Hanks accused his players of losing their composure when, he felt, they could have seen off their oldest rivals in this Aviva Premiership Rugby clash.

Hanks said:"We were good for a while, but then got bogged down during the second half and did not show composure under pressure and did not respect the ball enough. By our standards, that performance was not good enough. Yes, we start the season with two points and showed character to come back when they seemed to have nicked it late on.

"But we came here to win a rugby match, and at one point in the game we were ahead and in control."

A little happier was Wales number eight Andy Powell, not mentioned in the match programme, but scorer of a 23rd-minute try on his Wasps debut.

The Welsh powerhouse said: "I know I should be really thrilled, but while scoring was a great start to my Wasps career, I'm disappointed we did not win as we had control of the game for crucial periods. It's an amazing experience, the double header, and you usually only play in front of 75,000 crowds at Test level.

"I think we left a win behind us there, but we'll take all the positives from the performance."

Harlequins rugby director Conor O'Shea was more laid back about the outcome, admitting that while they were ahead with four minutes left, it could also have gone very wrong.

He said: "The players put a huge amount into that game, which is nothing less than you would expect. I'm concerned that we got penalised a lot at the breakdown, and that is something we have to analyse. But we also came under a lot of pressure and the guys stood firm much if the time. In the end, it was a very good day."

Quins and England number eight Nick Easter admitted: "It was a very stop-start game for a time, but ended up a really good spectacle for the fans. But while we finished all square, I still feel we should have seen it out having taken the lead with minutes to go.

"If, as we do, you seek to win things, you can't be totally satisfied with a share of the points."