As their fourth placed league position suggests, Harlequins supporters have seen a good start to their season compared to other years, unlike Wasps who surprisingly found themselves spending two days at the foot of the Premiership last weekend, however some things never change for Mr Copsey.

Last weeks match televised live by Sky was billed as a battle of two form teams, with both Bath Rugby and Harlequins having made excellent starts to the season. Spectators looked on bemused as the teams took the field, Quins in their “white” away shirts and a motley selection of Bath's players, all sporting moustaches, who looked as if they had just returned from a Village People convention. I understand that the growths were in aid of a charity however the Bath teams’ charity was not to be extended to their guests, as after the match, it was clear that Harlequins’ fairy tale start of the season appears to have been written by the Brothers Grimm. With only one win at the Rec since 1999, and having lost four away games from the end of last season we all wonder whether we are we heading for another season where we are unable to reproduce a home performance for vital away matches. It was clear that the team was not fully awake for their early start, so it just as well it is sensible 3.00pm kick off this saturday. Five games in and Quins have won all their home matches but have now lost twice on the road.

In his after match interview, Dean Richards was clearly disappointed with the performance; “Bath had been a lot more streetwise, in the first 20 minutes we didn't defend particularly well but we did show a lot of endeavour. Although we were only 15-7 down at half-time we just didn't compete. It's fair to say, across the board, that the boys didn't play as well as they could do. It's difficult to pick up points away from home and the Bath pack was very experienced. I'll be very disappointed if we don't learn from today. The guys are very honest with themselves, realising that certain responsibilities are theirs and they can't be passed on to others but the average age is only 24 while Bath had a lot of experienced players in their line-up and I think that showed." That disappointment extended across the supporter base this week, and there has been a lot of debate about their performance, and what is needed to put behind them and produce the results that we all expect and want to see. Have Quins turned that corner?

Currently in fourth place, Harlequins ignored their opportunity to remain in second place by losing at Bath. As the other results came in, Sunday produced surprise defeats for Leicester and Newcastle which produced a better League position than I had expected, as I felt sure that the loss would have sent us down in sixth place. So perhaps our glass remains half full, rather than half empty. My London Irish colleague at work appeared positively suicidal about his team’s performance on Monday morning and kept repeating it is going to be a long, long season, especially as they face Gloucester this weekend.

Harlequins have won eight of their last nine home matches in the Guinness Premiership in 2007, ironically their only loss being against Wasps back in March. In contrast Wasps have had an appalling start to their Premiership Season, and are clearly missing their "galaxy of stars" who have helped England in their magnificent defence of the Webb Ellis trophy, and it would be churlish not to congratulate them on their achievement and we will be supporting them again, in their white shirts on Saturday night.

Wasps gained their first Guinness Premiership victory since April in beating London Irish on Sunday London and moved themselves up from the lower reaches of the table with their 28-14 win. Tries from Skivington and Cipriani helped Wasps into a 15-9 lead and Tom Voyce added another try just two minutes into the second half. Although missing a lot of heavy weight players, Wasps are still able to field a string side that includes Van Ginsbergen, Voyce, Cipriani and Reddan and Quins must be able to respond to that. The odds probably favour Quins, as Wasps have reported significant injury issues and have a weak front row. Quins also have key players out with injury and there is still no news on when Strettle, Abbott or Care are likely to return, The head to head statistics show a trend that needs to be reversed. Wasps have won on their last two visits to the Stoop and have in fact beaten Harlequins on their last five meetings since Quins 33-27 victory at the Stoop way back in September 2003, (seems like yesterday).

After three defeats and a draw in their opening four games, Wasp were in control almost from the outset, their director of Rugby Ian Mc Geechan said. "Overall I felt the power to get that result was in our hands, which was nice to feel again," he added, that he still felt there was plenty of room for improvement but was in no mood to be too critical after seeing his side kick-start their season. "Our execution could have been better in places but there were a lot of good things today. We didn't build as well as we could, but overall I thought new played well and consistently."

Certainly there will not be a better time for Quins to beat Wasps, and with the lessons learnt from last weekend, coupled with the excellent home record should see Quins through to victory this weekend, however we all know how difficult wasps can be this time of year.

This match referee is the aptly named Dean Richards.

Come on you Quins!

This weekend fixtures:

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