Saints coach rues too many errors

Round-up: Northampton coach Paul Grayson admitted his side gifted Biarritz too much of a head start as the French side ran out 22-10 winners. Last season's losing Heineken Cup finalists stormed to a 22-3 lead after 45 minutes and Grayson's men came up short despite a spirited fightback.

The Saints coach said: "We simply made too many mistakes in the first half and Biarritz graciously accepted the chances we gave them.

"We made all the mistakes we said we wouldn't make. In the second half, we said we would put the squeeze on them, and we did. We just lacked a bit of composure and firepower behind the scrum."

Fijian winger Sereli Bobo wreaked havoc in the first spell, scoring two tries and coming close to a hat-trick, and Grayson admitted: "Bobo was a nuisance out there. He's a big fellow and he's quick, but we're still disappointed we gave him space.

"It was a great performance to come back from 22-3 down. Once they got out to three scores ahead we could have thrown in the towel. But we were spurred on by our travelling fans and we fought back to put ourselves in with a chance of a bonus point.

"We're kicking ourselves pretty hard for not getting it. Not many teams will get anything out of a trip to Biarritz this season."

Grayson, whose side are in one of the easier pools in the competition, said he was confident of making the final eight, with matches against Border Reivers and Overmach Rugby Parma coming up.

"Our last game is against Biarritz at home, and I would love to go into that match having put ourselves in a position where qualification for the next round rests on our performance."

Wasps coach Ian McGeechan believes his side are learning how to "win ugly" after they hung on for a 19-13 win in their opening Heineken Cup game against Castres at Adams Park.

English sides have struggled in the Heineken Cup this weekend, with Sale, Gloucester and London Irish all falling to foreign opposition.

Wasps might have gone the same way - as they did in their pool game at Edinburgh last season - had replacement fly-half Alex King not come on to close out a win set up by Paul Sackey's first-half try, 11 points from the boot of Jeremy Staunton and a late penalty by Mark van Gisbergen.

They dug in successfully and Castres were unable to add to prop Akventsi Giorgadze's 45th-minute try and a conversion and two penalties from former Scotland fly-half Gordon Ross.

McGeechan said: "We know there are things we want to do better and it was ugly, but we stuck in there. In the first half we got the control we needed, but in the second the conditions deteriorated and we didn't have that control.

"We had to play for 25 minutes in our own 22 and apart from one moment - and the players aren't sure about their try - we held up well.

"We didn't fear it (another Edinburgh) because our discipline was good and in the last 10 minutes we didn't give the initiative back to them. In previous games, we might have done that."

The victory sets up the prospect of an epic clash next Saturday away at Perpignan, who opened their campaign by claiming a bonus point from a 25- 10 win against Pool One makeweights Treviso.

Wasps may have to go there without Josh Lewsey, who limped off after 55 minutes with a hamstring injury that will have worried England coach Andy Robinson as he prepares to name a 30-strong squad for the autumn internationals this week.