Wasps v Northampton post match thoughts

[Shugs]

Gaskell actually gives loads of penalties away - he really needs to improve in that area.

[RogerE]

Luckily I mananged to watch some of first half  on Rugbypass, before nice lady at BT sorted out login problems.

Thought MoM was the TV match official who definitely wanted to be on the field. Wasn't too unhappy with Ref, but Jamma and Brookes should have known better.

Thought Miller and Oghre were excellent. Jimmy seemed off today - carrying a knock?

Umaga - think he needs a week or so to get his head together, but have we got the manpower to rest him?

And please, whoever takes penalty kicks to touch, make sure they go to touch rather than try to force the last few cms out of the kick and missing touch.

[mike909]

Wasps. I think we need to both recognise that was a dumb performance and that dumbness showed both in the yellows and near the end in those kicks to touch. They probably cost us a game that we probably didn't deserve to win....But we also need to remember that the Prem is a closer league than it was and without so many first choice starters, we needed to avoid the dumb and use the collective brain more

Officiating. We only have ourselves to blame for the yellows - why take the risk after one? He was actually not bad around the breakdown, but bottled the multi penalty issue too long and was guessing - like most refs - at scrum time. Seemed perhaps a little out of his depth perhaps.

[Hymenoptera]

Gaskell was a penalty only any other week, but that aside the ref was good.

Had Umaga passed the ball like a professional rugby player, we'd have likely won. Ditto for the 2 penalties to touch from him and Aktinson. These errors absolutely killed us. Some calling for Umaga to have a couple of weeks off, we've just had a 2 week break. 9 remains a problem area, I saw nothing from BV that tells me he improved the position against tired opposition but Wolleston didn't steal the shirt either.

Brad was immense and showed real leadership today with the ref interaction. Ogre, Miller, Zak and Willis did all they could but in the first 30 we hardly had the ball. Atkinson holds the 10 jersey for me regardless of age or experience.
As for deserving to win, the winner deserves to win, it's rarely subjective and def wasn't today. But today we lost that game rather than Saints won it and that's a big frustration.

[Shugs]

Yes, agree with a lot of that. Shields should stay as captain as much for his play as his ref interaction. I think the big thing Vellacott brings is experience. As it happens Porter is injured so it's him and Wolstenholme for a while. This was much better than last week where we were beaten rather than losing it ourselves.

[HDAWG]

This was much better than last week where we were beaten rather than losing it ourselves.

+1 Bingo.

[petros]

Ref no worse than any of the others ,just thought Gaskell card was soft

Id Saints had had the ref/TMo combo last week they would have had 2 or 3 in the bin as they continually hit the 9 after a box kick. Jamma's card was soft but two forwards off for 8  mins killed us

[Horusthewasp]

Yes, agree with a lot of that. Shields should stay as captain as much for his play as his ref interaction. I think the big thing Vellacott brings is experience. As it happens Porter is injured so it's him and Wolstenholme for a while. This was much better than last week where we were beaten rather than losing it ourselves.

Agree on all points. Even if Porter is fit, I’d actually say Wolstenholme should be above him in the pecking order based on recent performance.

[westwaleswasp]

Ref was late on the Saints first yellow but fine otherwise   Why give the ref a decision to make for no advantage? We gained nothing by getting those yellows,and the ceiling was not high on the decision. What was the best we could have hoped for from Gaskell's and Brookes' actions? Stop a try? Let them know you are here? Saints infringed a lot to stop us scoring. We infringed for no reason.

[will311293]

I think the issue is we having seen a heavily changed team in the last few weeks since the 2 week break. the constant change of 9 and 10 hasn't helped. Thought Benji actually made a lot of difference when he came on as added a bit more control as Sam didn't seem to know what the plan was.

Backs never really got into the game but for me what was worrying that our pack is showing signs of creaking. I think when you look a few players, they just can't keep up. Brookes indiscipline cost us as did Gaskell, TBH the numerous penalties for lack of discipline was the cost factor.

Also i think sadly it might be the end for Chesty, he just looks knackered and clearly wasn't fit to play.

This feels more and more like a decision point for us this season as we need to examine where we go, we have a number of very talented youngster and some star key players but maybe a fair few squad players that either aren't cost effective or spend too long on the injury table.

We still have very much a reliance on Robson & Gops to get out backline functioning and very clear to see. They control Umaga, ATkinson etc and bring in Fekitoa, Zack, Josh etc.

I think next season we will see more of Mills taking on Gops role and maybe see an experienced 9 come in as the elderly statesman to manage Umaga/Atkinson whilst Robson is away with England.

I think if Brookes is off, it's time we invested in our props. JTA is a good operator and i'm loving West but struggling with some of the others constantly being on injury table.

The penalty at the end summed up all that is wrong atm, we rushed things and didn't set ourselves and it cost us.

[Mellie]

Wasps lost it when we battered the Saints line at 0-3 and failed to score. Carrying, support and decision making were very poor.

Saints end up with the ball, go down the pitch and score their first try. Then we give away 2 crass yellow cards and they score 2 more.

We should have scored near the end if Jacob had tried to draw his man and got closer to Zak before passing. Would have been a much easier pass and a run in.

Overall though we were terrible. Sloppy, ill disciplined and lacked cohesion and intensity. We need to practice at high intensity and get back to playing accurately at high tempo in both attack and defence.

Malakai has been thrown in too soon. He is a shadow of his former self. I'm sure Lee hinted 2 weeks ago that he needed a bit more time to get up to speed but nobody else available.

Jacob does not have average games. He's either very good or very poor.

[baldpaul101]

So Wasps were not great, but they were better than last week!
They should have won that game relatively comfortably.
2 very silly yellow cards & some wrong decision making (when those same decisions have paid off in previous games) made the difference.
They were still working hard enough at the end to nick it & probably should have done. But the damage had already been done in the first half.

On another day, that team team could have scored 40 points against the same oppo.