Saints Match Thread

[Shugs]

The reason I have been more encouraged by the last two games is that our attack has looked much more cohesive and dangerous. We've scored eight tries. I don't know the stats but I imagine that's probably about as much as the other league games combined. We're seeing that we've acquired a world class 13 and we've started seeing Willis and Young on the same field which will win us games. For me defence has been stable at a sort of 70 per cent level all year. Our downfall is coming through intensely frustrating individual errors and v Saints that just happened to be Robson, Umaga and Young. Le Bourgeois for me is a slightly better than squad player who generally does ok. His inclusion at least gives us the continuity that has seen us sharper going forwards and allows us to use JG sparingly if we need to.

[Hymenoptera]

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Yes we are only just above tigers and Irish, which for me is poor considering how many good players we have, but the defence doesn’t allow us to get more w’s because we keep conceding 28+ points per game. We have got to stop conceding silly try’s on a regular basis. For me it’s a combination of some players are just lazy and also the system.

At this moment in time our defence is costing us badly. I will agree that we are not a million miles away but it needs to get tighter
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I'd argue they both have better players on paper.

[westwaleswasp]

Worth noting that if we get 2 points per game for the remaing games we would probably close to safe with only two wins. 2 points is not to be sniffed at, we just wanted an extra five mins and that game would have in the bag.
Alternatively had they knocked on the phase before we got pinged.
Two points from 18 down is very reasonable. I agree Irish was awful, much worse.

[Willie]

As others have said, two points is more than we might have expected pre-game. It is frustrating that we came so close to the full five, but that’s only in light of how well we actually played on the day, with a noticeable step up from previous weeks. Saints are a quality outfit on a confident run. I think we defended positively, attacked with some flair and a number of player looked really good – including West and Flament covering for some absent quality player.

Robson seems to have developed Danny Care’s habit of dithering around and trying to milk the ref, instead of focusing on getting the ball out and playing what’s in front of him, but even he had some very good moments, showing signs of a return to form. On the whole his box kicking is still poor, made worse by no real chase, but the charge down is one of those things that can happen to the best – I’m not convinced Wood was onside, and if the guard was more alert he wouldn’t have got that close.

I’m a lot more optimistic now for the rest of the season than at any point so far.

[DGP Wasp]

Agree about Robson's box kicking, and some of our kicking from hand in general.  Can't get it bang on the button every time, but average kicks are too often made to look poor due to no chasing players anywhere near.  We don't lack pace to get after them, so is it a communication thing?  I don't know.

I was pretty miffed immediately after the game on Sunday due to 3 points lost, but on reflection (it's taken till Wednesday!), I'd definitely have taken 2 points from this game at 3pm on Sunday.  And looking at this block of 3 games (Quins, Bris, Saints), we picked up 8 points which is probably a couple more than I'd have expected.  The other encouraging thing from a Wasps point of view is that Irish have now dropped firmly into the mix, and I'd now put them as favourites for the drop (ring-fencing aside).

3 disappointing narrow defeats at home have really cost us.  9 points gone begging in those games, and that would give the table an entirely different complexion.  Performances do now seem to be heading in the right direction, Fekitoa has come good and academy lads are really holding their hands up.  2 weeks now to give rest time to those that need it and get some of the injured back to fitness, then Wuss then another 2 weekends off.  3 of our next 4 games are then away against possible relegation rivals (Wuss, Tigers, Irish) so we'll need to be in good shape for those.