I do think it’s more to do with the players. There is nothing coaches can do about handling errors, kicks out on the full, simple drops, ridiculous penalties and sky high passes. But let’s say you’re right - who are you getting rid of and who comes in?
I realise this is a bit of a chicken and egg argument. But I do genuinely think we can lay the players' inability to perform at a decent level at the hands of the coaching team. Any individual forward pass can be written off as a player error. Any miss kick, any dropping the ball instead of placing it carefully down, any unwarranted hospital pass, any failed catch etc etc.
But the question we have to ask is why are a group of players with such potential, who were one miss-throw away from winning the title two seasons ago, who are studded with internationals constantly failing at the basics?
For me it is down to one of two things.
Either the way they are being coached to play does not fit how they feel they should be playing, and so they are constantly second guessing every action, stopping them from the instinctive style we had when Lee first took over and told them simply to play their own game and see what happened.
Or there is something going on in the club that is stopping them from trusting each other to do what needs to be done. When the players simply concentrate on doing what they do best knowing full well that everyone else is doing the same, that the support runner will be there, that the kick will be chased, that the defensive line is solid and the tackler is in place they all play so much better. They play as a team. They pull off moves that have no right to work, they generate moments of magic that no other team has managed to emulate for years.
Maybe there's another option I'm not seeing. But both of these are down to the coaching team, and either one would explain why we are constantly fighting against an inability to do the simple things well enough.
As to who should go and who should replace them I'd be looking for a DOR with experience and proven ability. I don't know who is available right now, but I know in the past we've spoken to a lot of people from Wurzel to Jake White, from Shaun who agreed to come and then backed out, to Borthwick.
There are plenty of people out there who could step into that role. And when they were in I'd give them the freedom to pick their own coaching team. Keep on the people we have if needs be, let them go if they don't fit.
The fact is rugby is a business, and as it stands Wasps is not viable on the pitch. Something needs to change.
Always a Wasp
