Match thread

[Heathen]

Latest 7-12

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/match/EVP3115839

[Rossm]

Now 21-25. Tibo try.

[Westy68]

Sounds like we still can’t defend

[Westy68]

At home, against Sarries 4th team and we conceded 50 points

[Heathen]

Hopefully those who went to the match can give us an honest opinion of the pluses and minuses as far as Wasps are concerned.

Intersting that all their tries were scored by their backs, Did Whitely run the game?

[Brandnewtorugby]

Oh dear, I listened to most of that on the BBC Coventry and Warwickshire as I couldn't make it to the game. The commentary was much better than it used to be, although they still do too much punditry instead of explaining what is happening on the pitch. In this case it seems they spared me! Didn't sound like much positive unfortunately, but will be interested to see reviews from people that saw it.

[Chunky24]

Just back, although only first game was disappointing as having gone full of positivity unfortunately little seemed to have changed. Similar basic mistakes, dominated at the breakdown, missed tackles and injuries, the only positives for me were Flament and that there is still along way to go until the first league game!
Sarries were run by Whiteley and Tomkins in the backs and their forwards were exceptionally streetwise at the breakdown.

[Marlow Nick]

Saracens were good (not amazing but good). Wasps were very poor.
Lots of passes dropped. Failure to support the tackled player or hit rucks leading to penalties for holding on. Aimless kicks. Static backs line shovelling the ball without moving forwards so we lost ground. Not helped by Jimmy going off with a shoulder injury after only a couple of minutes.
Umanga's place kicks were good but he didn't create much in open play. Booj was one of the only backs who tried to carry the ball forwards. Tibo looked good and won a restart. Zuzu looked up for it and made some yards.

[Garuda]

Well, it seems the standard of our defending is as appalling as last season; and too many handling errors and silly penalties too. I imagine Dai's not happy.

Yes, I know its not the core of the first team and I know these players need to gel, but still I would expect kids on a Sunday morning run out to defend more competently.

The scrum looked strong, line outs were well executed and some encouraging phases.

Hoping for better things going forward.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Back from the game.

Tibo was indeed one of our stand out performers.

Our defense was not THAT bad. Our set scrum was good. Our lineout was far better than I have seen it before.

The ball down to 12 was fast. But there it broke down. Jimmy was off after 6 minutes. Another injury? The ball simply did not get as far as the wings as we knocked on way too many times.

The BIG differences were these:

Saracens looked like a team of 23. We did not.

At the breakdown, Saracens almost always had three jacklers to every breakdown. We left our guy undefended on the floor way too often and got pinged for holding on.

We knocked on, dropped the ball, passed to Mr Nobody, kicked to them directly to hand, way too many times.

Umaga place kicked very well. His kickoffs went too far bar the last few of the game. Given how different they were, I suspect the longer kick offs were tactically decided by the coaches before the game. BIG mistake. I think Umaga and the team changed the plan to a sevens style short kick. That worked. Too late.

Given how long the 'team' (coaches and players) have had to prepare for this game, a lot of the faults have to be down to coaching. Again. Someone in the coaching team has to focus on breakdown defense and attack (jackaling). PLEASE.

[Neils]

Tend to agree mostly with NWW.

It struck us that it appears that no matter who the EAs put out they play exactly the same way. Whether you like it or not it is effective.

We were not good. It looked like our first run out of the season. It was depressing at the end but there were a few positives.  Our French find was excellent, Vailanu when he came on reminded me of early Billy and didn't take a step back, ZuZu looked good in his cameo appearance. Elsewhere Jacob kicked and Calum ran. Not too sure Jacob did much else and Sirker tackles to the best of his ability but is lightweight (we really needed a big winger).
Somebody needs to tell Dan that a captain needs to be in the ear of the ref.
Cardell was solid but still not sure about Matthews.
Losing Jimmy and Brookes early didn't help. I wonder if this is Jimmy falling apart and out.
Other pluses were Alex back and seeing some of the new boys.
Ashley was too keen to impress and fumbled a few. Also had a fairly vitriolic fall out with our replacement scrum half for kicking the ball away.

Hope they all buckle down this coming week and do better next week.

Also didn't think much of the new ref - he seemed to decide things far to quickly but that may be because virtually everything was against us.

[Jac A]

Ho hum, that was disappointing.

I was expecting a better performance than that based on the team we put out and the positive vibes that were around before we played.

Pretty much all the comments on here reflect how I saw it too. Saracens played well but as others have said, what's most important is that they played as a team and to a system. We can have our doubts about the salary cap etc but this was a team of academy players who had been well coached and knew exactly how to play the 'Saracens' way so huge credit to their coaching set both at academy and senior level.

Totally agree our set piece did look good (though we did have a couple of international props against rookies), line out and the maul worked well (four genuine lineout options helped obviously) and if I recall that was something that Dai said he would take on this year so that seems to have been a good thing.

The penalty count was the biggest killer, it was clear early on that Sarries were committing to the breakdown in defence and the ref was happy to blow for holding on, but we didn't adapt. We carried on sending runner into contact without decent support and kept getting pinged. That and the silly handling errors. To me a that suggests a lack of leadership in the pack and a lack of nouse and responsibility for the players on the park to say we need to change a bit and run pods of three to make sure we keep the ball.

Fingers crossed for Jimmy (worrying hearing about Ben Vellacott too).

Anyway, it might have been frustrating and disappointing but I've missed it and I'm glad domestic rugby is back.

[Hymenoptera]

This is worrying, whilst I appreciate this was the prem cup, that team should have crushed Sarries pub team at the Ricoh.

I don't agree that the captains for this year are the right selection, neither Dan nor Thomas are exactly characters or leaders, respected maybe but thats not the right qualification.

"We knocked on, dropped the ball, passed to Mr Nobody, kicked to them directly to hand, way too many times." - This cannot be coached into players, so what's the issue as this was last season all over again. I can't start blaming the coaches for this, this is down to the players, same as last season. There was enough quality on the pitch not to keep making basic errors.

Last season people were getting irate about Umaga not getting a shot. He had little influence today and showed no point of difference, something he'll need if the coaches are going to give him any gametime.

Whilst the team will improve with the addition of other first teamers, it wont be exponentially and that's a concern. Very disappointing.

[HDAWG]

Hymenoptera, summed up my thoughts pretty much.

[Wiltshire Wasp]

I try to be positive, I looked at our team selection an thought we should win this.  Very disappointed- still early days and time for improvement.  Chatting to a Sarries supporter on the bus after game, I said I was expecting us to be in top six and hopeful for the top four- he thought I was over optimistic.