Dwelling on stinging defeat will cost us – says Mathie

Yesterday’s humbling at Adams Park left Leeds Carnegie at the foot of the table with two games to go.

Newcastle Falcons reclaimed the higher ground of 11th place with a losing bonus point against Northampton last Friday and with an extra game to play, Alan Tait’s side are now the favourites.

The momentum Leeds gained from defeating Newcastle at Kingston Park nine days ago was blown away by Wasps, but scrum-half Mathie insists Leeds still have a chance if they put their full focus into defeating Harlequins at Headingley Carnegie next Sunday.

“Looking at the results this weekend it doesn’t really reflect well on us but it is far from over,” said South Africa-born No 9.

“Come tomorrow we’ll have brushed this defeat off. The boys will have to suffer the disappointment of Wasps while we go through the review process but come training time, everything has to be positive.

“We’ve now got a massive home game against Harlequins. We’ve been really confident at home in recent weeks, won two of our last three, and we’ve got to give it our full effort.

“All the pressure is on Newcastle. If we win next week then we’re back in the strongest position. Newcastle have still to play Leicester and they’re chasing a title so that’s not going to be easy.

“The bottom line is it requires a win from us and if we dwell on this Wasps defeat, we won’t be ready for Harlequins.”

Despite starting promisingly at Wasps, Leeds were brushed aside by the free-running Londoners who ran in seven tries.

Mathie, 28, said: “After winning at Newcastle it’s really upsetting. We didn’t capitalise on our territory and we struggled to get into their half. They scored a couple of tries off our mistakes.

“We didn’t play our territory well enough and it’s a big ask to come from 20 points behind because you’re always chasing, forcing issues.

“It wasn’t over-confidence on our part. You always know you’re going to be up against international-quality players when you come to Wasps.”