“Even though we improved in the second half, having let them get so far ahead before the break cost us the game. Coming back in to it at 18-6 the momentum seemed to be with us, but giving them a cheap penalty for 21-6 pretty much killed the game off in those conditions.”

Discussing the controversial sin-binning of prop Jon Golding which led to the scrum from which the penalty try was awarded, Fletcher said: “It was on the far side of the field from where I was sat, to be honest, but we're trying to get some clarity on the yellow card from the referee and obviously we'll have a look at the tapes tonight to see if it was merited or not.”

Asked his assessment of the Scottish official, again refusing to lay blame, he said: “I thought the referee was moderate, but he wasn't the reason we lost.

“We've had worse refs this season, so I'm not going to use it as an excuse.

“What you ask of a referee is that he keeps the ruck area clean, and that he polices the offside line. I don't think that happened today, but again don't mistake that for an excuse, because it's up to us to adapt and deal with those things when the officials don't play the letter of the law.

“You don't win anything in rugby without being streetwise around the ball at the tackle and ruck area, and Wasps gave us a bit of a lesson today in that aspect of the game.

“The likes of Shaw and Vickery were very impressive, they were outstanding around the ball and we need to look urgently at that part of our game because it's simply not good enough against the top sides and it's hurting our whole shape. Throughout the game Wasps were right on the edge, and we got bullied in that first half.”

With the weather having ruined any realistic chance of free-flowing rugby, Fletcher lamented: “Someone somewhere a long time ago for some reason decided that this game should be played in the winter – God only knows why – but we just have to get on with it.”

With Jonny Wilkinson having made his comeback, he added: “It's tough as a fly half to play in those conditions, which in his own words were 'minging', because it's virtually impossible to handle the ball and you spend the whole game kicking and chasing it.

“The disappointing thing is that I sat in this room six days ago and talked about exactly the same things. It's like Groundhog Day, but that's not to take anything away from Wasps, who are an outstanding side and showed it again today.”

With the keenly-awaited debut of All Black Carl Hayman finally arriving, Fletcher said of his new prop idol: “It was fairly interesting to note that Carl came on, packed down for his first scrum and we won a penalty on his side.

“He went fine I thought, considering it was his first game for two months. The guy only arrived on Monday night and trained once with us this week. He's still on Kiwi time judging by the amount he's been sleeping during the day, you can see he's just gradually getting used to things but we know he will add a huge amount to us as a team.

“It was frustrating for him because we never really got in to any of our plays with the game being so scrappy in those conditions, but he's been around enough to know that sometimes you've just got to roll your sleeves up and play as hard as you can in that weather.”

With attention now turning to Friday's European Challenge Cup clash in Galway, Fletcher said: “We go to Connacht in reasonable shape at the top of the group, but we know it will be a tough game there.

“If the weather stays as wet as it was here today then it could well be a similar type of game. The ball will spend a lot of time in the air, there will be a lot of rucks, a lot of mistakes and someone will end up winning the game. Our job is to make sure it's us.”