Boyd & Hill Outline Where Wasps Were Superior

[Hymenoptera]

Pleased with the unity..you could see and hear the enthusiasm.

This week, Saints boss Chris Boyd and prop Paul Hill have been having their say on the atmosphere Wasps managed to create with no fans present.

Hill said: "The crowd thing (the fact the game was played behind closed doors) was definitely weird and no one took it lightly.

"The noise that Wasps brought is something we maybe didn't consider.

"You've got to add that energy with no crowd and it could be to do with which staff you've got with you and who you've got on the bench, stuff like that.

"The fans are an element of the game - it's why people talk about home advantage - and did we use that as best as we could? Maybe not.

"Did it lose us the game? Probably not. But it might have helped to swing it our way.

"I'm happy with whatever but boys should be a bit louder and on the pitch we need to support each other more and celebrate things when they go well.

"We could have done that better at the weekend."

Boyd took some of the blame for it.

The Saints boss said: "We sanitised our game a little bit and we were trying to go the other way and be a bit disciplined and more controlled and more organised.

"As a consequence we didn't compete terribly hard at the breakdown and we paid the price for that.

"They certainly had more enthusiasm around their game than we did and I put my hand up because it was my fault and it won't happen again."

So has Boyd told his replacements and non-playing staff to make a lot of noise when Saints travel to face London Irish at the Twickenham Stoop on Saturday?

"No, because we're only taking our team down there - we won't have any extras," he said.

"We'll have to generate our own enthusiasm on the field."

[W2APS]

Your own support team and match day squad are vital at these times in empty stadiums. As a Wycombe Wanderers fan we had the same situation in the play off matches a few weeks ago. You simply make as much noise with your bench players and anyone else you're allowed inyo the ground (in this case 10 whole tickets at Wembley for directors etc). You can nullify the home advantage that would normally exist for sure.

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[Bloke in North Dorset]

The point that I think they've missed is the relative confidence of the squads at lockdown.

I'm sure most here will have played a team sport, if not rugby, and know the feeling when you're doing well. Confidence goes up, you get more vocal with each other, you're able to pass off mistakes and give encouragement to those who made them, no mater how stupid they were, and you just know that if they score you'll score 2 and rush back for the restart. Making noise is quite natural in these circumstances, its as much to do with that exhilaration you get as a wining team when its going well as anything else.

Conversely, when you've been losing you fall in to despondency, where you think nothing will go right and the whole world's against you. You start bickering at the slightest slip by team mates, lose energy and trudge back when the ops have scored. Its really hard to get "up for it" and make noise in these circumstance.

That was the state of the 2 teams going in to the long break and its been carried through. Its hard to know what Saints' (and teams in similar positions) coaches can do, especially when they couldn't get the squads together for a long time. Lee just had to keep reminding them they're winners and ensure complacency didn't set in, unlikely when a team is on a roll after having had a difficult time.

Incidentally, I think that winning team mentality is why promoted clubs generally do well for the first few weeks and it takes a few losses before despondency and the losing mentality sets in cf Irish, whereas Bristol managed to win a few games and keep that confidence.  A better squad helped.

[baldpaul101]

very good points BiND, but don't underestimate the demons that must have been nagging away at some of the Wasps players during the lock down break around how easy it would be to fall back into the poor play they have exhibited earlier in the season, were they just lucky to have won a few games, will everyone else have  come out of the break better?

I think Lee & the rest of what is quite a new coaching team, have done a fantastic job of getting the players to pick up where they left off, not many other sides have managed it so well so far. Lets hope it continues

[Neils]

I also think it has helped having a coaching team with new members. Players wishing to impress and not be looked on as slightly below the level of others. However carry over team spirit is priceless.