Wuss game

[Raggs]

Still not firing on all cylinders, but a win is a win for me, especially considering how this season started. A five pointer is even better.

Early in the second half we had the ball moving out toward the left wing and a three on one overlap, but De Jongh takes it into contact… these are the things we’ve got to sort out. A couple of seasons ago it was second nature to capitalise on those opportunities, now we seem to be trying to make hard work of it.

You're spot on, but I put this down do JdeJ's lack of gametime recently and therefore not having the match sharpness to spot those opportunities, process them, and then make the decision to pass. Sometimes it's easier just to take the safe option of contact and recycle. The game is played at such speed the decision making time is tiny

It's also a matter of execution, you may have spotted the opportunity, but opted against it as too risky for a poor pass or catch. Better to simply take a front foot ruck and go again. Same thing we've been complaining about for seasons, when we push too hard and don't simply take the gain.

[coddy]

For me the JDJ pass that never came was a good decision as the covering defender would of at best smashed the receiver of the pass man and ball or at worse intercepted.

[DGP Wasp]

I have it on good authority that the atmosphere in the squad is massively improved this season as all the Divas have gone.

I think this is reflected in the two recent tight away wins at Bristol and Worcester and the team's reaction to them.

Shame it wasn't quite enough in the similarly tight home games against Irish, Quins and Saints where we ended up on the wrong end.  How different the table would now look if only...

Maybe the team need to go back to getting a bus to the Ricoh again? 

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Maybe the team need to go back to getting a bus to the Ricoh again? 

It's actually not a bad idea.  It must lift the spirits a little to have to walk in through a crowd of fans cheering for you before you even start.  The Ricoh is an amazing venue, but I bet it can feel a little tough to be playing there when things are't going your way.  Any advantage we can get from it we should!

[mike909]

Having now watched the whole game on repeat - its a hard game to judge. We won, at least in part, due to some individual brilliance - and brilliant it was too. What would worry me is that with possession, and with Searle on the pitch, our half backs and Jimmy didn't look able to often make ground or space. We had a lot of possession, and too often, more in the first half, we tended to go sideways or backwards with little evidence of structure. Second half was at times better - but not a lot.

Forwards, scrum was decent. Ref was random at scrum time, but it settled. Our lineout was average at best. Good at the breakdown and it was good to see Brookes and others being brought into play a bit more. Forwards created a lot of possession, but we seemed too often unable to make the most of it and were too often slow from 9.

Box and kicking from the 22 seemed unplanned. Our kick chase seemed to provide too much to do to contest. The kicks from the 22 were too often aimless. We failed too often to bring the back three into the game with ball in hand. I was never convinced that when the ball came to the back three, there was a plan to go forwards/kick/kick to touch.

Probably one of those games that could have gone either way. It was very nice that it went our way - but we have a lot to work on if we are to look like a team playing to a plan for more of the 80 mins. Can't criticise the commitment or enthusiasm nor the pure joy at the win, but I hope in the cold light of day, we've seen that as a step forwards, but an incremental one rather than a stride.