Harlequins fly-half James Lang is determined to put cup defeat to Saracens to one side in order to concentrate fully on the Gallagher Premiership Rugby title race.

Quins are riding high in the Gallagher Premiership table, but their form has not carried over to the Premiership Rugby Cup, with Saturday’s defeat to London rivals Saracens dumping them out of the competition.

After a solid start to the match, there was just one point separating the sides when Renaldo Bothma’s 28th minute red card turned the tide.

Although the hosts led twice after scoring two tries either side of half-time, playing with 14 men for 50 minutes ultimately took its toll, but Lang believes the team have the capacity to respond. 

He said: “We are in a great place as a squad and we won’t let this affect us too much. We’ve got a week off now for some much-needed down time and then we will get back out there.

“There’s a buzz and belief about the squad and no matter who you put in – you know everyone is going to put in 100% and leave everything on the field.

“I can’t fault the effort, we will just regroup and get back into the swing of things for the Premiership.”

The game got off to a blistering start when Josh Ibuanokpe - on his first start for Quins - drove across the try-line following a lineout in the second minute.

However, the lead didn’t last for long, Saracens scoring from a lineout of their own through Sione Vailanu two minutes later, before a Max Malins’ penalty put the visitors 8-7 in front.

Shortly afterwards, Bothma was adjudged to have raised his arm into a challenge from Dom Morris, and the number 8 was sent off.

Despite that, the hosts re-took the lead at the start of the second half thanks to Elia Elia’s first score of the season.

But Sarries took full advantage of their man advantage with tries from Malins, Joel Kpoku and Rotimi Segun to ensure progression to the semi-final, knocking Quins out in the process.

Lang was sure that defeat would not live long in the memory, however, with Quins now into a break before they welcome Worcester Warriors to The Stoop in February.

“I think everyone’s really looking forward to it. We’re in a good place, sitting third; obviously it’s really tight, so you can’t really afford a slip up at this point,” he said.

“We’re in a great place as a squad; we won’t let this affect us too much.

“We’ve got a week off; we’re going to get some much-needed down time and then get back at it the following week.

“Hopefully we’ll take the momentum that we built the last six weeks and take that into Worcester in three weeks’ time and do the job.”