Back from the game some while ago.
First 15 Team generally good. Scrum strong. Obvious weak points was Robson. Often very slow, kicking was off really badly. Reminded me of the Simpson were lost lat year. In fairness, when Porter came on, he was no better.
Wolstenholme has been far better than either of them.
Many of the scrum played well. Our lineout was a bit better than that of the last few games, but a definite failing.
Less penalties given away, less poor handling.
Brookes was ambling around the field for most of the game - he is not at all what one would call fast.
Our defense was great most of the time, but we missed a few first tackles. Ashley ran his tank dry by 50 minutes, but we did not sub any back row, why?
We had a leader on the field for 60 (ish ) minutes. It wasn't Launchbury (in fairness he went off from a head knock and right knee knock). It wasn't Robson, who took over from Launch. The leadership came from the man of the match, Umaga. You could see him out their directing everything that was good.
When he went off, to be replaced by Sopoaga, our team died. No leadership, at this point the 'captain' was Ashley.
Booj had a great game in attack and defence. He and Umaga work very well together.
Fekitoa was better than last week. He IS getting better settled.
Our wings might as well not have been on the field.
Minozzi was great (despite his yellow card - a team accumulation of penalties card).
When Tibo replaced Launchbury, our pack started performing so much better. He was fantastic. We started going forwards with him on the field.
Umaga deserved that MOTM. I saw no reason to sub him. Sopoaga was a very poor second choice to Umaga. His kicking was all over the place, and his passing was wooden and predictable, allowing their defence to overun us. With Umaga, his kicking was long and sublime, better than anything I have seen from a Wasps player for years. His passing was just like Cips and totally unpredictable for the defence. The results was they dare not come up too far too fast. Flat pass, draw back pass, chip through, over the top, long kick to bounce into touch, he had it all. Better than Cips IMHO.
For the first time this year, a team took to the pitch at the start of the match, but, as usual, with the subs came chaos.
For me we won that match because of Umaga. Why does Dai treat him so badly? Does he want him to leave? I would if I were him.
Always a Wasp
