Wasps slump to Glasgow defeat to leave Cup hopes in balance

With Wasps' chances of advancing to the quarter-finals of the competition now hanging by a thread Hanks was left to rue his side's abject showing.

Hanks sees his side trailing Pool Six leaders and holders Toulouse by six points after failing to take a bonus point against Glasgow.

Wasps face Toulouse at home on Sunday and Hanks knows it is a tall order to qualify. He said: "We've made it very difficult to get through; we're most likely going to have to rely on other results.

"We've let down the fans that came up to Glasgow. There's a good crowd coming to next week's match, at the minimum we have to respond for them.

"I've said to the players that we can't sit around sulking, we have to front up next week."

He continued: "We came to win, full of ambition. Bad days come along and today we timed a poor day really badly. But I don't want to take anything away from Glasgow who are a good, well coached side."

Referring to the fact that Glasgow's hopes of qualifying had already gone Hanks said: "You know what 'playing for pride' means."

Glasgow's success came at the end of a testing period where they had an extended visit to Toulouse because of travel difficulties caused by bad weather followed by an away game at Munster.

Glasgow lost narrowly yo Munster in a game much influenced by the referee and coach Sean Lineen chose to link those events to his side's win yesterday. He said: "It's been a challenging month and a bit. You can feel sorry for yourself or make something happen – the Glasgow players chose the latter. The players kept the faith and got their reward today."

Lineen had words of praise for his pack that gave Wasps a difficult time.

"That platform allowed scrum half Colin Gregor (Glasgow's try-scorer) to get better and better."

Lineen also picked out two first season professionals from the back row for praise – man of the match Ryan Wilson and Robert Harley.

Lineen also highlighted the contribution of squad winger Colin Shaw who came in for unavailable high-scoring winger TDH Van Der Merwe.

"He set up the try with a great step inside and then a nice wee pass to Gregor."

London Irish brought their losing run to an end with a deserved 24-12 victory over Ospreys that damages the Welsh team's Heineken Cup ambitions.

Irish went into the game looking to end a run of 10 consecutive defeats, their worst in four years, and tries from Sailosi Tagicakibau and Topsy Ojo saw them do so.

And there was further bad news for Ospreys, and Wales ahead of the Six Nations, with Adam Jones taken off at half-time after suffering what looked like an injury to his left shoulder when a scrum collapsed.

Munster failed to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup for the first time in 13 years after slumping to a 32-16 defeat in Toulon. Half-back Jonny Wilkinson finished with 22 points.

On Saturday, Leciester beat Scarlets 32-18, Bath hammered Aironi Rugby 55-16 while Saracens lost 43-20 against Leinster.