'We were robbed' - Dai Post Match

[Rossm]

Jacob Leeks & Bobby Bridge:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/dai-young-leicester-wasps-reaction-15911360

I don't think Dai has ever been that critical of a ref before.

[wasps]

Wow.
I'm surprised to hear Dai say that.
It must have been bad

[Beasties]

JP really didn't want us to win that match. There were several poor decisions but one absolute howler when WLR clearly passed the ball backwards on the halfway line and the officials gave it as forward.

[BG]

Doyle has been poor for quite some time but ordinarily his bad decisions even out across both sides. I get the feeling he's stilll adjudicating based on rugby played about 5yrs ago.

Once penalties start accumulating against one team though the ref does tend to instinctively think that team is constantly in the wrong. As dai said some of the high tackles were silly and TT paid the price in what seemed a fair rip of the ball.

Probably for the first time this season we came off 2nd best at the scrum but conversely the backs for the first time, especially in the 1st half showed some inventiveness. There were actually some pre-planned moves

Rob Miller playing flat to the line made the difference in my mind and its no coincidence that Searle also plays this way and the backs seems to function better in doing so.

Sopps needs to have a brain remap to try and play this way even if he feels uncomfortable in doing so.

The other interesting point to note was that Simpson was making better and quicker decisions from the base of the ruck and again, I think you have to put that down to Miller behind him communicating loudly as to what to do and where to go

I feel gutted for the team.

[Neils]

Given Dai's comments a visit to the naughty step is likely. A garbled headline picture on the front of TRP stating "I feel robbed" won't help. All true though.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

But, not one of his words were ACTUALLY directly criticising JP. You come away with that impression.

He doesn't say JP is/was incompetent. He didn't say JP was biased (and I don't think he is).

Some of the scrum penalties (like for who popped up first, who dropped the scrum) were clearly wrong. On at least two scrums I could see there prop step back as they set, thus dropping our front row. As far as the scrum is concerned, one must conclude that JP is incompetent. On the Ref Link he constantly warned Ford about taking kicks well in front of the mark. Never pinged him for it though, so Ford kept on. JP was simply making some of it up as he went along.

In the end though, we lost. And that is all that counts. At some point, I wish the DoR's would sit down and actually consider some form of action against those referees who really shouldn't be in charge of a kiddie tag rugby game.

[Rossm]

Well that's two games on the trot that we've had a shite ref. Jackson is easier to understand than Doyle - he's inexperienced (less than 20 Prem games) but JP for Christ's sake. He's been on the downhill slope for a couple of seasons now. Do they give refs rests from the game? The authorities seem to expect them to be on the ball week in week out.

[InBetweenWasp]

“Feeding back to Twickenham is a waste of time because nothing ever changes”

(Words to that affect from Dai)

There should absolutely be feedback taken into consideration and I do think there needs to be a better degree of accountability for referees that have poor decisions as whilst they may de-brief on a Monday it seems to be the same old candidates who frustrate both teams and fans alike with the same old inconsistencies.

Fair enough to give Ford’s try which could have quite easily have been not given for losing control - no problem with the benefit being given to the attacking team. But why not the same with Willis’ try or Alo’s try that were both disallowed.

Kay’s comment after the match that he thought it was a try and that earlier in the game a different question may well have been asked by JP but there was no way JP was going to give a try without the clear video evidence as it would have been unfair to Tigers having no recourse when they thought they’d done enough to win the game.

A decision in the 80th minute should really be the same as a decision in the 1st.

[Eezamarlowman]

Having slept on things before posting, I actually feel even more angry about the officiating in yesterday’s match. Admittedly we could and should have performed better but Willis’s and Alo’s tries being disallowed really sticks in the throat. If I were a player then this would really fire me up and I would be itching to get back on the field again. To end on a positive, how immense was Jack Willis? A shame that YY came off so early but if he hadn’t we wouldn’t have got to witness such an outstanding performance from Willis just after a long term injury. Onwards and upwards !

[Dgwasp]

LBP is a decent achievement away at Tiggers and for that I'm reasonably satisfied. However I do feel aggrieved still that we seem to have had a couple of games where anything marginal has gone against us and it has cost us significant points.  Whilst I understand the argument for not awarding the try at the end given that you can't see the ball being grounded, however he was in no danger of being short and there was nobody underneath to have held it up, therefore it had to be a try.  JP just didn't have the bottle to call it in front of an influential Tiggers crowd - I personally think he needs a few weeks off to go and watch some rugby to understand the game.

I'm hoping we can take some of that anger over next week, work on our accuracy and discipline and look to take all the points available next weekend.

[Dgwasp]

And having watched the last few minutes again this morning that is given as a try every week, so why not yesterday?

[JonnyD]

I too have watched the game back and there was some poor officiating no doubt but we should have won comfortably before that.
Leicester were awful and we could not build pressure to capitalise.
Watson was on fire but was not given the ball once against Evans, no kicks were ever put in behind him or above him to test him out, and yes he was not always defending on the wing but sometimes it was joe ford and he wasn’t tested either.
A few forward passes, forced offloads that didn’t go to hand after a break, Nemo, dropped one at a key point, two butchered line outs within 10 m after turning down the points.
We were again shockingly poor at holding on to the ball, going through phases and building pressure.
Leicester were actually worse I think and due to our pretty good defence they made a lot of mistakes
But again we seem happy to defend more than we want to attack and gift the ball back and when we are conceding so many penalties I’m not sure it was the best game plan... again

[westwaleswasp]

Rob Miller playing flat to the line made the difference in my mind and its no coincidence that Searle also plays this way and the backs seems to function better in doing so.

Sopps needs to have a brain remap to try and play this way even if he feels uncomfortable in doing so.

This a thousand times over. He should be able to do this. If he can't then I am afraid he will be a poor signing.
Play in traffic, or play 12, we really don't need  a season transitioning in style to a ten standing deep.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Rob Miller playing flat to the line made the difference in my mind and its no coincidence that Searle also plays this way and the backs seems to function better in doing so.

Sopps needs to have a brain remap to try and play this way even if he feels uncomfortable in doing so.

This a thousand times over. He should be able to do this. If he can't then I am afraid he will be a poor signing.
Play in traffic, or play 12, we really don't need  a season transitioning in style to a ten standing deep.

The thing I take issue with this is that while Searle may indeed play flatter to the line, he was less successful than Sopaga.  He played a few games, and everyone was calling for his head.  It was only in the last game he played that he actually managed to step up, and most of that was down to one superb interception.

We need to spend less time complaining that Lima isn't playing the way we think a 10 should play, and more time trying to work out how to give him the platform he needs to play the way that won him the starting shirt for the ABs.

[westwaleswasp]

We saw with Miller our backs looked dangerous, more than they have with Lima.
I think you are forgetting our away match in France, we lost but our backs looked sharp, with Searle at the helm too. Searle was less impressive at the start, I completely agree, but then when Lima came in we were as bad.
I don't understand how we give the platform for the ten. Surely the backs get their platform from the half backs, once the forwards secure good ball. I mean this year the forwards have often given decent ball only for it to go pear shaped as we ship it out wide too early.