skinner, Dickson, Clegg, Casson.

Wasps: van Gisbergen; Haughton, Jacobs, Kefu, Varndell; Flutey, Berry; Payne, Lindsay, Taulafo, Veale, Cannon, Birkett, Betsen Tchoua, Powell. Subs: Mayhew, Beech, Broster, Launchbury, Jones, Simpson, Walder, Lemi.

Referee: W Barnes. Att: 14,282