Costello hits out at the players

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Costello blames the players:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/wasps-rugby-news-saracens-ricoh-16969088

My reply:

Stern words maybe, but this was the case last year also. One must look at the person organizing, training and coaching the players. And that is on you, Mr Costello. You are the builder, they are the bricks. The players on the field change, but the outcome is the same. The buck has to stop somewhere, and for me, and many, many other supporters, that is with the defence coach, NOT the players.

[Neils]

When I read that I had similar thoughts. He is very scathing about the player group.
On the same subject Matt Taylor isn't doing too well with the Scotland defence.

[Heathen]

Essentially he's not up to the job. Wasps need to replace him with a proven defence coach, the sooner the better.

What worries me is that we failed to get a new defence coach during the summer. Did the candidates not like what they saw at Wasps?

[wasps]

You seem to always see the worst in anything that happens.

As I see it, wasps interviewed some of the best candidates around.... And ultimately we lost out to international rugby.
Virtually every club side will lose out to the lure of international sides.
It's also possible that the candidates weren't even really that interested in leaving their roles at all and were just publicly reviewing their options to strengthen their negotiating stance.


There was lots of talk that we had discussed the role with Joe Worsley.
I love the guy, but I don't know that he really the solution to our problems..... There's only one way to find out though.
He is currently involved in a short term world cup deal.
When the world cup is over, he'll be at a loose end and it's very likely that a club side somewhere has already secured his services..... Could it possibly be us?


While I totally agree that our defence has been shocking, let's not pretend that it's an easy solution.
At one point last year lots of people were crying for Phil Blake to come back........ That hasn't really turned out well so far for Leicester

[Hymenoptera]

So, 3 months from now, we have a new defence coach to appease the masses. The players continue to miss one on tackles, knock the ball on, kick out on the full, pass to the invisible man, butcher clear scoring opportunities...and do every schoolboy basic, badly.

Who do you blame then?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

So, 3 months from now, we have a new defence coach to appease the masses. The players continue to miss one on tackles, knock the ball on, kick out on the full, pass to the invisible man, butcher clear scoring opportunities...and do every schoolboy basic, badly.

Who do you blame then?

Fear of change is no excuse not to change.

[Steve from Cov]

Defence coaches are too easy the target when a rugby team loses.

It wasn’t Costello missing the tackles and dropping passes.

[BG]

Defence coaches are too easy the target when a rugby team loses.

It wasn’t Costello missing the tackles and dropping passes.

+1

There's only so much you can train in terms of defence. A lot of it comes down to desire and fitness i.e. being able to get back into position and the latter comes back to a point I've made many times before.

Wasps seem to have a philosphy of not competing at the breakdown (or not being able to due to lack of support numbers) which allows opposition teams to have quick ruck ball, phase after phase. The end result is a tiring defence, players out of position with mis-matches and people falling off tackles.

Worsley seems to have garnered a good reputation as a defence coach in France and yet Wales found gaps at will in the 1st half against Georgia.

A coach can only do so much.

[HDAWG]

Weird because against a team like Leinster, a team who thrive on possession, we were quite competitive at the break down with Thomas Young being top jackal that day. Maybe we needed a jackal in the team so Thomas Young, Jack Willis or Tom Willis.

[baldpaul101]

Not sure why everyone thinks its easy.

Its not either the players fault or the coaches, they are BOTH to blame. At time Wasps defence looked superb last season, at other time it looked pathetic. Successful defence is about a clear plan that players understand & then them executing that plan. If the players can't execute it then they need to tell the coach that & work on a better solution. If the coach can see its not working then he should be trying to understand why. If the players just don't want to execute it then that's a serious problem because its their job.


As for hiring a new defence coach. Its on the record that its been tried. If Wasps can't get anyone better then are they supposed to just hire anyone? even someone they think is worse?
And before anyone says that a new coach can't be as bad as the current one, did wasps finish bottom of the league & get relegted? No, so there are several defence coaches clearly worse thatn  Wasps' one.

[Gaz]

I only saw the 30 second highlights clip on C5 so by definition only really saw Wasps when they were conceding a try, so it is a very selective view.

But ... I couldn't believe how passive the defence was, the space afforded to Saracens in once instance was astonishing, and one solitary player popping out of the line creates the gap for them, poor organisation ...

Was that the flavour of the whole game?  All coaches and players need a few home truths if that is the case.

I just get the impression that Wasps are using the prem cup as their preseason warm-ups and were caught Saracens caught them on the back foot with how competitive they were.

[mike909]

I've only managed to see the v brief "highlights". The obvious observation was that we often looked disorganised when they scored - but then - you would....

Lets wait on a few more games before panicking - but it was a side that had never played together before, but...ditto Sarries....it did include one team Capt in Robson who I presume would have a role in on pitch organisation, but many players with little experience.

However, conceding 50 is never to a team's credit and one several tries - it did seem that basic positioning and tackling was lacking, but it was the first time many had played together...

If this continues to be a theme - I'd be concerned - remember it was only three years ago we put 64 on Sarries away - but having 2x Piutau's probably helped!

[BG]

I just get the impression that Wasps are using the prem cup as their preseason warm-ups and were caught Saracens caught them on the back foot with how competitive they were.

Dai made a comment over the summer that they would be changing focus on this competition and acknowledged that not taking this competition seriously and not throwing resources at it last season, and then being on the end of some serious hammerings, affected the squad as a whole through the season.. i.e. a snowball effect.

The team selection did seem to point to a different stance.

Like others above, I've only seen the 2 or 3 mins highlights package but the scoreline speaks for itself.

Lets just hope that was a bad day at the office for us and a good one for Sarries and hope we fare better in the next 3 games.

On a side note, Sirkers finish was very impressive. It wasn't exactly a walk in.

[Neils]

I also think stating that players "have missed their opportunity " doesn't do much for team morale.

[Rifleman Harris]

To be fair, Dai also said that all the squad would get a game over the next few weeks with the last game being roughly the preferred starting XV. So, I wonder if we are taking it seriously as in giving us some competitive warm up games and hence not using guests and academy players, as opposed to trying to win it.

I agree telling players they have missed their opportunity will hardy be motivating.