Exeter game (Spoilers within)

[InBetweenWasp]

I think this shows just how tight the league is this year.  I’ve long maintained (in chats with friends, families and a handful of other rugby fans I work with) that it’s an incredibly competitive league and our issues have been small but compounded rather than fundamental...

- Fitness (or a lack of amongst the squad in general)
- Consistency of Teamsheet and combinations
- Confidence
- Mindset of Lima (interesting snippet this week on The Rugby Pod with him saying that he’s changed his mindset and that’s been the big limiting factor for him and something he’s looking forward to putting right at the end of the season and the beginning of next - He felt, wrongly or rightly, that rugby is rugby wherever you play and he’d be able to easily transfer his skillset and style from S15 to the Premiership but found it more intense, more physical, more competitive and increasingly unrelenting with a constant flow of competitions to navigate).

There’s a core group of naysayers on DWs who have constantly shouted down anyone who felt that we were in a relegation battle, or that Lima didn’t care and it might have been more than a physical commitment issue for him, or that Dai was a waste of space, or that our defence system was flawed rather than our commitment to the system etc etc...

It’s not to say it’s all rosy and the injury list continues to worry me, but we’ve had a couple of narrow losses in games we should have won - I think about Leicester away and Sale at home.  Had we of won just one of those games (i.e. Alo’s try gets given by JP at Welford Road) and we’re sitting pretty in 4th. 

We’ve also recruited pretty well (I think - I’m happy with Fekitoa and Minozzi as replacements for Daly and WLR) and hopefully by the start of the season some of the negative press that is looming is resolved (CCFC and the FCA investigation although i’m slightly more worried about the latter than the former).

The Quins game will be huge for us - aside from a bitter rivalry, there’s also the prospect that it could effectively be a play-off game in it’s own right for 4th place.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

I don't know what the final tally of key stats were but our defense, with some exceptions, was exceptional. We were up on them fast all game. One of the few games all season I saw this. Their lineout maul was also negated by the decision not to challenge in the air.

So, maybe Raggs knows the stats:

Tackles made
Tackles missed
Possession
Territory

I would bet we were well on the negative side of all of these.

[Chunky24]

I don't know what the final tally of key stats were but our defense, with some exceptions, was exceptional. We were up on them fast all game. One of the few games all season I saw this. Their lineout maul was also negated by the decision not to challenge in the air.

So, maybe Raggs knows the stats:

Tackles made
Tackles missed
Possession
Territory

I would bet we were well on the negative side of all of these.

BT Sport stats on this tweet.

https://twitter.com/andNickMullins/status/1117467571643723776?s=19

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Chiefs v Wasps

Tackles made: 123 v 244
Tackles missed: 25 v 25

So, we made twice as many tackles, but, relative to the number of tackles made, missed half as many as Chiefs

Possession: 66% v 34%

You are not supposed to win with so little possession!

Lineouts Lost: 4 v 0
Lineout Steals: 0 v 1

This used to be one of our weak points.

Carries: 210 v 109
Metres made: 490 v 491

That shows our defense stunting their attacks.

Territory seem fairly even (58% of the game in our half), except we defended a lot in our 22 in the second half (25% of the half).

It tells a story of epic defense, hunger for turnovers, and line breaks. We still gave away too many penalties in our own half (0 v 4), but that is probably a reflection of all that defending. If you don't have the ball, you give away penalties.

Handling errors was in line with possession (18 v 9). Chiefs pride themselves on handling, so they will be disappointed with this.

[Tervueren]

Looking at tries for and against over the past couple of seasons, with a pro-rata figure for this season.

Tries for: (TBP in ())
2016/17 89 (13)
2017/18 76 (10)
2018/19 57 (7)

Tries against:
2016/17 61
2017/18 57
2018/19 61

Defence seems much as it has been, possibly better if the tries-for decrease reflects less possession and so more time defending.

There has been a lot of disjointed stuff this year that has driven many up the wall, but I think we look like any team would if Cipriani, Gopperth and Wade (and maybe Eastmond
were suddenly removed from the equation, had a load of new players and then had no selection consistency because of injuries.

Yesterday things seemed to click, and hopefully the much maligned coaching team will get some plaudits as well.

It is just one match, but what a match, repeat this 3 times and our tickets for the finals might still prove to be a good buy.

[Raggs]

There also hasn't been a whipping boy team this season. Not even close. That can often lead to a few more tries scored.

[BG]

Did not see that coming!!!

Now 5th!

I didn't see it at all.. TV/Internet/Bt Sports package went down Sat morning.. for some reason the week-end support staff couldn't press a button like they did this morning to re-activate it.

I'm guessing the Premier Rugby site is where I'll be able to see a full replay online?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Did not see that coming!!!

Now 5th!

I didn't see it at all.. TV/Internet/Bt Sports package went down Sat morning.. for some reason the week-end support staff couldn't press a button like they did this morning to re-activate it.

I'm guessing the Premier Rugby site is where I'll be able to see a full replay online?

Yeah, they usually have the full match after a couple of days.

[RogerE]

Did not see that coming!!!

Now 5th!

I didn't see it at all.. TV/Internet/Bt Sports package went down Sat morning.. for some reason the week-end support staff couldn't press a button like they did this morning to re-activate it.

I'm guessing the Premier Rugby site is where I'll be able to see a full replay online?

Yeah, they usually have the full match after a couple of days.

It's up there now - or should I say it's now down on my laptop to watch later.  (thanks video downloader)

[BG]

Do you have a link Roger?

As a point of interest for myself.. I missed not having the internet moreso than not having the TV package. I wonder if any others would now find that to be the case?

I managed to tether my phone to my computer but apart from email, vpn for work, everything else online ate my phone data allowance up.

I resorted to buying a sunday newspaper even!

[RogerE]

I use downloadhelper for firefox.

Click on the video in the Premiership site (https://www.premiershiprugby.com/video/full-match-exeter-chiefs-v-wasps-round-19/)

Enable Flash video (or else it just hangs) when it starts click the video downloader (VD) link, it tries to load and play "chunks" at a time, which is no good, but go to the bottom of the list of files that VD shows and select the F4F 1280 x 720 (or whatever quality you want). It then downloads ok.

It is, unfortunately a Flash file, but can be converted to MP4 or AVI to play on things like mobile phones, or some TVs.

[westwaleswasp]

Exeter fans on Sports Network unhappy about our time wasting with injuries. Also very unhappy that the referee took no account of the wind when he whistled them up for line outs not straight. That did make me laugh.

Ha, ha, ha.
Say more things like this! Just makes it sweeter really, considering they embody "illegal and gets away with it"....

[jamestaylor002]

Exeter fans on Sports Network unhappy about our time wasting with injuries. Also very unhappy that the referee took no account of the wind when he whistled them up for line outs not straight. That did make me laugh.

Ha, ha, ha.
Say more things like this! Just makes it sweeter really, considering they embody "illegal and gets away with it"....

This is precisely what I thought when I saw those comments too.

[Marlovian]

Picked this quote up from the Exeter board as the reasons for yesterday's result (I've saved these in my little book of excuses):

"Hands too cold to catch the ball,
not taking advantage ... of the wind,
poor inconsistent refereeing,
blatant time wasting,
pretend injuries badly affected the flow of the game,
dirty play going unpunished,
dog ate the paper that the game plan was written on."

Priceless! (I made the last one up by the way....)

[baldpaul101]

Can anyone enlighten me. What dirty play?? Nathans "no arms" tackle was fine, even Austin Healey thought so. Certainly only a penalty & nothing more. Did something else happen I didn't see? It looked like a hard but fair game to me.

As for poor inconsistent refereeing, I didn't see any of that either, although pretty much all referees are inconsistent!