Always a Wasp

Some fairly ugly sides to Rugby this weekend - from players and fans alike.

Farrell lost his head with a couple of Bath fans on Friday (don't think it was captured on TV) after I assume was given some sh*t for carrying on play after looking back at Orlando Bailey (who was no more than 10 metres away) out cold on the floor, motionless with medics around him.  He was unusually rattled on Friday. 

To his credit though, he came round after the game having pictures with Bath and Saracens fans and was very gracious with his time - Jamie George and Sam Underhill also made a big post-game effort to sign autographs and take photos.

A bunch of Bath fans on a Stag Do drunkenly asking Ben Spencer for a picture just as he was being called back to the changing rooms by Bath backroom staff so politely said he had to go, they called out to him that he was a 'sh*t c**t' and Spencer (rightly) told them in no uncertain terms they won't be welcome back anytime soon.

It was a very edgy Saracens team out there.  Surprised Itoje got away with a Yellow - the tackle looked ok from the stands not far from where we were sat, but Alfie tends not to go down very easily.  Replays showed why!

Shame Finn wasn't back for Bath, think he'd have made the difference.  Bath really struggled to get any width on the ball.  Lawrence looked lively the handful of times he got the ball, but it rarely made it's way out more than 1-2 short passes.  Think Finn would have put some more width on play and stretched Saracens a bit more.

Moving on though, looking forward to Charlie vs Jacob (hopfefully) on Saturday.  Should be a good game and looking forward to a few ex-Wasps players.  First time at Kingsholm for me as well.

So far on our little on-the-road-tour of watching rugby post-Wasps, Bath and Saints have to be our favourite venues.  Still trying to work out getting out to see Toulouse and Pau play.

If Wasps intentions to go for the URC start to have a lot of foundation, I suspect that the RFU will shift significantly!

All things being equal, I wonder whether the preference from both Fans and Owners/Management would be to play in the Premiership or the URC.

My bet is that if we do come back, it'll be in whatever league loses a team next.  At this rate, my money would be on a Welsh region (long mooted) or Falcons (but perhaps they have a saviour in Steve Diamond). 

The whole Prem 1 / Prem 2 thing seems to have legs in principle, but the PRL Teams won't dilute their P-Shares and I haven't seen any news about Sponsorship/TV deals being interested in an uplift to cover 18-20 teams worth of TV coverage.  So think that's a concept that's dead and buried as no one will agree to it.  If that's the case and the Premiership remains ringfenced, it makes no sense for Wasps to come back there.

"Eric Anderson is Professor of Sport, Masculinities & Sexualities. He holds four degrees, has published numerous books and over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. His research is regularly featured on international television, in print and digital media.

He is the leading academic expert on gay men in sport, and the architect of Inclusive Masculinity Theory, which was generated from his research showing that decreased homophobia leads to a softening of heterosexual masculinities. This permits young men to kiss, cuddle and maintain bromances with other males, while also leading to semi-sexual behaviours between men and the increased recognition of bisexuality. "

No bias here, then   

Of late, it feels like when an expert needs to be quoted, it's because what's being suggested is usually a load of boll*cks. 

Went to watch Saracens vs Chiefs this weekend to see a few of our ex-players do their thing, although wasn't a great game for ex-Wasps - Frosty was on the bench, Fisilau struggled to build into the game at time (and there were a lot of handling errors from both sides - some cold hands), Hartley barely saw the ball but the odd occasion he did get his hands on it made ground. 

Hadn't been to the StoneX since 2013/14 and despite a general apathy for Saracens, the Match Day experience was excellent.  We parked in an 'official' (tickets brought from Saracens) car park about 20 mins walk from the Stadium which worked well for us heading back via the M25 as it meant we were on the right side to get onto the M1 very quickly.  All staff super-friendly and welcoming.  Had tickets in the South Stand (smallish, semi-permanent stand behind one set of posts).  View was great, close to toilets/bar/warm drinks for the kids.

If they had a more enjoyable playing style, they'd be a good potential home for us but just couldn't watch a team that puts boot to ball so frequently (In the interests of fairness perhaps they are much more positive these days and i've not seen enough of them - they definitely went through a better style 1-2 seasons ago but this felt like Saracens of old).

The highlights felt like a different game to the one we'd watched. 

Looking at the stats from the Prem Rugby app Chiefs were top in most of the positive ones (Metres gained, carries, passes, clean breaks, turnovers), Saracens made more tackles and conceded more penalties.  They just suffocated Chiefs at times and scores came through pressure rather than creativity.  The Hodge break for the Chiefs try was sublime and whilst I don't mind watching driving mauls, or one-out to score under the posts I would definitely miss watching first-phase strike play, or free-flowing attacks from turnovers.

The stats show Alfie has played 50 matches & has 4 yellow cards.
One straight red while playing for England u20 that really was stupid.

For a player that is all about contact & physicality, he's always going to get a few tackles wrong.

  well, quite. 

There didn?t seem to be much of a basis to the opinion other than he had two cards in one game. 

To then declare that he?s an immature twerp, who?s demeanour changed when he moved from Hooker to Back Row and doesn?t seem to be able to learn from the (largely non existant) Yellow and Red cards he keeps (not) getting felt a stretch.

Mind you, it?d be boring if we all agreed with each other and I suppose we all have our off days.

Having seen him playing for several years I'm  disappointed that  he doesn't seemed to have learned self-control in the way he plays.  He  .....  oh,  how can I put it ....   is still going at things like a bull at a gate without any thought for the consequences;  at 23 he should know better.

Seems like you feel he's been getting away with things for a while now?

Pleased for the number of ex-Wasps players who are thriving out there.  We're still missing Wasps, but quite enjoying our mini live-rugby fixes.  Off to Rome in a few weeks for the England game. 

We're targeting Racing92 vs Pau in the league in early June to try and get out to.  Keeping an eye on Benneton fixtures as well, as would be nice to see Paolo, Jacob, Minozzi and Fekitoa play but Paolo is unlikely to be seen anytime soon with his injury.

We've just booked to go watch Saracens vs Chiefs.  Feels a bit dirty, but likely to be a good match.  Had a bit of a quirk trying to book 6 of us across two sets Family tickets as it kept splitting us up.  Popped an E-Mail in to ask if there's a way to get us sat together and wife had a lovely call from their Head of Commercial to assist, as well as give advice on where to Park, what's going on before/after for kids and families and to ask what my wife thought they could do better to try and encourage more families to visit.  Was a nice, sincere touch even if it's not a club we're particularly fond of.

Also targeting Bath vs Saracens/Saints at the back end of the season.  The Saints game has the potential to be incredible.  But, if things continue there's a chance one of them fields a weakened team.  Tricky one as we'll likely have to commit to one (or both games) early.