I CANNOT describe the frustration we feel after letting a commanding lead slip away on Saturday afternoon.

I am sure everyone who witnessed the final 20 minutes of the match against Harlequins shares our feelings.

We must now review the game, correct our errors and pick ourselves up for the arrival of Northampton Saints on Friday night.

Personally, I felt we played well for the most part. Defensively, we looked very comfortable and our enthusiasm was spot on.

I believe Nick Evans to be one of the best fly-halves in world rugby (closely behind Danny Gray, Joe Carlisle and Andy Goode, of course) and to see him run out of ideas after four or five phases was a huge credit to our defence.

We let ourselves down with a system error leading to Sam Smith’s try, but those responsible will hold their hands up and correct it for next time.

The effort and undying commitment we showed when pegged back on our line are huge positives we can take from the match.

Elsewhere, we looked pretty good going forward with the ball. Harlequins have conceded the fewest tries and the least points this season, yet through good pressure we managed to force four kicked penalties and a drop-goal, while only conceding three points ourselves.

We do still have issues with keeping hold of the ball for multi-phases and this needs addressing if we want to score tries.

However, teams won’t give away a kickable penalty unless they are either very dull, or they feel a team has a good chance of scoring in the next few phases.

Cutting out our handling errors will result in more scoring opportunities and, if we win a penalty from our attack, we have the men to kick the points.

Save for our first-half scrum domination, the pack will be disappointed with our set-piece accuracy. Quins are renowned for their ability to disrupt their opposing line-out; true to form that’s exactly what they did.

I know the forwards will sit down and look at what went wrong and why. I have every confidence they will put things right for the visit of Saints on Friday.

The boys up front went through a massive amount of work and it makes our lives in the backs that much better to have these guys putting in the hard graft.

It was a great shame to see Kai Horstmann being helped off the pitch with a hamstring injury. He had a superb game and was missed as soon as he crossed the touchline. I wish him a speedy recovery.

With Kai out, there is a spot up for grabs, so it’s up to the back-row boys to put their hands up and fill his very large boots.

We have a few options in this department, all of which have exciting possibilities. We may see a glimpse of our newest recruit, Rich Muagututia, sooner than first thought in first-team action. With Adam Balding, Matt Kvesic and Sam Betty waiting in the wings, competition will be fierce.

Northampton will come to Sixways on Friday night looking to kick-start their season with a good win away from home. We have other ideas.

Friday night presents a real opportunity to get that second win of the season and begin our climb up the table.

The Saints have had, by their standards, a poor start to the campaign and miss the edge their absent World Cup players provide.

Despite all this, we are under no illusions — Saints will be a very tough team to beat. If we can string together the good aspects from our previous matches, add in some continuity and a clinical edge, then the Saints will need something special to stop us.

One thing’s for sure, Friday night will be a great game. Under the lights at Sixways the atmosphere is always special. Please come along and drown out ‘Oh When The Saints’!