Wasps v Bath

[Rossm]

I can't put my finger on what's missing from our game at the moment as the players seem to be giving it everything but on the other hand we can't keep on blaming missed tackles and dropping the ball.


Good players don't become bad players overnight. We look as if we are woefully lacking confidence in our abilities. We are both frantic and tentative. We certainly are not getting the rub of the green in any way and I think that is adding to our unconfident play. Just about everybody played badly today and a few had real mares. We need a win however ugly but above all we need a bit of luck. We've been dropping passes - let  just one or two of them stick. Have the ball bounce to the left and we score rather than to the right and the oppo take the line out and clear.

I'd also like to see Brad as skipper for the next two games.

[Brandnewtorugby]

Well the fireworks were good :-p for once the drummers starting waves didn't annoy me, welcome relief! (I still refused to join in though)

I always try and see the positive, but it got harder today. I also don't like picking out players but Hampson had a day to forget, he seemed very easy to read and struggled in defence. Dan immediately started darting forward when he came on. Real shame about Kieren, any news what happend? Apparently JCW complained to the ref at half time as they went off, said Bath weren't driving forward at all, just wheeling.

[Rossm]

Dai confirmed the 16-times capped England international is set to be missing from action for a prolonged period. "It's definitely a significant ankle injury," Which, if correct, is a real shame for Kieran. Hope that Dai is wrong.

It was noticeable that the momentum generated by our bench stalled when Kieran went off.

[Tervueren]

I really felt that, away to Toulouse, Wasps started to play like a team. With all the disruption from injuries and player turnover, we have seemed more like a group of players who happen to share a dress code.

This week was a step backwards, over-trying at times, under-achieving at others, very nervous and almost desperate and afraid to fail, and so failing.

Yet there were moments where a move started to move like Wasps, the crowd got going, and I started to think that maybe we were going to wake up and kick on. Then we were not quick enough for their line-speed (they seemed to be upon our boys very quickly), or we developed white-line fever, panicked and blew it, even though we were still 20m from the white line.

IMO it is a case of off-day rather than off-team and there will be improvements as the year progresses with the result that we have (as a side-effect of all the injuries) an increased depth of squad members who have benefited from being involved throughout the year and then results will follow (please).

I believe that we have a squad full of decent players, none that (IMO) should not grace the Premiership but a few who should be 3rd or 4th choice and are having to act as 1st or 2nd, a couple of whom may well disappear as Academy players come through. It takes more than a couple of matches to build a team and perhaps this year we are going to be reliant upon the results of others more than usual (in recent years) to determine whether we make top 4 or 6 (or neither).

It did look like we picked up when the subs came on, but that there was not enough time left to build and take the result.

A bit less panic we could have won this one.

[Neils]

Nice post. Tend to agree with most of your points. Very disappointing though.

[Tervueren]

Thanks and yes, however optimistic I endeavour to be,  it was exceedingly disappointing.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Well said!

[westwaleswasp]

I feel that X factor backs are synergistic. Having one creates uncertainty others can exploit, having more creates much more uncertainty. One of the reasons Wade's presence made tries without touching the ball sometimes was the fact that people were too tight on him. We lack that now, guys like Bassett offer lots but they don't scare defenders, most teams have one or two, we had an array. We still have WLR and Daly, and will have Dan in full soon, but compared to what we used to have we are diminished. Stick on an absence of confidence which in itself will butcher tries and induce white line fever and it is hardly surprising where we are. A couple of Ws will help, alrhough where they come from is anyone's guess. Next week, next month, who knows.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I agree a win or two would go a long way to solving this, but also I think we need one good game where things work well for Sopoaga.  He needs to know he's still got it, and soon, or he'll start to look on the move as a mistake and we'll end up back on the merry-go-round of signings again.