Irish v Wasps: Post match thoughts.

[Rossm]

Can Hepetema be cited despite his yellow?  I'm surprised that two experienced refs Foley and Ridley (TMO) came up with that decision. Looked like so many other reds this season.

[Raggs]

Can Hepetema be cited despite his yellow?  I'm surprised that two experienced refs Foley and Ridley (TMO) came up with that decision. Looked like so many other reds this season.

He can be, but it's not common that a citing officer will overturn a yellow card to make it red.

[Steve from Cov]

Definitely the worst (first) half performance I have seen from Wasps but to come back from that was pretty heroic.

Huge performance from Tom Willis and the bench replacements gave us a new lease of life and got us over the line.

Lee looked mightily relieved at the end but he deserves some good fortune.

[Wombles]

Definitely the worst (first) half performance I have seen from Wasps but to come back from that was pretty heroic.

Huge performance from Tom Willis and the bench replacements gave us a new lease of life and got us over the line.

Lee looked mightily relieved at the end but he deserves some good fortune.

I cannot work it out. The more I think about it in selected 40s the more I get confused. The first 40 was abject, yet the second forty can only be achieved by a team that has ability and potential in spades! Quite a contradiction, and weirdly felt like a moment where the past died and the future began.

[Raggs]

Quite a few of the inches went wrong (Robson quick tap etc) but i don't think we we're abject in the first half. Irish were on fire and every offload was sticking. They were playing really fast and hard. It can't be understated how well they were playing.

I'm not going to suggest we were good, but for me that first half was more Irish playing out of their skins than us playing terribly.

[MartinB - Radnage Wasp]

Just home after an exhausting experience. First, Brentford is a great ground, excellent facilities and a great (in main) bunch of supporters. After sitting in the sun at completely the wrong end for watching the action all 4 of us were, in turns, despairing, frustrated and then completely exhilarated; my daughter even fell over as she jumped up too quickly to celebrate as she got so dizzy in the heat.
I echo the comments above that the first half was one of the worst halves I have seen from Wasps.....and that includes Pertemps Bees! I have to watch the game back but we just didn't seem to be able to defend the quick ball and it looked like the players had never met each other before, particularly in the midfield. In that first half we were saying that Jacob just has to tackle better and Oghre has to hit his jumpers. West played really well while he was on, Shields was his usual inspiring self but seemed to get on the wrong side of the ref too many times, Rowlands was playing well and Dan Robson just continues to be superb.....apart from the knock on when trying to take a quick penalty!
Over drinks at half time we were really down and were just hoping for something in the second half to save some pride...little did we think we would actually win it.
Whatever was said at half time certainly worked and we were so impressed and proud with the boys. All the subs seemed to make a positive impact and we might have won it easier if Jacob had kicked better.
All in all a great day out and fantastic to be watching live rugby again.
Now for the Tigers......we will have to bring the second half performance for the full 80 minutes. Come on boys, you can do it!!

[Shugs]

On a slightly wider perspective I'm not sure how Willis, Vailanu and an Irish player near the end weren't hauled off for an HIA?

[hookender]

Nothing like live rugby .thoroughly enjoyed stadium and pubs nearby . Had written off win at half time and missed josh try , at bar under stand,thought roar meant it was another try for Irish , it was that loud!
Well done lads for pulling it back . Managed to bend ear of Mr Vaughan , if I was enthusiastic , you should hear him!

[Tervueren]

During the warm-up someone in the crowd shouted to Tom Cruse "are we going to win" and he responded "that's the plan".

Clearly we should hang our heads in shame for negative thoughts during the first 40, it was never in doubt, all part of a wonderfully executed plan with drama, exhilaration, and 5 points.

Would you get this much excitement supporting Exeter?

[MarleyWasp]

I was far too emotional last night to post anything other than ramblings, so I thought I'd wait until this morning.

It felt really strange after 15 months of watching matches on TV with just the dog for company to be going to the match. Driving through North West London I saw so many people walking down the road in a variety of Wasps shirts that the day had a Twickenham Cup Final feel to it. It felt so great to be able to go out, have lunch out with friends, watch a match, go home with the dog happy to see me and then watch the match back with a takeaway curry.

Thoughts on the match:

First half: Absolute horror show. Tom West's scrumaging and Josh Bassett reading the intercept spot on aside, I cannot recall anything we did in the first half that you could describe as competent. It was without doubt the worst I've seen us play and I include that 27-0 defeat to Bordeaux in that.

At half time I said to a friend that I couldn't believe that we've waited 15 months for live rugby only to be served with that utter *****. My friend's response was that if we win he'd donate £100 to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Straight from the start of the second half the intensity was much higher than it has been for much of the season. After Tom W's first and Marcus's try I started to think it might be on. Once Tom got his second I really started to think we'd be capable of pulling off a shock and by the time Josh got his second, I could see only one winner.

Irish players, coaches and fans will have had a sleepless night over their decision making. I cannot understand the logic in turning down a fairly easy three points to go for a line out in the corner, when you're up by 4 and the opposition goal kicker is having a bit of a mare with the boot, but the opposition is in the ascendancy. To compound that error by making it again a couple of minutes later defies logic.

I'm so pleased for Tom that he completed his hattrick to win the game. Someone from Reading Abbey once told me that out of him and Jack, it's Tom who is the better player and he is really becoming vital to the team. I cannot recall a single half performance from a Wasps player as good as that. He was absolutely everywhere. But... should he have been on the field? He was clearly affected by the head knock from Terrance Hepetema (I won't say what autocorrect on my phone switches Hepetema to...) and having watched the incident back I cannot understand why he wasn't taken off for a HIA. I am not entirely sure he'd have passed it either. Wasps are not the first club to be guilty of not taking a player off for an HIA after a head knock and we won't be the last, but I do think it's time to fine clubs and dock league points every time a player takes a knock to the head, isn't taken off for a HIA and later fails one.

On this note, I gather Tom Foley and Christophe Ridley were seen having coffees in a pub in Kew before the match. I can't help but wonder if they were smoking a joint whilst they were at it given their decision over that incident. If you shoot at someone, it's dangerous, regardless of whether you kill them or they're able to run off. The fact that Hepetema started low and then stood up was evidence enough at just how dangerous a tackle it was. The fact that Tom didn't drop to the floor was not mitigation. I am also not sure they got the Stokes on Vailanu challenge right either.

Foley and Ridley are decent refs in my book and definitley have the potential to go far, but they were both worryingly wrong over the Hepetema incident. Lee said in the week how it's reaching the point where play acting will start to become the done thing if staying down after a head hit means it goes from a yellow card to a red. We really don't want Rugby to go down the play acting route but decisions like this make it more likely. I won't hold my breath on a citing though. That would mean admitting they got it wrong and the RFU Referees panel seem to prefer compounding an error to admitting it was the wrong call. Im still shock Carerras was cited in all honesty.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I've let it sink in overnight before commenting on the game.

Firstly I love that stadium, you feel close enough to be part of the action, and the seating colours are genius.  The crowd was LOUD even at only 1/4 full.  And As a lone wasp sitting among LI fans I was made to feel very welcome indeed.

I stand by my comments during the game though, the first half was genuinely embarrassing to watch. We can blame the ref, or the fact that Irish were playing well, but the fact is there was no desire, no energy, and no commitment.  It looked like we were a team killing time until the end of the season.  When you watch the game on TV you follow the action so you don't see the rest of the team moving around on the pitch, you don't feel the lack of motivation that was so obvious.

The second half was obviously a different thing entirely, but in some ways that makes it even worse.

We can play with passion, commitment and genuine skill, and yet we didn't bother for half of the game.

Towards the end, under Dai we often looked beaten before we'd started, and the change in coaching brought life back to the team and we showed what we are capable of.  But yesterday was as bad as I have ever seen us play and it was not an individual skill issue.

If our players can play the way they did in the second half then what the hell was the first half about?

I am now convinced that there is something intrinsically wrong in the set-up.  It wasn't a temporary slump after coming so close, and the fact that our "seconds" destroyed Sarries last season, and many of them played in the second half yesterday shows it is not that we are missing players.

I wouldn't be surprised if the team talk at half time involved reading out some of the comments from on here and Facebook. But something spurred those players on to show what they are truly capable of.

As to the players, I think JdJ showed why we will miss him, he tackled his heart out and we'd have been even further behind if it hadn't been for him.  When Oghre went off and Cruse came on our lineout went from abysmal to solid. He has to be 1st choice now please.  West is pure gold, we absolutely have to hold on to him.  Umaga showed some real class, but his tendency to run the ball from deep caused us a few problems.  I can forgive him for missing kicks from the touchline, everyone does.  Tom Willis, just brilliant.

I'm glad we got the win, but I'm still not sure we deserved it.

[mike909]

Reflecting on the game - it's hard to evaluate why we were 33-10 down at half time - but we were firstly playing as if carrying both a mental and physical burden that meant we were too often not at the pace required to compete. Why, I don't and as an outsider, I can't know but the change into the second half was partly reliant upon changes in from the bench but the change in play started before the bulk of the changes.

Whilst not  blaming the ref - I do think we've had the wrong end of the stick rather often - and that seemed to be the case again in the first half. This is no excuse for our play - but I do think it's a reasonable observation.

But that we were able to come back and win is to our credit - LI will be peeved that their play seemed focused on one half as well - and perhaps shows that rugby is often a game of small margins and if they are going for you, you tend to play better and better and visa versa. Once a couple of passes stuck after HT and we scored, it's like the "dice" started to fall our way more often and the tools we have were enabled.

I do believe there is something in what Lee said about the move from last season affecting form and play - lets get to next week, sort out Tigers and let everyone take a breath. I sure need to take a breath after that game....Perhaps we didn't deserve the win? I don't know, but we've had quite a few results recently where we probably - on the same measure - didn't deserve to lose.....

[Rossm]

Amazing game. What on earth transferred the shambles of the first half into the intensity and team spirit of the second? Was it the half time talk? Rather than Lee getting the hairdryer out, I reckon it was one or two of the senior players, led by Brad, ripping the rest a second arsehole. Whoever was responsible and whatever was said, it clearly worked!

I think Irish would have thought the game was done and dusted and lifted the foot off the loud pedal. It is also possible that their efforts, and they were immense, in the first half had blown them out. Lee got the subs just about right, though some of them were injury forced. Hope everyone is OK and there is nothing serious. Finally, you really don't want to make Tom Willis angry 

Now off to watch the second half again and maybe again and again

[Bloke in North Dorset]

That first half was probably no more than can be expected. I know I've gone on about this a few times but we really have a problem switching on at the start of the game.

We've gone behind in 16/21 games and of those 9 were in the first 5 minutes, 5 tries and 4 pens. I suspect the ones at 7 and 9 minutes were also cause by poor starts. Even 11 minutes isn't good.

I didn't check, but I would say that we received those kick offs in the first 5 minutes so that shows a crap exit strategy.

Match   V   Where   Result   Opp scored first   After   We scored first
11   Irish,   Home   L   Pen   1   
3   Falcons   Home   L   Pen   2   
6   Bath,   Away   W   Try    2   
14   Falcons   Away   W   Pen   2   
20   Saints   Away   L   Try    2   
19   Warriors   Home   W   Pen   3   
16   Chiefs   Away   L   Try    4   
7   Quins   Home   L   Try    5   
21   Irish,   Away   W   Try    5   
1   Bears   Home   W   Pen   7   
2   Glaws   Away   L   Pen   9   
9   Warriors   Away   W   Pen   11   
10   Tigers   Away   W   Pen   11   
15   Sharks   Home   L   Try    11   
8   Saints   Home   L   Pen   12   
12   Glaws   Home   L   Try    16   
4   Sharks   Away   L         Pen (11)
5   Chiefs   Home   W         Try (19)
13   Bears   Away   L         Pen (3)
17   Bath,   Home   W         Try (6)
18   Quins   Away   L         Pen (9)



PS The "," after Bath and Irish is to "fix" the formatting when I pasted from Excel

[Rossm]

Dobby tweeted "Love this group"

https://twitter.com/i/status/1401490682099929089