Always a Wasp

Strange feeling.
We lost, but we qualified.

Feels a bit reminiscent of losing at Adam's Park but avoiding relegation.


Lots of players leaving, another rebuild begins.


Let's hope our guys enjoy their down time, and come back refreshed and raring to go.
Let's also hope that some of our currently injured, big game players continue to recover and rehabilitate and come back strong

Ben Youngs has ruled himself out of contention for the Lions.
He was one of 50+ players that we informed they were being considered for selection.


I don't know how many scrum halves were in that 50+ player pot, but it would suggest that Warren Gatland also rates Ben Youngs very highly - presumably in the top 5 scrum halves from the home nations.

Personally, I don't dislike Youngs as much as most posters on here and other forums.
However, I very much did prefer him when he used to look to snipe more often.

I suppose, as a head coach, Youngs is someone that is capable of playing to a game plan.
We may not like the game plan that Eddie pushes on him, but over the years, Youngs has shown that he can play a different game

Cipriani signs a 1 year deal with Bath

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-9390875/Danny-Cipriani-set-confirmed-Bath-player-signing-one-year-deal.html

Who are the good refs these days?

Whenever we have a thread highlighting the officials of an upcoming game, it's nearly always full of negative comments regarding the referee and/ or the officiating team.

Whenever we have a game where we lose, the post mortem always includes comments regarding the poor officiating, albeit often stating that it had no effect on the game

When we win games, there's typical still comments that we won despite the officiating.

This happens whether it's Wayne Barnes it CMK.


So, are there any refs that are actually liked?
Have there actually been any good refereeing performances in recent memory.

So it seems that Italy started with their 2nd choice props and bright their first choice ones on during the first half.

According to Ben Kay, the theory is that your 2nd choice props blow themselves out for 30 minutes and then get replaced.
On comes the first choice props and put themselves about for 10 minutes before getting a rest at half time.
They've then got 40 minutes against a tiring or 2nd choice opposition front row



On the face of it, this seems very logical.

Ben Kay stated that the biggest downside is if the 1st choice prop gets injured, but I doubt this is really a major problem given that the starting prop has probably had a significant rest.

Any other thoughts on this?

I've been critical of us before when it comes to closing out the last 5 minutes of games.
I think this may be one of the few times I've ever seen us go through a number of phases at the death just to run the clock down

Congratulations!

Forget EPS, forget Eddie Jones, forget injuries, forget anyone that may be playing overseas.


What 23 players do you select for a must win England game tomorrow?

Ideally this should be an actual team that you'd want to take to the field if you were in charge.
It therefore doesn't necessarily have to be based purely on playing ability, you can include other factors such as team dynamic, credit in the bank or anything else if you feel that it adds value to the overall team.



I suspect there will be some standard selections (particularly given that this is a wasps board). So don't feel that it's necessary to explain why you might select Joe launchbury or Jack Willis.
But if you choose someone unexpected, it'd be interesting to know the justification