Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan was unhappy with the 26-14 loss at Irish, but counterpart Toby Booth was delighted.
Wasps stage late rally to no avail
Wasps director of rugby Ian McGeechan was unhappy after the Guinness Premiership champions started their title defence with a 26-14 loss at London Irish.
Irish raced to an unassailable lead before Wasps showed some sting with final-quarter tries from Tom Rees and Eoin Reddan.
But McGeechan felt poor refereeing then cost Wasps a bonus point when a late penalty try was not awarded for Peter Hewat's tug on Joe Worsley.
A disappointed McGeechan said: "In the end we could have scored three tries. The touch judge had put his flag down.
"When your attacker is pulled back by the last defender, it's a pretty strong argument for a penalty try.
"I don't know who made the decision, whether it was the touch judge or referee, but the advice was wrong.
"We came back well, scoring two good tries and if we had got one there we would have had the bonus point.
"Irish were hanging on at the end but when you have built up that sort of lead it doesn't really matter.
"A bonus point would have been fair reward for our endeavour in the second half."
Wasps clearly missed their talisman Lawrence Dallaglio, who retired last season, but did not make life easy for themselves as Irish forwards Chris Hala'ufia and Richard Thorpe plundered soft tries at the lineout to help the home side register a convincing victory.
McGeechan added: "We have to make the most of the times when we have the whole squad together but we didn't do that today.
"It was a sub-standard performance and we're all very disappointed. We conceded a couple of easy scores."
Booth satisfied
Irish director of rugby Toby Booth was as satisfied by not conceding a bonus point as the result itself.
"If we had been more clinical we could have been further in front at times," he said.
"Wasps came back at us and you expect that from them so to show the mentality to shut them out was fantastic.
"We're trying to get tougher in terms of our mindset so to deny them the bonus point was very pleasing.
"That was as an encouraging display as we could have asked for at this stage of the season.
"Sometimes denying the opposition a bonus point is as important as securing yours, so we're very pleased."
