Match Thread - Quins

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I miss Fester.

[WickedWasp]

Yep great player and bloke.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Back from the game. Me, dad and Heathen in the car.

Want an Xmas list?

Switched off after 20 minutes. Never woke back up.
No on field decision making. Said it before. Will say it again. Both Joe and Dobby might be good motivators and best mates with the squad. What do you do? You have a penalty 5-10m from their line. They are down one man in the backs. You have done well all game in the scrum. Their strongest prop has been sent off. Let me think about that. You go for a scrum. Neiother of these two are true captain material. It would appear that no one in the squad is.
Dobby's field kicking is as woeful as ever. He seemed to change down two gears in the second half.
We have no penetration at 12, with either Jimmy or Booj. Why did we re-sign Booj?
Fekitoa kept missing tackles. Remind me again why we signed him?
We had a hole most of the game next to our scrum. They simply ran through the hole. Again and again.
We have noone who can kick chase.
Umaga can receive and hang on to their kick chase.

The race is on now. Us or Tigers?

This issue is not going to fix itself, and certainly won't be fixed for at least two years. One reason is that those who are in charge appear not to see the problem. Who to blame? The players? The coaches ....

This is going to be a long hard season unless someone (or two, or more) gets a really hard kick in the gentlemen vegetables.

[Shugs]

Desperately disappointing. Had it won after 20 and then just lost confidence. Why can't the players see that the common denominator in the first twenty and last fifteen minutes when we dominated territorially was that we didn't kick. Robson's continual box kicking at the end of the first half was basically just giving them back possession. Positives were Fekitoa, Willis and Taylor. Negatives were Robson's kicking and our lack of confidence. I didn't really see Umaga do anything different to what Sopoaga or Searle does but he had a decent game apart from two or three bum passes. So we're now deep in trouble. We were far too easy to score against (what happened for Sinklers try??) and we've acquired a seriously bad habit - losing. I still think it's fine margins but I am now seriously worried.

[Westy68]

Back from the game. Me, dad and Heathen in the car.

Want an Xmas list?

Switched off after 20 minutes. Never woke back up.
No on field decision making. Said it before. Will say it again. Both Joe and Dobby might be good motivators and best mates with the squad. What do you do? You have a penalty 5-10m from their line. They are down one man in the backs. You have done well all game in the scrum. Their strongest prop has been sent off. Let me think about that. You go for a scrum. Neiother of these two are true captain material. It would appear that no one in the squad is.
Dobby's field kicking is as woeful as ever. He seemed to change down two gears in the second half.
We have no penetration at 12, with either Jimmy or Booj. Why did we re-sign Booj?
Fekitoa kept missing tackles. Remind me again why we signed him?
We had a hole most of the game next to our scrum. They simply ran through the hole. Again and again.
We have noone who can kick chase.
Umaga can receive and hang on to their kick chase.

The race is on now. Us or Tigers?

This issue is not going to fix itself, and certainly won't be fixed for at least two years. One reason is that those who are in charge appear not to see the problem. Who to blame? The players? The coaches ....

This is going to be a long hard season unless someone (or two, or more) gets a really hard kick in the gentlemen vegetables.

Nelly I have to agree with all that you have said, some of our recent signings have been shocking and to re-sign Booj, I just don’t get, There must be better players out there

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Desperately disappointing. Had it won after 20 and then just lost confidence. Why can't the players see that the common denominator in the first twenty and last fifteen minutes when we dominated territorially was that we didn't kick. Robson's continual box kicking at the end of the first half was basically just giving them back possession. Positives were Fekitoa, Willis and Taylor. Negatives were Robson's kicking and our lack of confidence. I didn't really see Umaga do anything different to what Sopoaga or Searle does but he had a decent game apart from two or three bum passes. So we're now deep in trouble. We were far too easy to score against (what happened for Sinklers try??) and we've acquired a seriously bad habit - losing. I still think it's fine margins but I am now seriously worried.

Willis and Taylor, I agree. In attack Fekitoa was good, but in defence he kept missing tackles.

The second half was characterised by very hard rain. Very slippy ball. Sinkler? He ran through the gap we had left almost all game in the inside channel.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Bring back Ben Jacobs, there was a centre who could defend...

[WickedWasp]

Jacob's/ Chris bell even. Defensive leaders. I liked when we had a bit of balance in the backline not just ball players but some size. Losi etc. I know he was older when he came to us. Masi also. I was hoping fekitoa would fill the void but think he needs sometime. I do think we are slightly underpowered in the backs a bit too much Jazz.

[Hymenoptera]

NWW you mention decision making..absolutely agree. We have Intl players that appear to be unable to make a logical decision. Thats not coaching, thats common bloody sense.
Robson for 20 looked good, then he reverted to sunday league. Umaga showed a lack experience on a few occasions. Centers offered bugger all, in fact all the backs, minozzi looks a shadow of the player he was and has 1 trick that is terrible.
Again i thought the forwards, minus Sioni or how ever you spell it, he offered nothing as far as i remember, put in a decent shift, TT was really good.
The fact Tigers lost is irrelevant now because it has become who you lose to. They lost at home to Exeter, as will we, will they lose at home to Quins, unlikely, nor LI.. Losing to the calbre of teams we are is a slow death.
Just watched the Tigers game..they played pretty well.

[W2APS]

Coaches need to change, we've been on a downhill slope for 3 years now and the current team aren't going to turn it around. There's going to be an expensive payout for Dai.

I'm confident ring fencing will come in next summer once Falcons are promoted, regardless of who is bottom.

I'm not sorry to say I put £20 on quins on Monday even with us as favourites at the bookies. It softens the blow a a little but I'd still rather have lost the bet. Sad to say I'll be backing Bristol for the next match, I just can't see us winning at the moment.

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[Heathen]

As NWW said, we had a interesting discussion on the way back from the game.

One of the the significant points for me was that after being on the receiving end for 20 mins, Quins changed their game plan - this was very much down to Booth and Gustard. When they were shown on the big screen you could see that they recognised that they needed to change something.

Wasps on the other hand, seemed clueless to do anything about it.

Does that come from lack of nous and leaders on pitch or the coaches? For me, it is a combination of both.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

As NWW said, we had a interesting discussion on the way back from the game.

One of the the significant points for me was that after being on the receiving end for 20 mins, Quins changed their game plan - this was very much down to Booth and Gustard. When they were shown on the big screen you could see that they recognised that they needed to change something.

Wasps on the other hand, seemed clueless to do anything about it.

Does that come from lack of nous and leaders on pitch or the coaches? For me, it is a combination of both.

I think it's simpler that that.  We went in with a very specific gameplan, that was working extremely well.  And when Quins stepped up and changed what they were doing we chanegd our game to to try to negate them.  When what we actually should have done is carry on doing exactly what we were already doing.

We were winning, we were dominating, they were struggling to keep up with us.  We stopped running the ball back and started playing tennis, we stopped agressively targeting the breakdown, and we reverted to our standard mediocre approach.

I honestly believe that game was in the bag, and ours to lose, and like clockwork we managed it.

[Heathen]

When what we actually should have done is carry on doing exactly what we were already doing.

We were winning, we were dominating, they were struggling to keep up with us.  We stopped running the ball back and started playing tennis, we stopped agressively targeting the breakdown, and we reverted to our standard mediocre approach.

The obvious question is why?

[Rossm]

One of the changes to their game was being forced to bring on Paul Lasike when James Lang went off with a knee injury. Lasike is a brute. He played a year at the Chicago Bears as a full back (running back). He also has 16 caps for The Eagles. He made it quite clear that Jacob was his target when he ran with the ball. Could have been instructed to by Quins coaches. Though much the same height as Jacob he is 3 to 4 stone heavier and runs fast and straight. I leave you all to draw your own conclusions.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

When what we actually should have done is carry on doing exactly what we were already doing.

We were winning, we were dominating, they were struggling to keep up with us.  We stopped running the ball back and started playing tennis, we stopped agressively targeting the breakdown, and we reverted to our standard mediocre approach.

The obvious question is why?

Indeed, I doubt there is a simple answer. Or indeed a simple solution. But the thing I think we can all agree on is that changing nothing and hoping the problem goes away is not going to work.