WASPS say that laying the blame for defeat to Northampton yesterday at the feet of referee Tim Wigglesworth is just a 'cop out'.

The official certainly did the home side few favours, appearing to penalise them at the breakdown more out of habit than anything that was actually happening on the pitch, while Saints' first try followed a pass that went forward by almost a yard.

However, Wasps are not looking for excuses following their 24-13 loss.

Director of rugby Dai Young said: "We had quite a few calls that we felt didn't go our way, but you've got to find a way to win and we didn't do that. Don't look for excuses as in referee's decisions going against us or forward passes. They're just excuses. They may be facts, but they're still excuses. We have to overcome these things."

Wasps were only four points behind when Courtney Laws threw the ball almost a yard forward in the build up to Saints' first score.

Young said: "What can I say? There's not a lot you can say. Whether it was a forward pass or not isn't in doubt in my opinion and it would be easy for me to stand here and blame the guy in the middle, but that's a cop out. He didn't help, but people make mistakes and we've got to look at ourselves first.

"We still missed tackles for them to score, we got turned over twice to give them the opportunity in the first place and in the first half we didn't take two restarts, which gave them points.

"There's no point looking for excuses, we've got to control what we can control and find a way to win. We've got a dressing room full of frustrated players who feel they were not give a fair crack - we had a couple of scrums which we thought should have been penalties against them and the players feel they didn't get the same rewards as Northampton did - but you've got to look at yourselves."

However, more damaging than the blindingly obvious forward pass was the stream of penalties against Wasps at the breakdown. Time and time again attacks were brought to an abrupt end by the referee's whistle while, defensively, it got to the stage where every Wasps tackle was immediately followed by nervous glances at the referee.

Young said: "The biggest grievance for us was the tackle area and how that was refereed, or not refereed. I have to be careful what I say, but I think some of the momentum was lost. We got killed in the tackle area."