Our backs

[Shugs]

Dangerous to assume but with what we’ve got and what we’re adding we look set to have good forward options next year. Backs have come in for criticism recently. We’re adding Hayden-Wood, Odendaal and Hartley but losing Gopperth, Fekitoa, Anderson and probably Miller.  Is a feasible back line of Atkinson, Robson, Bassett, Odendaal, Spink, Odogwu, Umaga capable of being the solution? Do we need to add anyone else? Is it coaching and not players? Who else might come and go and will that make a difference. It’s an extremely odd situation for us to be wondering how we remedy a backs problem but it seems that’s where we are. So how do we do it?

[Chunky24]

The one thing we don't know in all our speculation, discussion and hopes is the budget  / salary cap constraints, coaching can compensate for some of this but ins and outs are limited by it.

[Neils]

I would suggest Crossdale might be a better 15 long term.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

The one thing we don't know in all our speculation, discussion and hopes is the budget  / salary cap constraints, coaching can compensate for some of this but ins and outs are limited by it.

Lee’s always implying, if not stating, that he’s got the budget for the right players, but he’s not going to waste it for the sake of getting anyone in.

[Chunky24]

The one thing we don't know in all our speculation, discussion and hopes is the budget  / salary cap constraints, coaching can compensate for some of this but ins and outs are limited by it.

Lee’s always implying, if not stating, that he’s got the budget for the right players, but he’s not going to waste it for the sake of getting anyone in.

I agree but still means the right player has to be within whatever that budget is.

[Heathen]

I would suggest Crossdale might be a better 15 long term.

+ 10000.........

[NellyWellyWaspy]

I would suggest Crossdale might be a better 15 long term.

+ 10000.........

I will add some to that.

[Westy68]

I’m not a fan of Umaga, he is to up and down for me, so I would like to see Crossdale play a few games.

I believe we are looking at bringing in 3 players who will not just be squad players.  For me that should be 15, a winger and another 12.

Our forwards are a top 4 team our backs are a bottom 2 team, it needs changing

[wasps]

It's not just our starting backs, but our depth isn't great either.


We know we have a quality first choice 9, but I'm not convinced that our other options are world beaters.


We're not even sure who our best 10 is, that says a lot on its own.


Centres are a shambles, and will be a complete rebuild next season. But even if Burger is great, our 2nd choice 12 is likely to either be injured or of significantly lesser quality.


I've said my bit elsewhere about our back 3. No one is scared of them, and that's terrible, especially for a Wasps side.
It's quite telling that our best winger might be a 34 year old scrum half.








That being said, while I'm struggling to see real top level individual talent in our back line, I'm also struggling to see any plan.
Even a bunch of no hopers can be made to look good with some discipline and structure.
Our backs aren't trying to over power the opposition, they're not trying to get the ball wide and run around them, they're not trying to flood the midfield, they're not looking to use dummy runners to make holes.
They just seem to have no plan.... It's a case of keeping the ball alive and hope you spot a mistake.


Get a plan that everyone is on board with and they'll all look great

[Peej]

Atkinson is our best 10, I don't think there's any question there.

I also want to see more of Crossdale, but the coaches clearly don't rate him. To be fair he's also blown hot and cold in the appearances he's made

[Bloke in North Dorset]

Atkinson is our best 10, I don't think there's any question there.

I also want to see more of Crossdale, but the coaches clearly don't rate him. To be fair he's also blown hot and cold in the appearances he's made

+1

[westwaleswasp]

If ever there was a game that made me question Lee, it was today.
Our backs are shambolic, we are further away from a settled back line than ever.
Picking Kiberige is bonkers. Not picking Odogwu, twice as much. Not even going to talk about Jacob, that is  a thread in itself. I can see why he went with Malakai, although I think it was probably wrong.
To measure of selection is not who you pick when rotating vs Sarries, because giving up that game was pragmatic, or the robotic subs you make as the team falls apart vs Irish, because frankly anyone can fall apart like that against them, collapses are part of the sport. What matters  is how you pick from a position  of strength, and by and large once the numbers go above 9 it starts to go wrong.
I do not see training. I don't attend Monday debrief. I don't know who is a leader I would follow into battle. I do see the team on the pitch and maybe Kiberige and Umaga are doing unseen work that Lee is seeing and I, with my untrained eye don't.  Or, possibly, maybe this is the worst Wasps pro era back line.
Even at our nadir, a backline of Wade, Varndell, Daly, Jacobs, Southwell, Robinson et al would comfortably be better than what we have seen this year. Frankly any Wasps backline from pre 2018 would have had us in the final with those forwards today. I am not saying the forwards were blameless, but the root issue is if they are a mile better than the opposition we still end up.in tight games. Our forwards are better than anything since 2007, our backs are poor, and we are no closer to a settled line up than we were at the start of the year.

[HDAWG]

Our forwards are better than anything since 2007, our backs are poor, and we are no closer to a settled line up than we were at the start of the year.

+1

[Beasties]

I haven’t read any of the threads in the last 24 hours or anything above but I’ll not be sad to see Fekitoa depart. Spink is the future and should’ve been the present having seen the game, but I said ok to Fekitoa beforehand so hold my hands up. Difference is, I was screaming to take Fekitoa off after that touchline tackle, he had nothing more to give, Spink would’ve bizarrely brought some calm and handling to proceedings.  Umaga gets a huge amount of discussion but he’s one of those players that a lot seems to happen around. Frustrating. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot  more from Mills next season, he’s proper top quality and would’ve been nailed on at 12 for Eng except for a truly horrific run of injury timings, never mind Wasps. Kibirige seems to have been oddly messed around of late having finally got back into some sort of form. Sod’s law he fekked up, I’m not gonna string him up for one mistake, he almost scored on his own shortly after.

In short, there’s some moaning about our backs, I’m looking forward to next season as there’s no doubt our backs will be better. The strange experimentation of the last few weeks will have taught our coaching team more about themselves that the players. Cheer tf up.

[JonnyD]

For me it’s squad depth as well as coaching that needs considering.

Look at a team like Saints, yes they have Biggar as a big name in there but their backs with Hutchinson, Grayson, Dingwall, Sleightholme, Skosan, Furbank, Collins, Freeman and Proctor - on paper are they any better than what we have? Potentially some eg Grayson vs Atkinson or Dingwall vs Spink are further ahead in their development but it is their system and cohesion that is far superior to us. Anyone coming in if someone is injured just slots in.

If Burger and Mills are injured next season are we screwed or can Booj, Simonds or Hartley play the same system?
How do we start using our back three again in open phase play rather than just on counters or first phase moves?
And who is going to play FB???

If Watson and Minozzi weren’t on the leavers we now have them plus Umaga, Kibirige and Crossdale fighting it out for the 15 shirt. We need to know how we’re going to play and start building a system around that, Umaga/Zack at FB yesterday are just far too different as players for 9/10/12/13 to know when and how to use them.

Needs to be sorted somehow through Everard, Blackett or Robinson OR like Cips a few years ago, Atkinson/Umaga/WH-W grabbing our attacking game by the balls and just saying ‘this is what we’re doing, I’m running the show!’