Lee's most important next signing.

[Wombles]

....A world class Psychologist.

Rugby is a battle of the mind as well as the body. Without one the other simply will not work. We have evidence prior to today, however the Glos game exposed this fragility fully. Even at 21-0 up I did not feel comfortable, and I wager there were no Wasps fans out there who felt differently. We have plenty of examples from last season -v Irish is the easiest to recall- but the way we dip in and out of games is worrying in its regularity.

TCUP

A simple term that we do not have. The first 40 showed we have a team that can put anyone to the sword, and I do not believe Glos were poor in that first 40, we dictated the narrative. That is the biggest positive, we have a team that can get to the top. The biggest hurdle to this however is that which lies within, and that is currently our teams greatest challenge.

[Rossm]

....A world class Psychologist.

Rugby is a battle of the mind as well as the body. Without one the other simply will not work. We have evidence prior to today, however the Glos game exposed this fragility fully. Even at 21-0 up I did not feel comfortable, and I wager there were no Wasps fans out there who felt differently. We have plenty of examples from last season -v Irish is the easiest to recall- but the way we dip in and out of games is worrying in its regularity.

TCUP

A simple term that we do not have. The first 40 showed we have a team that can put anyone to the sword, and I do not believe Glos were poor in that first 40, we dictated the narrative. That is the biggest positive, we have a team that can get to the top. The biggest hurdle to this however is that which lies within, and that is currently our teams greatest challenge.

I'm sorry Wombles but Glos were poor in the first half. I haven't seen them play as badly as that for a long time. They tried to play a box kicking game which failed because it was badly done. Even the shed were booing. They changed the game plan in the 2nd half and largely cut out the aimless box kicking and, with LR-Z's opportunistic try and some help from us, got them back on the front foot.

[Westy68]

I can’t agree with that as well, what is lees job then. You telling me that we can’t get messages to the players, what was said at half time.

It was so obvious that Gloucester would have a different approach in the 2nd half, we had to up our game a couple of %. We started getting lazy, too slow at the breakdown, not getting our defensive line quickly enough. Look at our attitude in the first half. That is a coaching problem

[Wombles]

The beauty of discussion is that we all have differing opinions. I have played too many games for too many years to simply say every single time one team does better than the other that the team losing is playing badly and the other playing well. It is simplistic and also does a disservice to the team in the ascendency. Nearly every game I keep seeing posts/reports/comments that the reason is due the aforementioned. Yes in some cases a team can play badly...but not all. Glos made errors in their plan and execution, but they were doing their best. We simply were better. In the second, we were trying our best, but due to Glos adjusting to the challenge and getting the ascendency and keeping it, they were better. Our weakness was we could not mentally overcome the challenge laid out for us. With a psychological strength comes a calm and unity in performance that can overcome the oppositions strengths. To be able to keep your head when everyone else is losing theres! We do not have that.......yet

[Wombles]

I can’t agree with that as well, what is lees job then. You telling me that we can’t get messages to the players, what was said at half time.

It was so obvious that Gloucester would have a different approach in the 2nd half, we had to up our game a couple of %. We started getting lazy, too slow at the breakdown, not getting our defensive line quickly enough. Look at our attitude in the first half. That is a coaching problem

His job is to find those people that can maximise the collective strength of the team. He has his place, but he cannot be everywhere and everything. However if he gets the right people in the right places then his tactical nouse and messages will land when they really need to.

[Peej]

The reason we lost is that we lost one of our best players in Brad to injury, had to play with 13 players, and had to play a TH at LH due to injuries. Any team will struggle with that. Some starters and replacements struggling with the basics then simply resulted in the performance nose-diving.

Even so, given our terriroy and possession in the first half we should have been out of site.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

The reason we lost is that we lost one of our best players in Brad to injury, had to play with 13 players, and had to play a TH at LH due to injuries. Any team will struggle with that. Some starters and replacements struggling with the basics then simply resulted in the performance nose-diving.

Even so, given our terriroy and possession in the first half we should have been out of site.

We didn't have to play with 13 players. We were so indisciplined that we ended up with 13. That wasn't a freak chance, it was us failing.

Yes it was clear that Glaws were gonna try to play a different game, but we didn't have to let them. We lost all our intensity in the second half.  We stopped chasing kicks, we stopped attacking their line-out, we stopped hitting rucks like we actually wanted to dominate them.

It's almost like our team talk at jalf time was telling the guys we had it sewn up and just to relax.

[Shugs]

I thought psychologically nilling them at half time would really lift us. To put it in perspective if we go in in that first move of the second half I think we win. But we make a mistake and Glaws probably have the only player in the league who could go in from there. We’d lost our on field leader. Those are the fine margins. An interesting stat on the TV tonight was that the Prem has 11 teams from the 13 who have made the play offs in the last few years. It’s unheard of really. Shows how competitive the league is and that most games will be settled by minute margins.

[Wombles]

I agree with VV. The pens, yellow cards, loss intensity...they are the end point. If we see them as the start point then we fail to identify the processes that led to them and cannot correct it.

[Wombles]

I thought psychologically nilling them at half time would really lift us. To put it in perspective if we go in in that first move of the second half I think we win. But we make a mistake and Glaws probably have the only player in the league who could go in from there. We’d lost our on field leader. Those are the fine margins. An interesting stat on the TV tonight was that the Prem has 11 teams from the 13 who have made the play offs in the last few years. It’s unheard of really. Shows how competitive the league is and that most games will be settled by minute margins.

And that is the point here. It should of lifted us....but it did not. we made a mistake and instead of being 28-0 up we were 21-5 up. Then compare and contrast. Glaws found a way to get the upper hand and win. They faced adversity and overcame it. We had a moment of misfortune and failed to break back. This is a game of the mind, and one we are currently failing. 

[Vespula Vulgaris]

They faced adversity and overcame it. We had a moment of misfortune and failed to break back. This is a game of the mind, and one we are currently failing.

Yep, agree 100%. Our coaching team need to look at themselves for that utter capitulation. One moment of luck for them and we folded.

[mike909]

It's all that. It is all in the mind, like most sports - I can remember barely being able to bowl on the cut strip in an important cup game.....which wasn't something I'd planned for with all those net sessions.

We seem unable to do two thing. Firstly, put our collective "foot on the ball" if only to break up play when it starts to unravel. After losing a try, we ought to have kicked off with the aim of getting the ball off the pitch asap and do some dull "basics" perhaps. And secondly, we seem unable to adapt to the officiating. Whilst all games will have disputed calls, we seem to think we're always right. In the second half - we didn't - it seemed - to be getting the rub of the officiating green, but we pushed offside and went for marginal turnovers when it would have been better to hold back and tackle. Jack W was often - like a good flanker - near the "edge" but once you've conceded 5 or so in a row - it's time to stop trying to be clever and ride the storm a little?

I guess John M will have words when he come back?

[NellyWellyWaspy]

They faced adversity and overcame it. We had a moment of misfortune and failed to break back. This is a game of the mind, and one we are currently failing.

Yep, agree 100%. Our coaching team need to look at themselves for that utter capitulation. One moment of luck for them and we folded.

This. Heads to roll time. I am sorry, but this has been going on for too long. It isn't, 'Oh, well this is just teething issues, first game of the season,' territory. This is more of the same. I cannot tolerate another year of Lee whining about this and that not being quite right. That second half performance was far short of anything but abysmal.

[Shugs]

Agree with that Mike. I sum it up in the word “streetwise”. If you noticed when the pressure was on Ryan took a knee for a shoulder “injury”. It was great and allowed us to draw breath. We need more of it - not that particular thing but an ability to be savvy.

[wasps]

I don't think we can be too critical of whatever the half time team talk was.
After half time we came out and looked like we were carrying on as we had finished and nearly scored.


The 2 quick trys so early in the 2nd half obviously flustered us......
And then the problem.
We don't know what to do when things aren't working.
As we all said last season, and probably the one before that, we have no plan B.




We thought that having a dominant set of forwards would change that.
But we've actually got 4th choice loosehead, and 4th choice tight head as his replacement.
I'm not sure where McDonald is in the 2nd row hierarchy, but as well as he played in general, I don't think he'd be starting if everyone was fit.
And finally, a powerful, but somewhat unnatural back row, which arguably should have been more balanced after Shields went off.


Ultimately, it doesn't look like we've been practicing for a plan B, so we'll probably be good when the wind is in our sails, but we'll also lose our heads at times when we continue to try to play open rather than keep things tight for a bit