Match thread

[SteveTodd]

I am new to being a rugby fan, could someone please explain to me why things are going so badly recently? Is it a temporary problem due to international callings/injuries, or is it something more serious than that?

[RogerE]

Teams have realised that they need to stop us getting up a head of steam, by preventing how we play from the loose. We haven't developed a plan B.

[Hymenoptera]

Negatives: Penalties, line out, scrum, box kicking, concession of early points, decision making at all stages.
Positives: Rob Miller
We're clearly all at sea. Glaws having a man sent off was the only thing that made a game of it. The likes of Tom Willis, Shields, West and Rowlands look totally exhausted.

So Negatives: Rugby
Positives: Miller
What say you about the level of performances now, still think we aren't far off?

[wasps]

I am new to being a rugby fan, could someone please explain to me why things are going so badly recently? Is it a temporary problem due to international callings/injuries, or is it something more serious than that?

No matter what it looks like on the pitch, it's always small margins that separate winning and losing.

We currently have injuries and international call ups, and we probably aren't as good as we thought we were in the first place.

As with all sports, players thrive on confidence, and it's the leaders on the pitch that should be instilling that confidence when things aren't going well.
Unfortunately, that's not happening at the moment.

On top of that, we've based a lot of our game on a certain style that we're struggling to replicate at the moment.

We're not controlling up front without launchbury, Brookes, Rowlands.
We're not dominating the breakdown without Jack and Thomas
We're not breaking tackles without Alfie.



Turning it around is not easy, and as always coaches earn their money when things aren't working.
Anyone can do the job when you're winning, but this is the crunch time.

That being said, sometimes, a single big tackle can change everything.
It can swing momentum in a game which turns a losing game to a winning game.
A single win can bring the smiles back and that can lead to a second win and so on




So, ultimately, it's confidence as it is with most sports

[Shugs]

Negatives: Penalties, line out, scrum, box kicking, concession of early points, decision making at all stages.
Positives: Rob Miller
We're clearly all at sea. Glaws having a man sent off was the only thing that made a game of it. The likes of Tom Willis, Shields, West and Rowlands look totally exhausted.

So Negatives: Rugby
Positives: Miller
What say you about the level of performances now, still think we aren't far off?

Our performance are odd and repetitive in that we give away lots of stupid penalties and end up chasing insurmountable leads. We then seem to panic and then instead of taking the game we make a hash of it (Saints, Irish, Glaws). How far off are we - quite a bit at the moment. I suppose the question is why. It's easy to see with no Covid breaks and a fair few injuries and call ups a good portion of our current 23 are out on their feet. We need key players back and we'll be ok but long term I think we need to address TH and scrum half as those positions are issues for us when first choices aren't available.