Wasps v Northampton: Post Match Thoughts.

[Wombles]

7 Days is a long old time in rugby

Just as enjoyable as Friday nights fare

Winning builds a winning mentality.

First off let our thoughts and hopes go to Gaskall, a horrible looking injury and may be a season ender for him (but let us hope not). It certainly took a shine off our win. But what a deserved win that was. This was a fully loaded Saints team, and they went hard at it...and that is what made it such a pleasing game. Fridays Harlequins v Bristol was attacking at its finest, however we showed wonderful attacking flair AND determined defence and set piece. I have said before if you want to win things you need to love defence and the set piece as well as attack, and we look to be getting much better at this.
What also pleases me is the performances of the squad! We have a horrible injury list with many key players out, but we have a squad who can take it to anyone....and you really need this to keep standards high, and make those players returning realise they are going to have to give their all to get the shirt back.

Its early into the season, but we are seeing resilience, and that pleases me so much! However Gabby get your tackle height down, and Jacob, well played sir, but keep working on those kicks as those points will be so important in tight games that will undoubtedly come! Now where's my beer?

Chris

Once a Wasp ALWAYS a Wasp.

[HDAWG]

It's a win, wasn't pretty, but a win. Jacob need to improve his kicking and Oghre is a very lucky boy. Shame about Gaskell.

I think squad rotation will begin soon, and hope to keep injuries down and have winning mentality throughout. But 

I'm happy because we beat a team I thought we'd lose too, but still unsure how good we actually are yet. And how long our players wil last!

[NellyWellyWaspy]

First off let our thoughts and hopes go to Gaskall, a horrible looking injury and may be a season ender for him (but let us hope not).

I must have blinked and missed that. Was that why Nemo came on? What happened?

[Chunky24]

First off let our thoughts and hopes go to Gaskall, a horrible looking injury and may be a season ender for him (but let us hope not).

I must have blinked and missed that. Was that why Nemo came on? What happened?

No Gaskell leg folded under that last saints rolling maul try.

[MG-B]

It was in that final maul. Got caught and leg bent horribly.

[Rossm]

I'll take the 4 points. As I said in another thread  - too much whistle. CMK seems incapable of letting a game flow. Neither side really got settled into a rhythm.  I wonder how many penalties were given against both sides? It seemed a lot.

I think Gaby was quite lucky not to see red. Another ref, another day, and he could quite easily have got an early bath. Can he still be cited? Gotta take care in the tackle.

Horrible injury to Jamma. What appalling luck. Hope it turns out to be not as bad as it looked.

[Horusthewasp]

First off let our thoughts and hopes go to Gaskall, a horrible looking injury and may be a season ender for him (but let us hope not).

I must have blinked and missed that. Was that why Nemo came on? What happened?

Horrible ankle injury after the last Saints try (with the clock in the red). Will definitely be a long term absence.

[Hymenoptera]

Thoughts:
We'll lose more games than we'll win if we can't kick sticks. How is Jacob not a better kicker with Gops at his disposal is curious..
Robson is by some margin the best English 9 based on current form.

[Jack9909]

Really happy with the result, performance has a lot of room for improvement though.

Having said that, a quick look at Saints forum shows many think this was the strongest 23 they've fielded under Boyd and they have no real injuries. Contrast that with the players we are missing and this result looks even better, squad players really stepped up.

[Chunky24]

I'll take the 4 points. As I said in another thread  - too much whistle. CMK seems incapable of letting a game flow. Neither side really got settled into a rhythm.  I wonder how many penalties were given against both sides? It seemed a lot.

I think Gaby was quite lucky not to see red. Another ref, another day, and he could quite easily have got an early bath. Can he still be cited? Gotta take care in the tackle.

Horrible injury to Jamma. What appalling luck. Hope it turns out to be not as bad as it looked.

Thought CMK was spot on with Oghre, indirect contact as hit the ball first then went up with low impact so starts at yellow then no mitigation to move to penalty only.

[jamestaylor002]

On reflection, I still think Gaby was very lucky to not get the red but I can see some logic (only some!) in the yellow card decision as Gaby marginally comes into contact with the ball first which is probably what CMK has seen that made him think yellow.
I still wouldn't have disputed a red card if one had been produced though.

[jamestaylor002]

I'll take the 4 points. As I said in another thread  - too much whistle. CMK seems incapable of letting a game flow. Neither side really got settled into a rhythm.  I wonder how many penalties were given against both sides? It seemed a lot.

I think Gaby was quite lucky not to see red. Another ref, another day, and he could quite easily have got an early bath. Can he still be cited? Gotta take care in the tackle.

Horrible injury to Jamma. What appalling luck. Hope it turns out to be not as bad as it looked.

Thought CMK was spot on with Oghre, indirect contact as hit the ball first then went up with low impact so starts at yellow then no mitigation to move to penalty only.

Just beat me to it!

[Steve from Cov]

Excellent result against a strong Saints squad.

I thought our second row was excellent and Robson was top drawer. W e were lucky we could wheel on Jimmy and relieve the pressure

Missed Gaskell’s injury - appalling luck. Get well soon Jamma.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

I'll take the 4 points. As I said in another thread  - too much whistle. CMK seems incapable of letting a game flow. Neither side really got settled into a rhythm.  I wonder how many penalties were given against both sides? It seemed a lot.

I think Gaby was quite lucky not to see red. Another ref, another day, and he could quite easily have got an early bath. Can he still be cited? Gotta take care in the tackle.

Horrible injury to Jamma. What appalling luck. Hope it turns out to be not as bad as it looked.

I can't see it getting cited after the game. That happens mainly when the ref doesn't see and deal with something. CMK had plenty of review time and made what was probably the right decision.

CMK had, on balance, a good game. He did let the game flow, but he can't help it if the team that he is playing advantage for then fluffs it and so he has to call it back.

I think my daftest penalty awards either go to Brad for that hands on floor then try to turn over towards the end on their 5m line, or the persistent taking in to the tackle with no support and giving a soft holding on penalty. Just how many did we give away like that?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Thoughts:
We'll lose more games than we'll win if we can't kick sticks. How is Jacob not a better kicker with Gops at his disposal is curious..
Robson is by some margin the best English 9 based on current form.

This has puzzled me, and I have aired that puzzlement on here many times. He should be spending hours and hours getting it right. He has no excuse with our new training facilities.