Conor O'Shea has paid tribute to his largely second-string Harlequins side that swept aside Wasps in their LV= Cup clash on Sunday.
Director of rugby delighted with second string performance
Harlequins boss Conor O'Shea has paid tribute to his largely second-string side that swept aside Wasps in their LV= Cup clash in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Quins were missing Danny Care and Nick Easter on England duty, and Mike Brown, Joe Marler, Chris Robshaw, Ugo Monye and George Robson with the Saxons for the historic showdown.
But that made no difference to O'Shea's men, who dominated their London rivals and left the director of rugby delighted with his side's display.
"On a day like today, when the conditions are like they are, you can get a few tries, which we did," he told
Sky Sports.
"We're really happy with the performance. Seven guys away between England and England Saxons, another 14 injured, I thought the guys did really well tonight."
"We were clinical in the first half. We played the game the way it should have been played and we created opportunities.
"Defensively we came up hard, we scrambled well towards the end. I'm just really proud of the way the guys are going about their business at the moment."
Angry
Asked about the impressive recent form that sees Quins unbeaten in eight games in all competitions, O'Shea insisted they were not getting carried away.
"If you take your eye off the ball, it can be lost very quickly," he added. "There's a great buzz when you're winning games.
"We know that there was a lot we didn't do right, but there was a lot we did really well - and that's what we focus on."
Wasps were also without a number of key players, with England stars Joe Simpson, Simon Shaw, Joe Worsley, Riki Flutey and Tim Payne all missing.
But director of rugby Tony Hanks refused to use their absence from his line-up as an excuse for the below-par display.
"I'm angry and frustrated," he told
Sky Sports. "The try before half-time was a bit of a killer.
"We came out trying to play catch-up rugby and we're guilty of forcing stuff that we wouldn't normally do."
"We've fallen back into the pattern we had at the beginning of the season - performing one week and not the next. We've got to keep working at it, building confidence.
"The guys trained really well this week, and that's the frustrating thing."
