Teams Up for Wuss

[Raggs]

West still has lessons to learn in the scrum, but he seems to learn them quickly, and then dominates. Really enjoying his work.

Dai was the one who dropped Sopoaga for Umaga. Wasn't he down in NZ for much of the rpevious season?

His final season saw him selecting Umaga over Sopoaga and Searle all the time?

[HDAWG]

I think it was messy, as others have mentioned, because it's a group of players who've never played together, like at the start of the season.... Absolutely no synchronization between backs, again never played together before...

That said the bench won us that game. Excited by Barbeary, T Willis and Vellacott. That said, Oghre was MOTM, just all round fantastic. Biggest disappointment was Sops. Really don't think he has a future at fly half with us, fullback perhaps but still a shame.

Not a pretty game, but staggered we got 5 points... Now next is Sale

[Dgwasp]

Phew!! After earning an early big lead Worcester fought really well and made us really chase the game.   JTA coming on, taking the lead and their weary legs all helped towards the bonus point.

Oghre had a great game and it was good to see Vellacot put in a decent performance.  Overall, not bad, just massively frustrating with the one step forward two steps back play in the first half.

[loverugby1979]

Only with a better management from our head coach ....we can improve in all the areas. Giving opportunities to the youngsters is great and of course , for god's shake, when somebody is not playing well like Lima, we have a quickly reaction from the staff and Umaga change the match.

Very proud of the lads and the youngsters. Great effort.

[Hymenoptera]

Pluses were Willis, Ogre, JTA and Gaskell but thats not unusual.
Cos were Velacott, Mills and Sops.

Can't dig them out as both are new and rusty so is what it is but Mills took too much contact and between them created a lot of slow static play..
Ogre was brilliant and has built every game, looking like a #2 behind Taylor. We are blessed at hooker..

A few tits for hands out there but i'll take a win.

[Shugs]

Pluses were Willis, Ogre, JTA and Gaskell but thats not unusual.
Cos were Velacott, Mills and Sops.

Can't dig them out as both are new and rusty so is what it is but Mills took too much contact and between them created a lot of slow static play..
Ogre was brilliant and has built every game, looking like a #2 behind Taylor. We are blessed at hooker..

A few tits for hands out there but i'll take a win.

Thought BV and RM were ok actually. RM took contact due to lack of options.

[Hymenoptera]

Not for me

[Raggs]

I'll need to watch again. Vellacotts kicking looked a bit wayward, but his passes, until later in the game, all seemed very accurate which was nice.

[Heathen]

Barbeary is an absolute beast!

[Rossm]

Applause for Paolo stopping a very probable Wuss try with some great defensive covering of a chip through.

[Buttoi]

Really interesting see us take numerous short tap and gos on their 5meter line after a penalty rather than take the usual scrum or 5 meter lineout options. choosing to take a scrum or line can backfire because of the 50 / 50 calls you can get against you so it was refreshing to see us not take the risk and trust that we could get over the line. Also keeping the ball tight from a tap and go also means we were less likely to get isolated and turned over.

Anyway it’s good to see us thinking outside the box.

[BG]

Vellacot's performance seemed to mirror Robson's from this time last year. I don't think we should underestimate a player coming back from serious injury. I've never had a knee injury but surely stepping back onto the paddock, you would have question marks in your own mind.

He got through it.. some good passes.. some bad. We've got 4 scrumhalves (unless Ohgre can play there as well??) so Blackett/Gleeson can give him a rest.. use Porter.. Robbo and Wolstie..

This is (the schedule), reminding me of old school 7 tournaments.. a very quick turnaround. You don't want to injure yourself.

Minimal training in between games

.. Is this the way forward?

[wasps]

It's also like a shout out for Rob Miller.
I believe that before the game, someone has said this was his first start for about 18 months.

Yet he was reasonably comfortable out there without necessarily being stellar, and his kicking was more than decent too.


We talk about rustiness and new players, but it can be just as problematic to be a senior player who never gets selected.
However, I believe Rob to be a true professional who trains as though he expects to be selected every game and is always as ready as he can be. If he's not selected, even for an extended period of time, he doesn't strike me as one to sulk, but instead accept it and just ensure that he's ready when required

[Bloke in North Dorset]

On reflection I think we have to give some credit to Wuss: beware the team with nothing to lose.

The feeling was that they were getting away with a lot of offside decisions and its difficult to tell on the telly, but as they tired and lost concentration through the 2nd half they started to get pinged more often, which makes me think they were just the right side most of the time.

Early on we tried to counter with a few chips through and that seemed to be working and if we'd continued might have kept them on the back foot a bit longer and created more space. After that we didn't have a decent box kick and chase strategy so we were left with long kicks down the park, which just turned the ball over. When we had the ball we were going sideways or even backwards, as someone said up thread, they would have shown up on google maps.

I can't remember the stats but at HT I think they'd made double our tackles so were likely to tire faster and credit to our guys for hanging on and then taking advantage when Wuss did start to tire. At that point our flair player really could open up and it started to be a joy to watch.

I'm looking forward to watching the development of our young talent and I'm anticipating some really happy days in the next couple of seasons.

[Heathen]

On reflection I think we have to give some credit to Wuss: beware the team with nothing to lose.

The feeling was that they were getting away with a lot of offside decisions and its difficult to tell on the telly, but as they tired and lost concentration through the 2nd half they started to get pinged more often, which makes me think they were just the right side most of the time.

Early on we tried to counter with a few chips through and that seemed to be working and if we'd continued might have kept them on the back foot a bit longer and created more space. After that we didn't have a decent box kick and chase strategy so we were left with long kicks down the park, which just turned the ball over. When we had the ball we were going sideways or even backwards, as someone said up thread, they would have shown up on google maps.

I can't remember the stats but at HT I think they'd made double our tackles so were likely to tire faster and credit to our guys for hanging on and then taking advantage when Wuss did start to tire. At that point our flair player really could open up and it started to be a joy to watch.

I'm looking forward to watching the development of our young talent and I'm anticipating some really happy days in the next couple of seasons.

+1