Always a Wasp

👶 Congratulations to Gaby Lovobalavu and the family on the birth of your daughter Victoria! 👏

Was looking forward to the haka, but couldn't hear it. Not offended, but don't like the singing of sweet chariot during it

Just for anyone not at the game, as the press are only reporting part of this, saying Eddie was booed and speculating if Wade or Cipps related.

What actually happened;
Nate appears on the big screen and gets a big cheer; Eddie appears and gets a (light hearted) boo; Nate appears again, gets a cheer; Eddie, boo. It was almost pantomime.

Later on Eddie appears, and gets a half hearted boo that turned to a cheer, he was the shown a few more times getting a cheer/applause each time. You could see him smile.

It was just sillyness, nothing in it.

So the timing of Nathan's citing wasn't actually too bad. There was more than a fair chance that we wouldn't pick up any points at the RDS anyway. Bath a different story, we will see if that is marginal then maybe significant. Then we have the cup games, then he misses the Northampton game of the next prem block, which he would likely have missed anyway due to the internationals.

Hopefully he can use the time well, recover from any niggles and come back at his rampaging best. I am sure he will learn from this last block of games. He was at danger of undoing his excellent contributions at times during the last few games due to getting penalised so much. I hope he is able to analyse what happened so he can adapt to refs quicker.

to when some of the currently key players started it seems interesting how things have played out. I remember the disquiet after Gopps first few games, kicks not going over and a red card. WLR had almost a season of negative comments. He even picked up the Wally nick name from some supporters who wondered if Wally or Willy would turn up. Fast forward to this season and we see how much we miss those two in particular. Gopps would have covered 10 untill Lima was ready to join (not rushed in) and when the time was right we would have started to see Searle. Searle may even have been on a S&C plan before Gopps injury, he probably was not expecting to play until Prem cup or last 10 mins of a good game along side Gopps.

The fact Lima could do so well with no preparation is outstanding. Searle was thrown into the deep end with Gopp's injury and then Lima's injury. I think Searle has done well despite people already writing him off.

It was a bit worrying on Saturday, and I realise there was much more too it than the above, but maybe we all expected too much too soon, especially given the injuries at particularly bad times. The good thing is that we sit in third place despite the disruption and a few poor games. Players that are likely to be with us for a few years have also gained experience and at times shown how good they will be when they all click.

From Wasps web site;
Wasps team to face Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park on Friday September 28 (7:45pm kick off)

15 Rob Miller

14 Marcus Watson

13 Juan De Jongh

12 Michael Le Bourgeois

11 Josh Bassett

10 Lima Sopoaga

9 Joe Simpson

1 Zurabi Zhvania

2 Tom Cruse

3 Will Stuart

4 Will Rowlands

5 James Gaskell

6 Ashley Johnson (c)

7 Ben Morris

8 Nizaam Carr

 

Replacements

16 Tommy Taylor

17 Ben Harris

18 Kieran Brookes

19 Kearnan Myall 

20 Nathan Hughes

21 Dan Robson

22 Billy Searle

23 Elliot Daly

Not liking the speculation about these two leaving the club at the end of the year or sooner. Nathan I think was the Mail as leaving at the end of the year, WLR immediately.

I think Phil (or JP) on the egg chasers pod said he heard from a trusted source that WLR will not be coming back to Wasps after the internationals. This might explain his willingness to come back and play for us, to either show commitment (and Dai what he offers despite being away more than expected on international duty) or stick rigidly to his contract.