Our Next 3 Games.

[Rossm]

23rd December  Wasps v Bath
29th December  Quins v Wasps (6 day turn round)
6th January       Wasps v Saints

What are our hopes/expectations? My hope is 15 points! My expectations are less but how much less? To have any prospect of a decent season we must win our 2 home games which is very possible. Quins away, particularly with a 6 day turn round, will be difficult. We must come away from the Stoop with something. A plus point for us will be players returning from injury.

The day before our Christmas Cracker v Bath, Sarries visit Sandy Park for the first meeting of the season of the pace setters. The day after we will know what needs to be done to pick up points (I hope) on one of the table leaders.

The weekend before our visit to the Stoop, Quins are away to Tigs. On current form you would expect an away win but Tigs will stop playing sh*te some time and, with Geordan confirmed as head honcho, this could be the day to start it.

Glos, ahead of us by 4 points and without their new 10, are an unknown quantity. He should be back for the league games in Feb but will probably be out for their next 3 league games.  They've got 2 aways, Budgies and Tigs with a game against Sale at Castle Grim sandwiched in between. Is he their talisman? I can see them losing both aways: Budgies on a Friday night is never easy and Tigs away, hopefully after they've pulled themselves together and put Quins to the sword. They ought to beat Sale at home, but nothing is certain. They could find themselves losing all 3.

Bonus points are very, very important. We are not performing well here. Sarries 6, Exe 8, Glos 6 and Quins 8 are all doing better than us with 4. I hope/expect we will add to our BPs over the next 3 games.

Be interesting to see what others think.

Dai has branded our next three Premiership games as 'season defining', insisting that the Ricoh factor can help the boys to claim maximum points in a critical part of the season.

Full article in the Coventry Telegraph here:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/wasps-bath-ricoh-arena-premiership-15574790

[Vespula Vulgaris]

My hope is 15 points! My expectations are less

This about sums it up for me.  I'm not really hoping for anything.  I think something significant has to happen for us to turn this season around, like Sopps finally hitting his stride, or our pack getting an unbroken run of games without injury.

I hope a full house will help to give the team gthe boost it needs, but I'm not banking on it.

[mike909]

Whilst preferring open flowing rugby and tries galore in three wins, I'd gladly stumble over the line on both of the home games and have an attitude like last w/e in Europe at the Stoop and get some points.

We ought to have taken some confidence from the last game and even without too many returners, we ought to have too much for Bath. Without Joe C they will look to play a different style and do have very dangerous players, Roko has been in better form for me than Joe and with a solid second row and Underhill in great form, its not going to be an easy fixture. They were competitive vs Leinster for considerable periods of the two games

Home to Saints is not going to be a walk in the park either and again, I'd be grateful for the win, regardless.

We are more than capable of winning all three games, I'd hope for the two home games to end up as wins, I hope we try and play.

[baldpaul101]

I don't think we'll get many points from a visit to the Stoop.....the games at Twickenham isn't it?

 

[Rossm]

I don't think we'll get many points from a visit to the Stoop.....the games at Twickenham isn't it?

 

Whoops. My bad. You're quite right.

[mike909]

I do think its a boost for the away team to be at HQ. I think we can get a result there

[Rossm]

I do think its a boost for the away team to be at HQ. I think we can get a result there

Actually, I  agree with you. 2nd huge crowd in a week that we'll be playing in front of.

[westwaleswasp]

9 or 10 points is easily doable, all of these could be wins......or losses. Quins away looks hardest on paper, but there will be lots of Waspies in attendance. I am in agreement with those suggesting it is better for us at HQ than the Stoop.

I just got the impression from our last away match that we were really clicking in attack at times. With returnees such as Robson soon I feel we are in a position to really click come Feb/Mar. We have a lot of injured talent. These next three are winnable games with what we have, if we do well we could seriously look to secure a top 4 place. Lose all three and we are likely looking at it being a struggle to hit top 4. Dai is spot on, season defining. I just hope we don't freeze against Bath with the big crowd.

[wasps]

I know it's a cliche, but I really do just want us to go into every game expecting to win, and hoping for a bonus point.
Deep down, you know you won't win them all, but on the morning of the game, you have to believe that you can and will win.

If you go in with that attitude, then the league table takes care of itself....

dwelling on previous or future games just complicates what is actually a very simple equation - go out and score more than the opposition.... if you do that often enough, then you'll be near the top of the table.



So for me, it's all about Bath.... go out there and beat them


(just to completely contradict what i've just written, i'll predict that we'll get 10 points... i'm just not sure how)

[Vespula Vulgaris]

There's a growing part of me that thinks we'll get stuffed once and have two close losses, probably at the death. Maybe come away with 2 points.

I'm trying to ignore that part though.

[coddy]

I'll be disappointed if we didn't win the two home games so I'm going for 9 or 10 points.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

There's a growing part of me that thinks we'll get stuffed once and have two close losses, probably at the death. Maybe come away with 2 points.

I'm trying to ignore that part though.

It's harder to ignore that part of me right now.

[RBB]

Things to fix;

Tackling and Defence, Burns walked through our defence, it was like the parting of the Red Sea.
Handling, too many dropped balls and knock ons, suicide passes that in the conditions were always going to be tricky, but we kept doing it.
Decision Making, lack of clarity or ideas, have a game plan, if it isn't working, change it - leadership challenge here, none apparent at the moment
Basics, when you've got the ball - try and keep it for more than two phases, the forwards ran the same straight lines over and over again and not breaking the gain line, we kept losing it, we kept doing it - what did Einstein say? I can't recall how many times we went backwards.
Boss The Game, Bath bossed Wasps away from home and with minimal away support - stamp authority, Saracens (love or loathe them) do this superbly, win the mind battle.
Use Talent, Sopoaga has to play and become the playmaker, he is still new to the team and Northern hemisphere, Searle is a future 10 hasn't got the game for the position we are now in.
Basics - run forward, pass backwards - I tell my U9s this every week!

The players are good players but seem to lack both heads and hearts at the moment, you need at least one of those attributes. When Robson came on the play improved massively but by then it was too late, the next two games are critical IMHO.

The only way is up (well according to Yazz it is)....onward!