Bristol V Wasps: Post match thoughts.

[Wombles]

Groundhog Day

Lose the gain line lose the game.

It is becoming a little bit repetitious, and I sound like a broken record, but discipline! Game after game after game after game after.......well you see my point. Once more we give up field position, possession and points. So many soft penalties I given away it is just embarrassing.

A promising first half ends with a second where the home side out muscled, out fought and out managed us. The little ball we had was shovelled around and their was no fluidity, and all because we cannot stay in a physical contest. You lose that, you lose the gain line you lose it all.

Young’s aside we have so few Jacklers of the ball that we have lost the edge we had last season, no one is putting their hands up by putting their heads down and getting in there to win that most vital of things....the ball!!

We must continue this journey and must develop an entire squad capable of playing at the top, I stand fully behind that. But frankly they need to become more physical and dominant in the forwards, the set piece and gain line otherwise defeat after defeat will follow.

Sights must now be adjusted, goals reset. Forget top 4, we are no where near capable of that and there are too many better teams in this league to let us get into that group. Top 6 is possible, but only if we develop hugely and get form players back while the wider squad develops in every facet of the game......Have a real crack at Europe but for the love of the big man....develop and show that next season we start moving upwards!

[Chunky24]

Agree with pretty much all, although despite no points this week possibly the most positive performance compared to many of those which actually gained points.

If Pat Lam with his connacht experience doesn't have a wet weather game plan then who would!

Gain line is massive now which explains so many of other clubs signings for this and next season, such as Sale and Tigers, of big physical South Africans we may not of heard of but will make that impact to let the more well known names be able to play.

[Peej]

Just so poor. Second best across the board really. 10 minutes of intensity followed by increasing disinterest.

Big problems across the side, but particularly at half back and in midfield. We have no real ability to consistently turn possession into points

[Shugs]

I was actually really encouraged by this. First half we basically matched them. The luck was with Bristol. Three post hits which put us under pressure. That said we gave brainless penalties away again - three offsides from the line out - what was Umaga thinking? We looked to have good intensity but somehow just lost touch. Thought Fekitoa, Young, Rowlands and Vailanu showed up. This is an exhausted group due to a few circumstances but while the effort is as it was tonight well definitely be ok.

[HDAWG]

I was actually really encouraged by this. First half we basically matched them. The luck was with Bristol. Three post hits which put us under pressure. That said we gave brainless penalties away again - three offsides from the line out - what was Umaga thinking? We looked to have good intensity but somehow just lost touch. Thought Fekitoa, Young, Rowlands and Vailanu showed up. This is an exhausted group due to a few circumstances but while the effort is as it was tonight well definitely be ok.

I think this is a good alternative perspective. I really hope you're right.

[Heathen]

I was very impressed with Lee's post match interview. The lads are drained mentally and physically.

Valiant effort in the first half but little control in the second.

The cavalry starts to return next week.

I always felt that without Jack, Joe, Alfie, Dan, Paolo and Keiran we would struggle around the gainline.

THe scales should start to tip in our favour over the next few weeks.

[Shugs]

Agreed Heathen. I saw things tonight that re-assured me. The group is together and desperate to fix things. Throw some top notch performers into that mix and the scales will indeed start to dip in our favour.

[hookender]

Despite loss actually thought it was it was a better performance all round.

Only gripes were again penalties for silly incidents such as the offsides. Turnover penalties I can mostly accept as almost part and parcel .

Other annoyance was at scrum Porter seemed to allow other 9 to boss either put in . Seemed to be too eager get round back so allowing their 9 to mess up the pick up or pass out.Needs to look at Care ,Robson , Faf , Simpson etc.

[Heathen]

Not directly linked to this thread but relevant to a big issue that we have, especially at scrum half, is that when Lima goes - I don't think that there are many who think that he is staying - it will free up a huge wedge to reinforce one or two key posutions that need quality back up.

[Steve from Cov]

Agree with pretty much all, although despite no points this week possibly the most positive performance compared to many of those which actually gained points.

If Pat Lam with his connacht experience doesn't have a wet weather game plan then who would!

Gain line is massive now which explains so many of other clubs signings for this and next season, such as Sale and Tigers, of big physical South Africans we may not of heard of but will make that impact to let the more well known names be able to play.

+1

[HDAWG]

but relevant to a big issue that we have, especially at scrum half, when Lima goes it will free up a huge wedge to reinforce one or two key posutions that need quality back up.

+1

But strangely no rumours related to that. Aaron Smith recently re signed and was a free agent prior, for example. Hope we do get another scrum half, for points but also development of younger scrum halves.

[Hymenoptera]

Some on this board could lose a winning lottery ticket and see the positives in it...good on you though, seriously. But surely it's worrying when claiming how lucky the opposition were, lucky not to get 9 points is a new one on me. You can watch the shags on a Sunday giving effort, that isn't a measure of performance and effort doesn't equal wins.

My coffee tells me something different.
Firstly Lee..clearly hasn't a clue what to do so has reverted to 'how tired the boys are'.
 
JTA hasn't been reg starter, Ogre hardly played, Taylor rotated, cruise rotated, two of the back row have just returned from injury layoff, Miller hasn't played for about 5 years, Fek is just back from injury, Gops has rotated with Boog regularly, the 9's have rotated through 3 of them, Umaga just returned from 3 weeks off. The only ones that have a right to be 'tired' are Gaskell, TWIllis, Rowlands and Brad...

This is a spoiler alert..look away now. Professional sportsmen get tired, it's not unique to Wasps, this is no excuse and the facts don't support the argument anyway. If they are tired, give them time off, they wont forget how to play rugby.

The only positives I could take out of that game were the fact that the terrible weather worked for us in being a leveler.
We also didn't ship 40+ while handing the opposition their obligatory 5 points.
Bristol were down to their 4th choice 10
Bristol were also missing players.
We again grabbed a last minute try to flatter the scoreboard.
We'll remain out of the bottom 2 for at least another 2 weeks.
We still beat a couple of teams earlier in the season.

i'm baffled people think we were in the game in the first half. Apart from an opportunist break from Vainanu when Hughes decided to stick his mullet into the ruck, a position that Bristol gave us after 3 pens on the bounce took us from our own line to their 22, we created absolutely nothing, zero, nada, in 80 mins. Set plays, creativity ..not a chance

It speaks volumes of where we are that there's satisfaction to have not been utterly smashed, and that the lofty ambition is when the cavalry arrive, we'll work our way up to a losing BP.
1 out of the last 7, 4 at home. 5 out of 13..it's dross.

[westwaleswasp]

I think the biggest worry for me is simple. We concede from lineout drives and do not score from them often enough. The way the game is we will keep losing if we do not sort this out. Defending lineout is very challenging for the defending teams, so why is our conversion rate of chances  so poor? Will Rowlands got in amongst their drives quite well, so we conceded less than usual from them, but we never even sniffed one from ours.
 
I would say we obviously miss Dobby in terms of decision making, but then again, there was one tonight where the ball carrier looked like he was practically refusing to release it to Will when the drive was going nowhere, at which point the decision making of the scrum half does not come into it. In general week on week we seem to bring our own drives down and more often than not we turn it over straight away. I don't really understand why ours seems so ineffective.

[mike909]

I was actually really encouraged by this. First half we basically matched them. The luck was with Bristol. Three post hits which put us under pressure. That said we gave brainless penalties away again - three offsides from the line out - what was Umaga thinking? We looked to have good intensity but somehow just lost touch. Thought Fekitoa, Young, Rowlands and Vailanu showed up. This is an exhausted group due to a few circumstances but while the effort is as it was tonight well definitely be ok.

+1
I was actually pretty pleased and the score was a little unfair to us. It was a group that is a little burned out and we were playing a v decent Bristol side that our defence mainly dealt with, obvious exception aside. I think we'll get a better view once we regain some players and are not selecting from the 25 who can walk to the coach by themselves.

[Covkid40]

Some on this board could lose a winning lottery ticket and see the positives in it...good on you though, seriously. But surely it's worrying when claiming how lucky the opposition were, lucky not to get 9 points is a new one on me. You can watch the shags on a Sunday giving effort, that isn't a measure of performance and effort doesn't equal wins.

My coffee tells me something different.
Firstly Lee..clearly hasn't a clue what to do so has reverted to 'how tired the boys are'.
 
JTA hasn't been reg starter, Ogre hardly played, Taylor rotated, cruise rotated, two of the back row have just returned from injury layoff, Miller hasn't played for about 5 years, Fek is just back from injury, Gops has rotated with Boog regularly, the 9's have rotated through 3 of them, Umaga just returned from 3 weeks off. The only ones that have a right to be 'tired' are Gaskell, TWIllis, Rowlands and Brad...

This is a spoiler alert..look away now. Professional sportsmen get tired, it's not unique to Wasps, this is no excuse and the facts don't support the argument anyway. If they are tired, give them time off, they wont forget how to play rugby.

The only positives I could take out of that game were the fact that the terrible weather worked for us in being a leveler.
We also didn't ship 40+ while handing the opposition their obligatory 5 points.
Bristol were down to their 4th choice 10
Bristol were also missing players.
We again grabbed a last minute try to flatter the scoreboard.
We'll remain out of the bottom 2 for at least another 2 weeks.
We still beat a couple of teams earlier in the season.

i'm baffled people think we were in the game in the first half. Apart from an opportunist break from Vainanu when Hughes decided to stick his mullet into the ruck, a position that Bristol gave us after 3 pens on the bounce took us from our own line to their 22, we created absolutely nothing, zero, nada, in 80 mins. Set plays, creativity ..not a chance

It speaks volumes of where we are that there's satisfaction to have not been utterly smashed, and that the lofty ambition is when the cavalry arrive, we'll work our way up to a losing BP.
1 out of the last 7, 4 at home. 5 out of 13..it's dross.

Absolutely agree with this two opportunistic trys nothing really created. I hate to say this but Umaga looks like a frightened boy in a mans game at the moment and more worryingly it looks like Jimmy’s powers are on the wane, gone are the days when he can drag a team up with his own individual brilliance. I’m not saying he’s finished but In past years he could change a game himself even when everyone around him was having a stinker.