On the other site, I posted an update/snapshot on Wasps’ current unavailable players (injury, suspension, international duty) as well as for other clubs. I also included a breakdown of squad sizes across the Premiership. Hopefully this might be of interest here.
Wasps Injury Update:Based on this week’s update from BB, here is the list of injured Wasps players (14) and their expected returns
(some from previous reports):
- Alo (hand) - early April
- Barbeary (ankle) - late March
- De Jongh (hamstring) - back in contention
- Launchbury (stress fracture) - late March
- McIntyre (calf) - early April
- Mills (foot) - no timeline (3rd delay)
- Owlett (achilles) - 'on the verge' of being available
- Porter (hamstring) - back training
- Spink (foot) - mid March
- Sopoaga (calf) - back training
- Watson (achilles) - early April
- Willis (knee) - no timeline
- Wolstenholme (calf) - early March
- Young (concussion) - possibly back this week after having the same time off as Kibirige
To mitigate the above, Wasps signed two Cornish Pirates on short term loan deals;
Walker (loose-head prop) &
Schwarz (scrum half) as well as Ospreys’
Thomas (tight-head prop).
Suspensions: - Brookes - suspended for 3 weeks so missing Irish, Gloucester & Bristol games. Back in contention for Newcastle game on 19th March.
- Orgre - back in contention after serving ban.
Internationals & Rest Periods: With the last 6N games being on 20th March will
Robson,
Odogwu &
Rowlands* be in contention for the Sale fixture a week later on the 27th? If I recall (happy to be corrected) the RFU requires EPS players to a week long break if they play all international games
and more than 65% of total minutes. I don’t think any of our players will fulfil both parameters but they may be subject to other rules or agreed upon arrangements.
Although I understood the need for the mandatory 2 week rest period that occurred at the end of last year given the quick season-to-season turnaround & the ANC, I suspect that this time round the number of game minutes (and training) our internationals will have put in during the 6Ns will be significantly lower than their counterparts back at the Ricoh over the same period.
It would be great to get clarity on this as the Sale game will be followed by the two HC QF legs and then a visit to Sandy Park when we return to the Premiership.
*I understand WRU doesn’t have the same rules as the RFU, but I assume Wasps will treat Rowlands like the England players for parity (as they did with Minozzi after the ANC). Other Clubs’ Injuries:This is what I could find on the other clubs’ injuries from recent articles.
Disclaimer: It may not be exhaustive or up to date but it should at least be somewhat indicative. Happy for anyone to update/correct. I couldn’t find anything clear on
Sale (from
memory just Curry, Van Rensburg and Akker),
Newcastle (just Wilson and Grondona?) or
Irish (Coleman, Naholo, Mahu, Williams, Kerr & Matu'u - thanks to “Margin_Walker” for that list).
For a different perspective, the following is a list of squad sizes for all Premiership clubs. The figures are from each club’s website (again some are slightly out of date):
Total Squad Size including Academy: Club: Total Squad (Senior + Academy) - Northampton: 69 (57 + 12)
- Exeter: 67 (56+11)
- Gloucester: 67 (45 + 22)
- Newcastle: 64 (48 + 16)
- Bath: 63 (44 + 19)
- Leicester: 62 (43 + 19)
- Bristol: 60 (43 + 17)
- Worcester: 59 (50 + 9)
- Wasps: 58 (44 + 14)
- Harlequins: 57 (41 + 16)
- Irish: 55 (38 + 17)
- Sale: 49 (32 + 17)
Senior Squad Size: - Northampton: 57
- Exeter: 56
- Worcester: 50
- Newcastle: 48
- Gloucester: 45
- Bath: 44
- Wasps: 44
- Bristol: 43
- Leicester: 43
- Harlequins: 41
- Irish: 38
- Sale: 32
Unavailable as % of Senior Squad Size*: - Wasps: 43% - 19 out of 44
- Bristol: 42% - 18 out of 43
- Gloucester: 27% - 12 out of 45
- Harlequins: 24% - 10 out of 41
- Bath: 20% - 9 out of 44
- Irish: 16% - 6 out of 38
- Leicester: 14% - 6 out of 43
- Northampton: 12% - 7 out of 57
- Exeter: 11% - 6 out of 56
- Worcester: 10% - 5 out of 50
- Sale: 9% - 3 out of 32
- Newcastle: 4% - 2 out of 48
*although some of the injured are academy players, the absolute majority are senior players. A few points of observation: - The average Premiership squad size (including academy) is 61 players.
- The average senior squad size is 45 and average academy squad size is 16.
- Wasps sit slightly below those average figures at 44 and 14.
- Wasps (followed by Bristol) top the list of most injured/unavailable players in terms of total numbers but also as a % of the senior squad.
- Currently the average ‘unavailable’ figure across the Premiership is 8.5 per club or 19% of the senior squad.
- Approximately 70% of those currently unavailable across the Premiership are out injured.
- Northampton have the largest squad size (both total and senior) and along with Newcastle have played the fewest number of games due to Covid cancellations (just 7 out of 10 games).
- Northampton and Exeter’s senior squads are approx 25% larger than the average for the Premiership.
- I knew Sale had a small squad but I wasn’t aware just how small it was ... senior squad is almost half of Northampton’s.
- Although the above stats show that Gloucester have the largest academy squad (22), several clubs have multiple academy groups/squads/levels.
Always a Wasp
Topic: Wasps & Other Premiership Clubs Unavailable Players & Squad Sizes (Read 903 times)