Always a Wasp

Quote from: BlackAndGoldSunglasses on August 16, 2022, 01:10:19 PM

Quote from: Neils on August 16, 2022, 12:56:16 PM

The Dam Health cost £5.7m. Excellent stadium fantastic atmosphere and a good plastic pitch.

I wondered about the feasibility of an augmented / hybrid pitch, but the EFL regs do state that the football pitch has to be grass.

Non-starter.

I find this stance somewhat odd, given eight of the 16 stadia due to host matches in the 2026 World Cup have fully artificial surfaces. One even  switched from grass to artificial for the 2015 Women's Football World Cup.

Well that's interesting! I wasn't aware of that!

The EFL regs I cited are here: https://www.efl.com/-more/governance/efl-rules--regulations/efl-regulations/appendix-1-membership-criteria-regulation-8/#maincontent and the pitch surface one(s) are section 27 (27.1 being the one that states grass is required).

EFL just behind the times?

The next cabs of the rank in the academy make for an interesting side note when the squad looks a little light.

You’d expect Alfie Bell to get some gametime somewhere this year and 6ft8 homegrown locks are pretty hard to come by.
Tunney, Cripps, Fisilau and Fin Brown will all be just behind Curran, waiting in the wings, Brown has the size for 6 and will get some experience playing at Moseley this year - the other 3 might all end up at 7 eventually so not sure if all will push on to the senior squad.
Mario Pichardie has also potentially left, have seen that he released a highlights video a while back and hasn’t appeared in any of the behind the scenes footage.

Ma’asi White will get some more experience in the centres this year and although I’ve not seen him play, Feyi-Waboso was thought highly of at Cardiff might be next in line for a run on the wing if we’re very short, Bacon has featured before and Rakodrava looks to have some potential.

In the props with Nearchou, Pleasants, Hardwick and McArthur we also look well set for the future.

The academy is definitely bearing fruit but it’s time for these guys to take squad positions now and be solid options making us look stronger on paper - especially in the centres.

I'll be honest, I've not seen a lot of the academy lads play. Ma'asi-White and Fisilau looked useful in the couple of games in the U20s Summer tournament that I caught. Ma'asi-White in particular looked a pretty explosive runner, although I did feel his distribution was a "work on".

Great to see / hear that we are genuinely bringing through quality, and if they are the next cabs off the rank then good luck to them!

If 'inj' means injured, then stick it to Umaga, as he is out for a while.

Yeah, forgot about that. MCL - any news on when he might be back?

Wasps v Tigers was always fiercly contested in the AP days. The two clubs were at the top of the tree for a number of years.

Agree, but it wasn't a local derby then

The state of the pitch is that it is unsafe for football players and match officials.

Has Andy Street got anything to do with this? If he is involved, it is Wasps he need to talk sense in to.

I have never called out the EFL and I’m not sure that bigad’s statement is accurate.

I haven’t seen the agronomists report in the public domain but Wasps will have seen a copy and so will have had plenty of opportunity to challenge the conclusions drawn and which are in public.

Do you really think that the CWG brought a team of groundsmen with them. They rented the facility and associated services which would have pitch maintenance. CBS ground staff were commenting publicly on the difficulties they were having given what was available to them before and during the CWG. The CWG exclusivity is a smoke screen, and in any event they released the pitch early.

Andy Street called in as a moderator after CCFC invoked "dispute resolution mechanism": https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/coventry-city-cbsarena-pitch-crisis-24752168

Whilst Dave Boddy is on record as saying that ("The state of the pitch is that it is unsafe for football players and match officials"), it would be interesting to see the report, and the context in which it was framed (which I think someone else mentioned).

Everyone agrees the pitch issue needs resolving, but I don't think there's any magic way of accelerating the grass growth?

Interesting article, thanks for posting.

As great as it would be to have Wadey back, it's pretty unlikely now. He seems settled in the States, and I suspect that if he does return to rugby it'll be over there.

Some good points coming out.

In terms of the "hearts and minds" piece, I think there may have been an underestimation of the length of time required to really embed into the area and develop the support base. The links with local clubs and schools feeding players into the DPP and Academy systems, and the emergence of Coventry-grown talent will engage and resonate more with the local fans over time.

Also, building up local rivalries doesn't happen overnight. The football rivalry between Coventry and Leicester (the M69 derby) is well established, but the Wasps v Leicester match doesn't yet have the same feel. The traditional rivalry with Harlequins is still the big one - and should remain so, we started off as the same club, after all.

Agree wholeheartedly with the views of hopwood and WestWalesWasp that playing exciting, ambitious rugby is important. Entertainment is key, as is the whole matchday experience - particularly for families. Been a big fan of the "Christmas Cracker" games over the past few years (although can't remember us winning one....) for a good day out in the dark mid-winter.