Dai's 'Mistake' with the Premiership Cup Matches

[Rossm]

Interview with Bobby Bridge. Dai admits to a mistake (in his opinion).

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/rugby/wasps-dai-young-premiership-cup-16039503

I'm not sure if I agree. There should be a place for a development competition with silver ware at the end but only of course if all clubs subscribe to it. There is not much point of youngsters playing against teams largely composed of senior players. However the run of bad results certainly didn't help the general morale.

[Rory87]

I understand what Dai is saying but think he's being overly self critical. Our injuries this season have decimated the squad and forced us to field weakened sides in the GP. So it could easily be flipped on its head and if he were to field more senior players and they pick up injuries, we could have found ourselves a lot closer to relegation than we find ourselves now.

Perhaps with a better balancing of the salary cap, plus more academy prospects coming through, we will have a bigger squad to select from for this competition next season and strike a better balance of youngsters/1st team players.

[Brandnewtorugby]

Yep, seems harsh on himself, but I am all for everyone at Wasps and even us supporters asking what we could do better.

Personally think lots of young and new players have put in good performances and now have the benefit of experience that will make the squad better for it next year. Lots of wins and losses were 'only justs' this season.

[westwaleswasp]

I thought it was a mistake at the time. I am glad Dai sees it that way, momentum is important and I would like to see us play a stronger team in general, with a half first team/half academy approach.
There were quite a few at the time who said 'Dai knows best', a fair enough point, but you have to say that Dai must still know best when viewing it retrospectively as a mistake.

[wasps]

It's things like this that tell me that Dai is the man to stay in charge.

It's easy to say that we've had a bad season so get rid of him.
However, mistakes may have been made this year, but a good DoR / head coach will learn from those mistakes going forwards.

By sacking him, you don't benefit from the lessons that have been learnt.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

I think one of the persistent 'mistakes' Dai makes is to 'play it safe' in selection choices (next game and next season). By that I mean, open himself up for less criticism if a 'gamble' (in his eyes) doesn't come off. This is only one or two players, but, in my opinion, and that is ALL it is, the backs are where the selection mistakes are being made.

Buy in a big name rather than promote from within (e.g. the academy), and use 'more experienced' utility players in the backs rather than youngsters who actually play in that position. What some of us call a failure to develop the academy.

Those early season team selections were beset with injury problems, but even still maybe did not hit the right balance between experience and youth. I am not sure he made any mistakes then, he simply didn't have the right options available.