Always a Wasp
General Category => Wasps Rugby Discussion => Topic started by: Neils on November 26, 2021, 05:10:39 PM
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Yep early but got here three hours of joyless driving.
Salting the A14 as we came up which is not a good sign. Anecdote only got a part menu with limited choice. Pitch looking in good nick. Bloody cold too.
Safe travels in the dark anyone still travelling- stadium just had a fire drill.
COYW
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Did I say it's cold - and that is indoors.
The Anecdote has bouncers who seem to keep the outside door open so a cold blast fires over the bar everything the second door opens. The Mill Bar is empty and is also cold.
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Late changes. Marcus and Ali are out.
Mateo at FB and Hougaard at left wing. Wusty on teh bench.
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Had to pull out just before we were due to leave because of illness.
From looks of it will be very cold, and we faced a long drive back down the M40, so might be a blessing.
Just hoping we can find it on-line somewhere.
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Any cues as to the reasons for the late changes?
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Any cues as to the reasons for the late changes?
Nothing as yet. Hougaard did earn 17 of his Springboks caps (including sub apps) on the wing.
Wasps' remaining travelling reserves are Pieter Scholtz, Alex McHenry, Michael van Vurren.
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Those late changes are quite a blow.
But it’s a good time for Hougaard to have a decent game.
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Song honouring Blackie. Sparse crowd, not surprising really.
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Any cues as to the reasons for the late changes?
Nothing as yet. Hougaard did earn 17 of his Springboks caps (including sub apps) on the wing.
Wasps' remaining travelling reserves are Pieter Scholtz, Alex McHenry, Michael van Vurren.
Odd that McHenry is in the squad yet they didn't bring him in at centre, or start Gopperth and Josh back to the wing. Is Josh at centre a longer term project rather than just a stop gap or am I reading too much into it? Probably the latter! :D
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Sparse crowd but colds. Was tempted to stay in the bar but it was Bath@
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Simple try by May. 7- 0
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Very poor by Wasps thus far, very disjointed.
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It could be a long night.
Going to have to win it through the forwards and substitutes.
We lack an experienced strike runner or two from midfield.
Could be tough.
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One thing is for certain, the backs are not going to win this for us.
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Too many penalties
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An absolute stunning line out move, with brilliant deception.
Try Wasps!
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Nice try. Looks like a training ground move.
For those not watching, 5m lineout and pod broke away with ball to drive over.
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36 free to score
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Got to the ground and can’t sit in our season tickets seats as they have been covered in the black netting by the football club for last Tuesdays game with Birmingham
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I can’t believe I’m sitting here getting this cold watching this absolute garbage
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Embarrassing midfield defence, Twelvetrees slices straight through
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It’s utter tripe. We are making a bang average side look like world beaters. It’s embarrassing
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In all fairness, we’re playing with an incredibly depleted squad - and our key players having been playing continuously for the past few months.
I really feel the side at the moment. So hard to get rhythm and continuity.
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It isn't just the midfield defence, neither Booj or Bertie seem capable of catching or passing. Penalties given away everywhere.
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Another good line out drive. Gaby in at the corner.
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Going in at half time only 11 down is more than we deserve. Got to take that luck and come out a different side 2nd half.
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HT Level on tries but down through penalties.
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Embarrassing midfield defence, Twelvetrees slices straight through
Think we were fooled into tackling like u12s by an u12s move, old school drop off with no blockers, pull backs or deception!
With apologies to u12s.
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Positive is May laddered his tights and is limping
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Another good try in the corner from a line out penalty.
Great conversion by Jacob.
2nd half, we need to create a platform for Jacob to hit 50/22’s.
We need as many attacking line outs as possible to win this game.
We have a very effective driving maul close to the line, so we need to use it, along with Alfie’s muscle.
We can still win this.
But we need to tighten up in midfield defence (difficult).
And we need to keep the ball when in possession.
And hopefully that will draw Gloucester penalties.
We need their penalty count to go up considerably.
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We need to improve the kicking. The defence line looks uncoordinated and too poor to be letting them run back at us, they're making far too many meters.
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We have scrambled well on occasions.
And I don’t doubt anyone’s commitment.
But because everyone is playing out of position, they all look like strangers.
We have a lack of tried and tested partnerships in the backs.
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The weather won't be helping, but it's the same for both sides. I don't get Basett at 13 when McHenry is available.
Discipline is killing us, and we aren't playing smart either
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Jimmy on. That didn't take long.
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That’s 3 times Hastings has stolen yards on where his kick should be taken from.
Pearce uninterested.
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Jimmy on. That didn't take long.
Telling that MlB came off and Bassett stayed on
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I for one have had enough of this dross.
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|Alfie on, making a difference already.
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Alfie's back! But have we left too much to do?
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And Alfie scores.
It must have been close to a penalty try, they gave away 3 penalties in the 5m area but they're on a warning.
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But we keep giving them easy outs
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Frost on now.
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Umaga nightmare 2x drop then gifted them the ball when 8t could have been a 22 drop
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But we keep giving them easy outs
Umaga giving them 2 in a row, then they score
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In all fairness, we’re playing with an incredibly depleted squad - and our key players having been playing continuously for the past few months.
I really feel the side at the moment. So hard to get rhythm and continuity.
Please don’t trot this line out. 2 weeks off well rested it’s just appalling rugby
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Unfortunately Jacob has 3 brain farts in the past 5 minutes which have handed Gloucester the game.
Just trying too much, and taking his eyes off the basics.
I don’t want to give him a hard time.
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Our scrum is awful. Scholtz was really a terrible bit of business
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I find Umaga so frantic at 10 sometimes, either knock ons or pointless kicking.
Compare that to Hastings, although not spectacular he his a reassuringly calming influence for the Glos back line
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May yellow carded and Jacob scores. A TPB and if the push it possibly LBP to be had.
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Looked like a straightforward kick, why not take the points and LBP?
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OK, I take that back. Jacob with a great try. A penalty to win!
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Match finishes with yet another Umaga knock onb😵
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What happened at the end? Sounds like we fluffed it
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Match finishes with yet another Umaga knock onb😵
Cold hands maybe? Dropped a lot throughout.
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Wow if we had burgled that at the end it would have been totally undeserved. Real impetus provided by Barbeary, and I thought Millar-Mills did well. Gopperth also a big improvement on MlB.
Ultimately we were too soft in defence and made too many handling errors going forward to win that. Hope Hougaard's injury isn't bad, he looked more up for it today.
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That very last effort wasn’t Jacob’s fault.
One of the forwards got in the way of the pass.
Nice to see some fighting spirit.
For me, the substitutions happened 5-10 minutes too late, and just after Gloucester scored.
From where we were at the beginning of the 2nd half, 2 points isn’t a bad outcome.
We’ve been decimated by injuries.
Let’s take the positives. And great to have Alfie back (although he was blowing after 5 minutes, poor chap).
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I’ve said numerous times Umaga is not good enough regular knock ons, aimless kicks, turns his back when challenging for high balls. Yes he scored two try’s but it doesn’t make up for the poor 70 mins before. He’s not the only one by any means but he stood out as poor again tonight. The fact we got so close to stealing that game shows how average Gloucester are and we made the. Look good
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Match finishes with yet another Umaga knock onb😵
Cold hands maybe? Dropped a lot throughout.
One or 2 errors can be forgiven but that was awful. He's a professional who should be expected to catch a pass and not panic in his own dead ball area.
It was the same temperature for everyone but Umaga was clearly the biggest offender. Hastings seemed to have taped all his finger tips. Maybe that's what was needed. I don't care about excuses. That was shockingly bad.
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It was a replacement forward (#16) who got in Jacob's way at the end so I wouldn't blame him for that........however he is just too prone to brain farts that ultimately cost us. Great comeback by the boys.....as usual for Wasps it was so frustrating but ends up with you feeling proud of them.
Allez Wasps!!!
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Jury out on the centre pairing. We were very leaky there.
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I can’t feel proud of that too many mistakes the penalty count must have been massive. The close score line give a false impression. Gloucester are average at best and it was only a mad last 10 minutes that made it respectable
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Jury out on the centre pairing. We were very leaky there.
That's not a centre pairing it's all we've got.
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Positives:
Alfie's back!
Effective catch and drive
Character to nearly steal an unlikely win.
Negatives:
Aimless kicking (General game management again, this seems a re-occuring issue)
Fractious defence...especially from said aimless kicking
Centre pairing (desperately need a quality 12)
Silly penalties again...
Trying not to be negative in light of all the injuries but it's hard work!
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Two back chat 10 metres should have been a yellow. Even after two marches back he had to be pulled away by a team mate.
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The excuse for Jacob’s knock-ons (not last one) that it was cold doesn’t work when you consider Hastings didn’t have the same problem.
My guess is that when we go behind behind he thinks that he has to do something miraculous and is trying too hard. His head goes up too early and in his eagerness to get moving he snatches at the ball.
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I do think fans who call out ‘aimless kicking’ don’t quite get modern rugby and the strategies employed.
Kicking down the middle, to the sides….or anywhere that isn’t straight down the throat, gives our team time to align and then counter their attack, should they make one.
Yes, you can get ping-pong, but we’re massively underwhelmed with players right now…and so kicking will be a strategy versus running it out.
We’re normally a good jackaling side.
And at least we normally smother well.
But tonight, because of so many replacements, we look disjointed in defence.
Let’s write this off and not get too catastrophic (Covkid40).
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From the stands it looked like Booj was immediately hauled off after missing another tackle?
He then had a petulant walk off.
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The excuse for Jacob’s knock-ons (not last one) that it was cold doesn’t work when you consider Hastings didn’t have the same problem.
My guess is that when we go behind behind he thinks that he has to do something miraculous and is trying too hard. His head goes up too early and in his eagerness to get moving he snatches at the ball.
And yes, tonight, I do think he was trying to conjure up some breaks and ‘magic’.
But let’s be honest, that’s because nothing was happening outside him.
It’s quite a unique set of circumstances when wingers are playing centre and scrum halves playing wing.
Jacob was trying hard. Maybe too hard.
But there wasn’t much inspiration outside him…and that’s because our main centres (Paulo, Fek, Mills etc) are all out injured.
Give the guy a break.
There’s certainly not another Number 10 at the club who’s able to give him a week off.
He’s got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders right now.
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The excuse for Jacob’s knock-ons (not last one) that it was cold doesn’t work when you consider Hastings didn’t have the same problem.
FWIW: Hastings had taped the tips of the fingers and thumbs of both hands.
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There is definitely more kicking down the middle with the 50-22 rule with two men covering the kick to touch.
What we seemed to do tonight was kick it straight to Moyle who kept slicing through us.
The "aimless kicking" isn't just aimed at Jacob, our box kicking doesn't seem as on point as other teams who kick to compete better than we do....
....or maybe our kicking is brilliant our chase is the issue :o
Problem we have is that we so reliant on Jacob, we don't have a kicking option at 12 or 15 that other teams have.
I do think fans who call out ‘aimless kicking’ don’t quite get modern rugby and the strategies employed.
Kicking down the middle, to the sides….or anywhere that isn’t straight down the throat, gives our team time to align and then counter their attack, should they make one.
Yes, you can get ping-pong, but we’re massively underwhelmed with players right now…and so kicking will be a strategy versus running it out.
We’re normally a good jackaling side.
And at least we normally smother well.
But tonight, because of so many replacements, we look disjointed in defence.
Let’s write this off and not get too catastrophic (Covkid40).
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The excuse for Jacob’s knock-ons (not last one) that it was cold doesn’t work when you consider Hastings didn’t have the same problem.
FWIW: Hastings had taped the tips of the fingers and thumbs of both hands.
I noticed that later in the game, did he start with them?
But my contention is that Jacob’s problem is that when we are losing its his eagerness and his brain getting ahead of his hands, not the cold.
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The excuse for Jacob’s knock-ons (not last one) that it was cold doesn’t work when you consider Hastings didn’t have the same problem.
My guess is that when we go behind behind he thinks that he has to do something miraculous and is trying too hard. His head goes up too early and in his eagerness to get moving he snatches at the ball.
And yes, tonight, I do think he was trying to conjure up some breaks and ‘magic’.
But let’s be honest, that’s because nothing was happening outside him.
It’s quite a unique set of circumstances when wingers are playing centre and scrum halves playing wing.
Jacob was trying hard. Maybe too hard.
But there wasn’t much inspiration outside him…and that’s because our main centres (Paulo, Fek, Mills etc) are all out injured.
Give the guy a break.
There’s certainly not another Number 10 at the club who’s able to give him a week off.
He’s got a lot of responsibility on his shoulders right now.
From what I saw for the first Twelvetrees try Umaga wasn’t trying at all, his non tackle attempt was breathtaking. In fact he looked like he didn’t want to be out there.
You can make as many excuses for him as you like, but top players shoulder responsibility and grow into it, become leaders…LBND, King, Gopperth, Cipriani, etc The last couple of seasons from Umaga have been flaky, inconsistent and at times embarrassing.
There comes a point when you have to see the bigger picture and worry about the team and the club over an individual, especially when that individual is performing a role key to the overall success.
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I do think fans who call out ‘aimless kicking’ don’t quite get modern rugby and the strategies employed.
Kicking down the middle, to the sides….or anywhere that isn’t straight down the throat, gives our team time to align and then counter their attack, should they make one.
Yes, you can get ping-pong, but we’re massively underwhelmed with players right now…and so kicking will be a strategy versus running it out.
We’re normally a good jackaling side.
And at least we normally smother well.
But tonight, because of so many replacements, we look disjointed in defence.
Let’s write this off and not get too catastrophic (Covkid40).
I understand modern Rugby well enough thank you. The issue is most of the kicks did go straight down the throat of Gloucesters players giving them ample time to either run the ball back or return the kick with far more effectiveness. Some of the shorter kicks were so bizarre I still can’t work out what exactly we were try to achieve, in one instance we playing the advantage in their half of the pitch and Jacob immediately kicked possession away and the advantage was called over, the kick gave neither opportunity to our players to win the ball or gain territory, the fact that there were 4 Gloucester players in the area of the pitch he kicked it to opposed by 2 wasps players meant they ran it back 40 metres.
How many games do we “write off” before we realise we have a real problem, this isn’t a position that has arisen due to injuries, Jacob is our first choice 10 and he isn’t inexperienced any more.
Name one current premiership side that would swap their starting number 10 for Jacob. Absolutely none of them.
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Completely agree about our kicking. It’s not the longer stuff - it’s the completely non contestable shorter stuff. All of Glaws kicks of that nature were contestable and they won some. Mostly it was Porter who I think is a bit too predictable and let’s the opposition set up early.
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Completely agree about our kicking. It’s not the longer stuff - it’s the completely non contestable shorter stuff. All of Glaws kicks of that nature were contestable and they won some. Mostly it was Porter who I think is a bit too predictable and let’s the opposition set up early.
Agree - we said that when Wolstenholme came on the passing out was faster and the kicking from us diminished.
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Umaga has to be better .
Wolstenholme is better than Porter by a country mile
And we have to recover our defense form if we want to win again.