Right, I have a plan.
A lot of folk are hurting after the poor opening to the season, and a lot of folk are deeply worried about the future of the club we all love.
However I am not willing to let this site slide into another version of the angry mess DW has become where every thread becomes a rehashed version of the same argument. And so I have created this thread for discussion about our DoR and whether people feel he is the problem, or the solution. And so I'd be extremely grateful if you could keep discussions about Dai here on this thread.
If posts are made on other threads that derail the conversation to this topic I will simply move them here.
Thanks for your understanding.
FWIW my personal opinion is that there is clearly something amiss, but I don't buy that Dai is the root cause. I'll try and explain.
The season where we reached the final we had a number of wonderful stars who undebniably lifted the team. I even wrote an article about how Beale had lifted the morale of the squad, and the other player's beliefs in their own skill. We had a season where people tried outrageous things on the pitch, and sometimes they worked. Dai was in charge then.
This season we have a squad with a number of wonderful stars who are simply not performing to that ability. Dai is in charge now.
Our style of play a couple of years ago was something to behold. Flat to the line, lots of dummy runners, heads up, ball in hand rugby that was a joy to watch. A lot of people credit this entirely to Fiver, but we were doing it before he came. Ruaridh Jackson was playing exactly that style (go watch Toulon at Home when he was our 10) and some of us were bemoaning the fact that Gopps wasn't able to match that style, it was even suggested that he should maybe be tried at 12. Danny was better at it than most and took it to a whole new level, but it wasn't new. Dai was in charge then.
Our style of play now is predictable, we still present two lines of attack with dummy runners, but we seem so lethargic and our dummy runners start from a standing start that they either receive hospital passes, or Sopps is forced to pass deep to stop his line getting flattened. Dai is in charge now.
We had academy prospects being ignored and not making it to the senior squad. Dai was in charge.
We promoted record numbers of academy players to the senior squad. Dai was in charge.
Before DR rescued the club and we were essentially broke players were signing because of Dai. His vision, his ability to motivate and inspire were often quoted as the reason people came to the club. How is that any different now?
I genuinely don't know what the issue is, but I don't belive in blaming him for all the poor play, and passing the credit of the good play on to others. However something definitely isn't right.
I think we have been on the wrong end of a number of unfortunate situations, SISU, Beale leaving early, Danny dithering about his future, Wade and Daly both dropping us in it. Sopps and his family struggling to settle in after moving to the other side of the world. But I think the one thing that would make the biggest difference to the team is getting more coaching hours. They don't have to be top level, though it would be great if they were. But I'd rather have two extra coaches who were pretty good, than one extra who was great.
Sadly I think we're going to struggle this season. But I don't think it is Dai's fault. I do suspect that the attitudes of many fans openly and publicly slating him and the squad on forums like these does have a negative effect though. We accept that some players are confidence players, I think Wasps is a confidence team.
I know it is never going to happen, but if we made a concerted effort to talk about the positives and not dwell on the negatives I genuinely believe it would make a difference.