London Wasps were stretched beyond breaking point as a 32-10 defeat at Harlequins left them only one point off the bottom of the Guiness Premiership.

With nine of their top players away on international duty, Wasps were outplayed and director of rugby Ian McGeechan admitted the situation was getting serious.

"It does make a difference when the experienced players aren't there," he said. "We know we always have the biggest challenge when international rugby is on."

But McGeechan claimed his side should have done better against a Harlequins outfit whose win took them up to second in the table.

"We missed too many tackles in the first half and had a mountain to climb after that.

"The players stuck at it and did better in the second half but we have to do it for 80 minutes.

"There were a lot of easy points given away - six penalties. We will look at what we are doing. At the moment we aren't happy with some of the things."

Reflecting on Wasps' league position, he said: "No other team is going to help us. We have to concentrate on what we are doing and make sure we are competitive and accurate, which we weren't in the first half."

His Harlequins counterpart Dean Richards, with five potential starters on international duty and half a dozen injured, had to make another change two hours before kick-off when winger Seb Stegmann dropped out with flu.

But the reshuffle in the backs resulted in Nick Evans switching to full-back from fly-half for his injury-delayed home debut. The move panned our well, with the former All Black contributing 19 points - including a stunning first-half try.

But Richards said: "It wasn't just about him and his finishing. It was the quality of the rugby that led up to it.

"Our scrum dominated their theirs, which must have been disappointing for them.

"The brand of rugby we are playing at the moment gives you an idea of the feeling in the camp."

Gloucester got their title challenge back on track with a 25-21 victory over Saracens, for whom the defeat was the first at home this season, while London Irish beat Newcastle 24-8 at Kingston Park.