I too disagree with the original post.
I do agree that this season has been poor and that Dai and the coaching staff have to take some responsibility for that. Do I trust Dai to put things right? I don’t know. Do I think removing Dai will benefit the club? Not at all.
Owen Slot’s somewhat confused piece the other week showed that for every Ackerman or Boyd there’s a John Kingston or Matt O’Connor (or Todd Blackadder according to some Bath fans). Dai has kept us up, topped the league and got us to within a couple of minutes of a Final’s Day win.
I wrote a short while ago about what I felt had changed and I stand by what I said.
I suggested that the three area where we were most proficient in previous seasons (counter-attacking off turnover ball, first-phase set moves and converting line-breaks through superior support line runners) had to some effect been nullified this year.
There have been glimpses this season of the threat that we still pose of turn-over ball (we saw it at Exeter for example) but the fact that we have lost players such as Guy Thompson (who has 16 for the season – third highest in the league), had Jack Willis injured for all of one and a bit games and Thomas Young starting only 32% of our prem games this year has limited our previous success here.
I have seen suggestions that Lima needs to play behind a strong pack. I disagree, the pack at the ‘Landers was never that formidable (don’t get me wrong it was very good and had some big powerful players but it wasn’t the strongest at all). I think that Lima needs a 9 who takes control and runs plays more. We have gone from a very controlling 10 who was always talking and moving players about and calling plays to a far more reserved 10 who is very good at what he does and has a very strong technical game but is not a ‘controller’. At the ‘Landers and Abs he had Smith who could do this as well as any 9 in the game. It is not the way Robson and Simpson play. Could this be solved by having a genuine 2nd 5 at 12 like Jimmy?
Maybe, won’t know ‘till we see it.
Line breaks: well the two best support runners (Dan and YY) haven’t played much and without them we have seen a fair few butchered this season.
We all know the injury situation has been dire this year. Of our two first choice loose-heads at the start of the year, one left without playing a single minute and the other has started all of two games. Taylor has hardly played, all our tight-heads have had injury troubles, Willis hardly played, Youngs started on 7 Prem games, Robson has hardly played, Jimmy has been out for the season, Wade packed up and left after a few games. None of this is Dai’s fault and it is unfortunate that the injuries have fallen on key players. Hindsight is wonderful I know but at the start of the season if you had asked me who our key players were that I’d want to play as much as possible, I’d have said, Launchbury, Young, Robson, Gopperth and le Roux – well Gopperth hasn’t started a game, Youngs and Launch started 7 and Dan 8, only le Roux (whose started around 60% of Prem games) has appeared in over 50%. Obviously, Willie hasn’t covered himself in glory this year and I think even the most generous would describe his season as little more that a curate’s egg. Of our other players, Daly has been poor almost the whole season, Simpson is not the player he was and Hughes while occasionally excellent continues to be a disciplinary liability.
On coaches, clearly Dai and the board have been trying to get someone. Wilson and Shaun didn’t come off and while some may moan that we didn’t have a back-up maybe we are only going for people who will make a material positive difference. Last year, people were lauding Dave Walder as a fantastic coach, not sure Falcon’s attacking stats make him quite such hot property now. I don’t say that out of spite in anyway to suggest that maybe we are looking at coaches whose quality is known and proved over time. As for former players, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Nick Easter didn’t work for Quins, jury is out on Hooper at Bath, Mauger and Murphy haven’t worked for Tigers. I love Worsley, for example, and would love to see him back at Wasps maybe he will come but maybe his style isn’t what the club want, maybe he’d rather stay in the south of France, it’s not necessarily that we ‘lacked ambition’ or similar.
Of course I’m gutted about the Bath game and the whole season to be honest but it has been a close run thing. Every team bar the top two has had some pretty ropy runs. Anyone bored enough to trawl back through the Saints board on SN after Sarries hammered them, again and when they lost to Tigers will see that consistency has been somewhat absent from most teams. As for us, in many games it has been close. Silly errors, discipline and switching off have cost us points on top of the things above. Let’s be hopeful for next year though, at least that way we can be cheerful over the summer.
Always a Wasp
