Budget issues

[Gaz]

50 quid?! Yikes ... I'm worried but I am not that confident I wouldn't lose it!

[Rossm]

Spending cash for the sake of having it is nonsense

Absolutely agree. We really don't want to have a short term signee (is that the right word?) warming the bench or worse just carrying tackle bags because we get some players back from injury. Waste of our money and his time. We've had a nasty run of injuries to our second row. Can we get through it? Yes, I think we can - particularly if we decide we have to concentrate on the league. Do we want to potentially break players trying to end up playing on two fronts by getting out of our group in Europe? Not in my opinion.

[Hymenoptera]

50 quid?! Yikes ... I'm worried but I am not that confident I wouldn't lose it!

8-1, if it comes in I'll console myself on a nearly paid for holiday.  (couldnt decide which smiley that deserves.

[Shugs]

I agree the Quins game has become huge but I think we'll win it. Sale, Glaws and Exe are three tough away games. The problem has been the Irish game. We seriously shot ourselves in the foot there. If we can win three of the next six games we'll be ok. Anything less than that and it will be a relegation scrap. I think it will be Irish who go down. I just hope we know it's not us a good few weeks out.

[Hymenoptera]

The Irish loss was massive, even as a first game it add's up over the season. We'll have to win there to even it out but even then it is in reality a loss overall.
They are not going down for me, looking at their results and they have extra bodies coming in, I genuinely think it's between us Tigers and maybe Quins. Quins win a lot at home as do Tigers traditionally. I agree the game against Quins is huge, as is any game against the teams at the (projected) bottom, beating them is key to staying up..obvious I know.

[HDAWG]

Agreed, relegation is between Wasps, Quins and Tigers.

[westwaleswasp]

Before the start of the season who thought we would be in a relegation scrap?
Genuine question, not trying to have a pop at the more optimistic here.

[BG]

I would expect most of us supporters would have hoped that we would be fighting for top 6 (who knows we may get there) but if you asked supporters of other clubs they would have probably said we and tigers would be in the same position along with newly promoted London Irish.

Nothing dramatic has changed at both clubs so why would our league positions.

[Rossm]

Before the start of the season who thought we would be in a relegation scrap?
Genuine question, not trying to have a pop at the more optimistic here.

Well not me for one But, with seven locks, I didn't think we'd be looking at having to play someone out of position in order to be included in the 23.

[wasps]

Before the start of the season who thought we would be in a relegation scrap?
Genuine question, not trying to have a pop at the more optimistic here.

I suspect that most of us realised things were a bit squeaky last season and that if we didn't play better then we'd be in a relegation scrap this season.


And obviously, we are in that position at the moment.

However, the ray of light for me is that I genuinely believe we're playing better this season then we were last season.
I know that we haven't won those games, and that ultimately that's the important factor.
However the first step to winning is playing better.


What's important right now for me is that we try to keep some confidence.
You can't win games without a good set of forwards, and with our injuries in the second row we will struggle, but the expectation is that it should only be short term.



With the return of Thomas Young, the form of Willis Sr. and Nizaam Carr, and the ability of Willis Jr, I can see Brad Shields being used as emergency lock cover when he's fit.

While our squad doesn't have the star power that it's had over recent years, we do have far more numbers in depth (which is where I believe the budget has been spent), it's time for those guys to show that they're worthy.
We can't write any of them off - after all, who expected Flament to be any good?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I expected us to mid table, and I still do.

It feels like we're a lot further in to the season than we actually are, and there will be some readjustment over the next month or two.

[mike909]

Before the start of the season who thought we would be in a relegation scrap?
Genuine question, not trying to have a pop at the more optimistic here.

Not me - I thought that a decent pre season (missed by some incoming players) and the late season form of Watson and a new FH and Jimmy fit would mean safe mediocrity. My only concerns were last season's improvements in Glaws and Saints making "the middle" a lot more crowded, ditto, Sale.

I watched the LI game thinking we looked a bit rusty  - but expected us to win, if a little scrappy. I was disappointed, but then Glaws game set alarm bells ringing - Bath seemed to be that turning point, but then Sale...

So at one win from four and looking at Exeter (a) Quins (h) Bristol (a) and Saints (h) it suddenly looked a lot more daunting with the season edging towards a cliff that will require quite a turnaround to move away from.

[Hymenoptera]

We could have won that Sale game if we hadnt imploded..in terms of play we were equal if not better, we scored more tries than them and theirs was an intercept at that. On another day we'd have had the 4 points. 2 should'ves so far, we'd be 8-9 points better.

[Dgwasp]

We've only had two home games so far and the loss to LI was a bad one.  Last season we covered up a poor home form with some decent away wins, however this season I think we really need to knuckle down and pick up more points at home otherwise we will be in the mire.  We need to start playing with a bit more awareness to pick up more points from games than we are doing.  Heading into the last moments at both the LI and Sale games we could well have picked up wins but in the end have a total of 1 point.

As for budget issues... We do have to be sensible, and if Chesty is looking like he could be gone for some time the priority would be replacing him.  The lock injuries seem like they should have eased a little around xmas\new year time.  We will also need to keep some funds back to cover wages for contract renewals.

[Lwasp]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/rugby-union/50602421

The difference a billionaire makes over a millionaire. Sorry DR.