Morning all!

[Wombles]

A very good morning to waspies from a cold and pleasantly quiet Guildford. I am as usual, up with the lark, with coffee on the go, and a hound already itching to get out into the Surrey hills for a Saturday morning stroll. Today is a double header with our Waspies taking on Gloucester at the holm, and also our England lads taking on Wales in Llanelli at the Park y scarlets. Both hugely exciting fixtures, to which I will be dual screening so I do not miss a moment of each game.

Days like today make me so grateful that we have rugby to watch and support once more, and with light at the end of this covid tunnel it is only a matter of time before the stadiums are full of vociferous and passionate support again. and although it will not be in stands today, it will be heard over the hills, mountains, fields and houses across our land.

For our trip to a misfiring Glos outfit shorn of Cips who does not make the 23 I find myself really pleased with selection, yes international call ups and enforced changes through injury does force the coaches hands with regards to selection, but for long term success a team needs to have a blend of senior and younger players. Importantly they must also buy into the way the coaches want to play and enjoy each other’s company and their rugby. Lee and the team has got us feeling that way, and the club feels like a family club once more, where we all feel connected no matter whether we are player, coach, employee, support staff or supporters, we are Wasps are more than just words, and success comes from foundations such as these.

Gloucester were surprisingly off beat last weekend, and succumbed easily to a resurgent Tigers outfit. One game does not make a season and for us and the boys from the West Country it is hard to draw conclusions on form or performance based upon round one, and with all the changes made by both teams to my mind today’s game is hard to call. It will however be a fascinating contest and I will be cheering the lads every step of the way!

Come on you Wasps and come on England! 

Chris

Once a Wasp ALWAYS a Wasp.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Morning Wombles.

On the advice of my doctor, for my sciatica, he advised a new bed. Got a rather large Simba mattress in the Black Friday sales (just £190 delivered), knowing it was too long (by 10cm) for the wooden bed frame we had.

Spent yesterday modifying the bed frame, fits the mattress really well. Got a great night's sleep, no pain this morning. A quick look outside confirms this is the typical type of day for a Castle Grim game - wet.

[Neils]

Morning Wombles & NWW

Actually forgot!! Walking the dog and remembered. It has broken to a very overcast miserable day here and need something to lift spirits - Wasps win at the Donkeys? Not a good heistory BUT this group of players seem to gell under advesity so maybe maybe.

Good luck to the team.

Stay safe eveyone and back to the muddy walk.

[coddy]

Morning all, I'm currently sat in bed after finishing off coffee and toast.

My morning consists of taking some Whyte and Mackay and a birthday card up to my dads for his birthday and then a 20-25 mile exercise stint on the push bike.

Its then time to crack open the cans of Craft Beers for the Wasps game against Glaws of which I will watch in full and then catch up with Launchbury and Co about 6pm on Amazon.

I can't call this game today and I'm not confident we will win our first game at Castle Grim since 2014. Lets hope the players prove me wrong and come away with a comfortable win.


COYW

[Chunky24]

Morning all, hoping for a normal end to a strange(r) week. My daughter has been self isolating all week as a result of being a close contact of a positive test at school, Thursday she has very mild symptoms so we take her for a test due to the close contact, Friday all working / learning from home while waiting for the result, call from school to say the positive test was a lab error they can all go back Monday, daughter's test result comes back as "sample can't be read" so off to test centre again, to be fair to the system yesterday's result back as negative already so hopefully back to some sort of relative normality today!

[Rossm]

Good morning everyone. Lovely misty autumn morning here in Hastings. Very soft sunlight - reminder to self to get the window cleaner in, view beginning to resemble a painting by Renoir. Foxes looking for their breakfast at the bottom of the garden. Soon time for mine - eggs and proper bacon  from a proper butcher. I always look forward to our Glaws games. A pity they are down £5, but he really is off his game. Skive has made a brave choice.

[mike909]

Morning from South Glos, it's grey and damp - it was raining at 4am as our dog decided her slaves needed to get up so she could go to the loo....if anything its improving here as the rain radar suggests the band of rain move on from Glaws itself, about half an hour ago

Will be watching England on S4C.....but beggars can't be choosers etc.

Tea in hand watching the recorded final of the Mitre 10.....dog walked and I started our dinner for tonight yesterday - so no pressure to do too much today. Cheap and cheerful coq au vin, which I hope will be nice!

As for the game - forecast is for no more rain, chilly and little wind - so a chance for both sides to enjoy the game. No clear "edge" for either side. My main concern is that Glaws are likely to have had the "hairdryer" after last w/e, we are familiar with their coaching set up and they won't be pleased with Glaws last game. I hope we can turn that to our advantage by applying pressure but it's going to be a hard day

COYW (and England)

[Heathen]

Will be watching England on S4C.....but beggars can't be choosers etc.

Thanks for the heads up on that.

Morning all. A grim, grey day in most parts of the UK today. I think our lads will be up for it, particularly after the slow start last week. Glaws will be hurting after Tigers rolled them over, so it makes for an intriguing prospect. Thorley is the one threat that concerns me. We have to make our first up tackles count.

We can win it but I fancy it will be a tight call.

#COYW.

[mike909]

No worries - I'm hoping the English commentary is working...

[Steve from Cov]

Morning all,
Too close to call for me.
Looking forward to seeing the youngsters giving it a go.
Gloucester have struggled recently but appear to have a talented coaching team and must win soon.
Our bench looks stronger than Glos and Velacott won’t be happy so maybe we can sneak it.
COYW.

[Brandnewtorugby]

Morning all, best wishes to you and yours. Sounds like a step forward Nelly, keep up with the exercises! Spent the last couple of weeks being woken by an aching swollen knee that I got putting a ceramic coating on my Street Twin!

Neither team hit their straps last week. It seems odd given the short off season, but Wasps in particular often seem to misfire a bit after a break during the season. Here's hoping both teams can click today and show how great the spectacle of rugby can be. This hope is even greater after watching yesterday's game of kick tennis, have two teams ever looked less like they wanted to play, literally ignoring overlaps and space.

I wonder if the players will miss the ribbing from the shed?

Take care,
Notso

[St Bruno]

Greetings from the damp and misty Chilterns.

I'll try and type louder so you can hear me over the sound of the vacuum cleaner being wielded by my sister-in-law.
Is that better?

It's surely time to put right our dismal Castle Grim record. Thorley will likely be a big threat, so we need to press up in the middle. I think our pack can do a number on them.

BT6 extra, wherever the hell that is!

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Morning all,

Spent the morning so far putting up lights around the house, hoping to settle down and watch the Wasps game live and then grab the England game later on once the kids are in bed. Based on last season this should be in the bag, but based on last week I'm struggling to be confident.

Time will tell I suppose! 

#COYW!!!

[hookender]

Morning all from a damp,still, and grey day in Essex.

Got back from walking the dogs and trying to get all the for done for lunch and dinner so can settle down to hopefully a great day of rugby.
 
Our game  is too close to call with the bookies making us just very slight favourites. I think Wombles needs to tweet Lee with some of his great rallying calls for him to read out in the dressing room!

Like a lot of others will watch England on catch up ,so will keep off  forums etc this afternoon , will probably even turn off sound on telly as well,just in case some idiot commentator mentions it!

COYW!!!

[MarleyWasp]

Morning all.

Having spent four painful years working in Gloucester I always approach this match with trepidation, and the mocking texts from former colleagues has already started.

Gloucester do seem in disarray on and off the pitch at the moment. Whilst we'll miss Jacob and Jack, I trust our replacements. It's the kind of game we should win, but may still lose.