WASPS WILL this week offer Danny Cipriani and James Haskell new contracts which the England pair will have until the end of the month to sign.

The Premiership champions' new owner, Steve Hayes, is determined not to let the issue rumble on into the New Year - rival clubs are free to negotiate with them from January 1st .

Cipriani and Haskell will both command considerable salary increases, having been capped since signing their current contracts.

"I am confident that Danny and James will be staying with us," said the Wasps chief executive, Tony Copsey. "We have been talking to them regularly and, while there is no pressure on anyone, we would like to have the contracts dealt with by the end of the month. We are in good financial shape with Steve taking over the ownership and we are bucking the current trend."

Hayes will be involved in talks with Cipriani and Haskell. "Wasps has been and will continue to be about the people," he said. "We want to ensure that we keep and attract the best players to ensure we maintain the success that has been seen over the last decade."

Wasps have won at least one trophy in each of the last six seasons.

Traditional slow starters, they will have their powers of recovery tested as never before this season after losing six of their opening seven Premiership matches and being trounced in the Heineken Cup by Leinster in October.

Yesterday they recorded their third consecutive victory but they were low on self-belief and not even an early try injected their play with meaning.

Dave Walder, playing at outhalf in place of Cipriani, ran outside the secondrow Jim Hamilton in midfield to open the scoring on 12 minutes but the home side did not push on, allowing Edinburgh gradually to assume an element of control. Edinburgh snapped and harried and scored a well-worked try on 35 minutes when Ben Cairns broke outside Dominic Waldouck and fed a scoring pass to Hugo Southwell, but they were limited opponents.

The arrival of Cipriani, who had missed training because of illness, at the start of the second half did little to stimulate creativity. He played in the centre and quickly became caught up in a tedious game of aerial ping-pong.

The rigid control being exerted by the International Rugby Board has heightened the subjectivity of referees: once again a crowd was treated to the sight of a crooked throw into a lineout resulting in a scrum at which a crooked feed went unpunished.

Unforced errors abounded. The genesis of Wasps' try was a shocking attempted clearance by Nick De Luca in his own half: he was off balance and should have taken the hit but instead scuffed his kick a few yards on the ground. Wasps took play through multiple phases before Walder spotted his moment.

Edinburgh led 8-7 at the break through Phil Godman's stoppage-time penalty but the home side regained the lead two minutes after the restart with the first of four Walder penalties as Edinburgh started to infringe at the breakdown.

Wasps' outstanding player was the persevering prop Phil Vickery. Paul Sackey and Waldouck were undone by the bounce as they chased a Josh Lewsey chip with Southwell and in the second half Eoin Reddan's long kick and chase was thwarted by Simon Webster. Neither try-line was seriously threatened in the second 40 minutes.

"I saw a number of Heineken Cup matches over the weekend and we played more rugby than most," said the Wasps' director of rugby Ian McGeechan when asked why his side appeared to lack inspiration.

At least victory ensured the club's decision to take their next match, against Leinster, to Twickenham next month, was not hubristic. But even a win there may not be enough for a side that has still to record a bonus-point victory this season.

LONDON WASPS:Van Gisbergen (Mitchell, 39); Sackey, Waldouck (Cipriani, h-t), Lewsey, Voyce; Walder, Reddan (Simpson, 75); Payne, Webber, Vickery, Shaw, Birkett (Skivington, 52), Betsen (Worsley, 63), Rees, Haskell.

EDINBURGH:Southwell; Robertson, Cairns, De Luca (Houston, 75), Webster; Godman (D Blair, 54), M Blair (capt; Laidlaw, 75); Jacobsen, Kelly (Lawrie, 74), G Cross (Kerr, 53), C Hamilton, J Hamilton, Newlands, MacDonald (S Cross, 74), Hogg (Mustchin, 60).

Referee:G Clancy (Ireland).

Tries:Southwell Pens: Godman, D. Blair Attendance: 7,596

- Guardian Service