Great Expectations?

[Shugs]

Thus far we've registered a win against a definite top four contender and a BP away at a decent side. Yet the pervading feeling seems to be one of overall disappointment. It was bound to happen I suppose - we've done nothing but win (save the final) since resumption. Losing seems like a jolt. Teams will prepare harder and more thouroughly for us all season. I think the bigger challenge though will be for us to play with the freedom we did last season whilst carrying the extra expectation of winning. When we "freed up" against Bristol and Glaws we scored the sort of tries we were scoring for fun last season. The coaches will need to work hard to keep the freedom flowing.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

We were very much down in terms of first pick players. The insane pace of the end of last season, the lack of any significant off season, the internationals and all the injuries (now even worse), yes, it is going to be tough.

[HDAWG]

We were very much down in terms of first pick players. The insane pace of the end of last season, the lack of any significant off season, the internationals and all the injuries (now even worse), yes, it is going to be tough.

Bang on. Agreed

[hookender]

I guess my own disappointment so far is seeing the potential of our team not coming through. Yes, maybe we are missing players ,but we were rotating players in those ‘back from lockdown’ games.

Perhaps the expectation of a new dawn was too early, some of the songbirds are still asleep.

[mike909]

I think any disappointment registered is probably on the back of the euphoria of last season. It's far too easy and I am as guilty as anyone - to have unrealistic expectations as well as failing to register the reality of the season ending not long ago and trying to get back on that particular horse. And whilst having appropriate consideration for player welfare

I do think that the lack of so many players has made that worse (well of course...) and that we forget just how much having Dan and other leaders on the pitch makes and also it's a game now of very small percentages. We managed 4 tries which was great - but we did look just a little off the pace - perhaps mentally more than anything. It was also a v bad week to go to Glaws!

The only side that's been able to make such transfers of season is Exeter and they were a little slow vs Quin but won and put 40 points on what was not a terrible (on paper) Bath side. Yes - they've got most of their players but were able to put a multi season team culture on the pitch such that they had confidence and options if things were not going right.

We're building towards that. It will take time - but I expect we'll get back on the horse once the session number increases and the injury gods look favourable in our direction....

[Hymenoptera]

Thus far we've registered a win against a definite top four contender and a BP away at a decent side. Yet the pervading feeling seems to be one of overall disappointment. It was bound to happen I suppose - we've done nothing but win (save the final) since resumption. Losing seems like a jolt. Teams will prepare harder and more thouroughly for us all season. I think the bigger challenge though will be for us to play with the freedom we did last season whilst carrying the extra expectation of winning. When we "freed up" against Bristol and Glaws we scored the sort of tries we were scoring for fun last season. The coaches will need to work hard to keep the freedom flowing.

I have to correct you here, we burgled a win against a contenders 2/3rd team and the prem is full of decent sides.
Yesterday was last week, against better opposition. We are not playing well, best not to pretend we are

[wasps]

I think we're a team that has a couple of individuals who define us.
Namely, Jack, Jimmy and Jacob

Joe is another that could be added, except that I feel we can put out a decent 2nd row without him... But I feel much happier with him there


However, take Jacob away from fly half and our attack has to change significantly.
We haven't had a decent 12 other than Jimmy for a long time - although yesterday MlB showed glimpses of being better than I'd seen him previously
And with Jack, our breakdown work is completely different. Thomas Young is fantastic, but together, him and Jack are a formidable back row


We were without 2 of those players and the 3rd was in a different position.
We're going to have to get used to it because Jack and Jacob could well be with England on and off for a number of years.



We can put out a strong front row regardless of who we select.
We can put out a decent second row too.
However, our back row has a completely different feel without Jack.

In the backs, I don't really care which of our 9s is playing as long as it's Jacob and Jimmy at 10/12.
Malakai at 13 is an extreme luxury and I'm so glad we have him, however, if we have the right 10/12, then I feel like we score enough regardless who else is in the backline



We're heavily reliant on those 3 and it's obvious we need good understudies for them... Unfortunately, there aren't many players out there like them

[Shugs]

Thus far we've registered a win against a definite top four contender and a BP away at a decent side. Yet the pervading feeling seems to be one of overall disappointment. It was bound to happen I suppose - we've done nothing but win (save the final) since resumption. Losing seems like a jolt. Teams will prepare harder and more thouroughly for us all season. I think the bigger challenge though will be for us to play with the freedom we did last season whilst carrying the extra expectation of winning. When we "freed up" against Bristol and Glaws we scored the sort of tries we were scoring for fun last season. The coaches will need to work hard to keep the freedom flowing.

I have to correct you here, we burgled a win against a contenders 2/3rd team and the prem is full of decent sides.
Yesterday was last week, against better opposition. We are not playing well, best not to pretend we are

I don't buy all this Bristol 3 Rd team stuff. And when you say "burgled a win" we were ahead for most of the game. We're not playing as well as at the end of last season - that's a fact. But we ourselves are missing half a dozen pivotal players.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

We were very much down in terms of first pick players. The insane pace of the end of last season, the lack of any significant off season, the internationals and all the injuries (now even worse), yes, it is going to be tough.

It wasn't losing that I found so frustrating that I went off to watch England, it was the frustration at the way the match was being refereed and our lack to ability to play the referee. As someone said elsewhere, its happened before.

As you say, we had some key players missing, but we knew that would happen, and we've discussed here a few times that we'd have a short turn around and hectic start to the season so perhaps our expectations were too high?

In the cold light of day I think we got some young players a lot of experience and if managed well you can learn more from your loses than wins. The coaches jobs are to recognise those bits and, more importantly, make sure that we don't lose confidence as both winning and losing are habit forming.

[backdoc]

The defence had nowhere near the intensity required and expressed in august-October.

Some of the missed tackles were inexcusable, and the game swung on them.

[HDAWG]

We were very much down in terms of first pick players. The insane pace of the end of last season, the lack of any significant off season, the internationals and all the injuries (now even worse), yes, it is going to be tough.

It wasn't losing that I found so frustrating that I went off to watch England, it was the frustration at the way the match was being refereed and our lack to ability to play the referee. As someone said elsewhere, its happened before.

While I agree with what you said, I'll add that we were incredibly unlucky with decisions. I agree some of it was not playing to the ref and shocking discipline, but it was also not getting decisions to go our way. Which we can't help.

But yeah, playing to the ref, improving discipline, defence + attack were my main take aways of what wasps were bad at. It felt like one of those days. Perhaps it'll be used to motivate the players. Because after Sale performance we beat Bath and Saracens in some truly phenomenal style.

[Rossm]

But yeah, playing to the ref,

Changing your scrum cap at HT, from black to bright blue. Worked for Jamma

[hookender]

But yeah, playing to the ref,

Changing your scrum cap at HT, from black to bright blue. Worked for Jamma

Do you think ref thought we had made a substitution ? Shows his observational skills.

[Shugs]

The defence had nowhere near the intensity required and expressed in august-October.

Some of the missed tackles were inexcusable, and the game swung on them.

Yes, tend to agree with that. Details were just off (Gopperth missed touch, Wolstenholme out on the full etc etc). And agree the intensity was just down a bit. I think that's down to personnel, which is not an excuse, it's just the reality of missing your first up players.

[Raggs]

Without having seen the game, there's a big difference between rotation during lockdown last season, and having to put in replacements at 4,5,6,8,9,10,12,13,15 (Jimmy at 10 is not Jimmy at 12). The only non-key player not in that list is 2. That's the whole spine of the team swapped out.

The issue is, there's a lot of internationals to come, so we're basically going to have to make it work either way.