Conor O'Shea admitted Harlequins got out of jail after they staged a remarkable comeback to win 42-40 against Wasps.
Young admits he always feared a Harlequins backlash
Conor O'Shea admitted Harlequins got out of jail after they staged a remarkable comeback to open the defence of their Aviva Premiership title with a 42-40 victory over Wasps.
"I never want to go through that again," said O'Shea, the Harlequins director of rugby.
"I did think the game was gone. Our set-piece was poor, our discipline, they won the contact areas and when we turned the ball over they stung us.
"It was a long way back - but we got a lot of energy from the bench. That try Guest scored from the charge-down just gave us a little bit of hope. The more we played, the more we held onto the ball.
"We started winning the collisions, we got our offloading game going.
"We are delighted to get away with that but we know defensively we are miles better than that.
"We didn't bring our game. Thankfully we have got away with it. It is the rocket we need, potentially."
For the best part of an hour, Wasps proved the dark days of last season's relegations struggles are long gone as they ran Harlequins ragged.
But director of rugby Dai Young admitted he always feared a Harlequins backlash, even when his men opened a 27-point lead just before the hour mark.
"For 50 minutes we probably played as well as we have done since I have been at the club," said Young.
"We talked at half-time about not switching off and keeping our concentration and how good a team Quins were and that they would keep playing.
"Things that weren't sticking for them first half and were sticking for us, it was always going to change.
"It wasn't a surprise for us. I thought the charge-down kick gave them that momentum and for the last 30 minutes we struggled to get our hands on the ball."
