Always a Wasp

For me it looked like Daly was more interested in finishing the game without injury than competing for the ball. His eyes were on the approaching Leinster player rather than the ball. He made no attempt to jump and catch the ball. His ball in hand decisions were often poor. His field kicks were abysmal. He just didn't seem to be there. Right now, a fit Neal would get the winger slot over Daly any day of the week. Eddie was there to see. On this form, Daly will not get another England shirt to pull on.

I actually would not have an issue if we released Daly from his contract right now, without compensation from him, or his 'new' club. At least we would save on his wages.

Going forwards, we must expect that either Umaga gets offered a main squad contract at 15, or we announce a quality 15 coming in. And we need at least two wingers from somewhere.

Discussing this after the game (and at half time with other ST holders around us), we are really missing Jimmy. It is clear to me that he is the play maker. Without him we are lost. MLB, as good as he is, is not (yet) a playmaker. Should Sopoaga be? No sign of that yet. But he did (to me) have a much better game today. His kicking worries me though. The restarts too long (or has he been told to kick them there by the coaches?), the field kicks not good enough.

Maybe Umaga can be our playmaker, but we need one desperately.

Hampson had a good game for the 10 minutes he was on. Lightning fast and accurate. Most unlike him.

Sadly, Miller had a poor game. No shine or flair.

Lovobalavu was back to his best (but still lost the ball in contact).

Simpson was also warming up before the game, so expect him back very soon.

Our scrum gave Leinster a run for its money, except at the breakdown and the maul. Proud of them all.

In the first 30 minutes, we were totally dominated, in terms of possession and territory. We coughed the ball up, gave penalties away.

In the end, the score flattered us. But, we did far better than I expected against what would be close to the Irish national side. I wouldn't mind betting that England will fare no better.

I wonder how bad the concussion was that Joe suffered.

My MOTM was Cruse. How many 80 minutes stints can that man be asked to pull?

Agree about ED today, offered nothing and avoided lots, might as well forget him for now until matters are decided.

Cruse is immense, how does he do it?

On the whole,  not bad, areas to improve but not a disaster. Actually played like a team.

If they had not scored more points than us we might have won:-)

Thankfully not the actual Sarries, much as it would have been funny, all of my neighbours are Saints fans, I would have been scorched by the smug glow

Quote from: Raggs on January 17, 2019, 11:40:48 AM

Bollocks. Was really hoping he'd stick around. Rumour is Bath waved a huge check under his nose.

Wasps just signed Owlett from Exeter as a THP.

Huge cheques are very hard to ignore. Despite all the gloom and doom merchants, I doubt if there is a lot more to it than that. I presume his senior contract signed last May was for 1 year. Would a 1 year contract be usual for a senior academy player breaking into the seniors?

They seemed to improve as the match progressed. Nervous to begin with and in "anything we can score, we'll give you back by fluffing the restart" mode. However, setting aside normal watching-Wasps paranoia when with a 30 point lead and 2 minutes to go I'd be convinced they could still blow it, they looked in control and the defence was solid up to the end.

It was good leave to Ricoh knowing I could then watch on TV without some of the pain of late.

Well done chaps.

How likely is it (on current form) that he will successfully catch a flight?

I really felt that, away to Toulouse, Wasps started to play like a team. With all the disruption from injuries and player turnover, we have seemed more like a group of players who happen to share a dress code.

This week was a step backwards, over-trying at times, under-achieving at others, very nervous and almost desperate and afraid to fail, and so failing.

Yet there were moments where a move started to move like Wasps, the crowd got going, and I started to think that maybe we were going to wake up and kick on. Then we were not quick enough for their line-speed (they seemed to be upon our boys very quickly), or we developed white-line fever, panicked and blew it, even though we were still 20m from the white line.

IMO it is a case of off-day rather than off-team and there will be improvements as the year progresses with the result that we have (as a side-effect of all the injuries) an increased depth of squad members who have benefited from being involved throughout the year and then results will follow (please).

I believe that we have a squad full of decent players, none that (IMO) should not grace the Premiership but a few who should be 3rd or 4th choice and are having to act as 1st or 2nd, a couple of whom may well disappear as Academy players come through. It takes more than a couple of matches to build a team and perhaps this year we are going to be reliant upon the results of others more than usual (in recent years) to determine whether we make top 4 or 6 (or neither).

It did look like we picked up when the subs came on, but that there was not enough time left to build and take the result.

A bit less panic we could have won this one.

Embarrassing as I am a programmer (but barely semi-literate in the realm of forums and social media stuff).

Is there a recommended way to access to forum from a mobile phone? Using Chrome involves a lot of resizing to be able to see things and click on them. I had noticed at least one person using Tapatalk, but being a total coward though I would risk humiliation and request advice/recommendations.