Bris game thread

[westwaleswasp]

Feels great.
Even found a bar in the ground with Thatchers' Cheddar Valley, a real cider. Sadly it was shut as it was the end of the game, but I will know for next time.
Lovely reaction from the team after the final whistle, really revelling in a hard-earned win and then enjoying rapport with the travelling Waspies. Hopefully they can get this monkey off the back and kick on.

[Stang]

So happy with the win. Come on you Wasps!
Delighted to see so many players step up. I really like Jacob at 10. Hope the boys enjoy the next few days. This is a huge result... Bristol at home! Fantastic.

[mike909]

Just great - well done - we now have to believe

So glad to be wrong about this result - far too much down a bottle of red to make much sense

ENJOY!!!

[WickedWasp]

Pearce is having a terrible game.

Young spins around offside at the ruck, no effect on anything and he correctly calls “play on, no effect on play,”
10 seconds later, Bristol knock it on 20m from the ruck. “Now it has an effect, penalty back by ruck”
I mean, you have to give the pen at the time.

100% our maul defence was also good but wrongly pinged a few times.
Just glad it didnt cost us the result.

COYW

[Tervueren]

Brilliant, the dog has just dared to return from the garden now we has stopped shouting. Should have been there but family illness prevented.

Never in doubt, even with 2 minutes to go I just knew we'd do it and did not believe that we'd just put ourselves back in the mire by kicking away (he lies unconvincingly).

Great move by Cruse to get us forward and Nemo was immense.

Can we have a ban on Dan kicking in the final 10 minutes of the game until he is back to his best?

[Chilham]

Outstanding. Loved the second half. Pleased we braved our colds and went to match.

Chatted with a few of the players afterwards. Sione’s a lovely guy.

[Heathen]

5 very valuable points, despite Pearce doing all he could to give the game to Bristol.
Malakai was superb. Robson's form improving a bit. Back row impressive.

Totally agree with you, John. I also thought that Umaga has now clearly established himself as our starting 10. His best game in a Wasps senior shirt.

[JonnyD]

5 very valuable points, despite Pearce doing all he could to give the game to Bristol.
Malakai was superb. Robson's form improving a bit. Back row impressive.

Totally agree with you, John. I also thought that Umaga has now clearly established himself as our starting 10. His best game in a Wasps senior shirt.

Agree on this about Umaga, I do wonder however if Lima hadnt been ill this week would he have come back in after we fell apart against Quins.
I would now play Jacob against Saints and through Europe and try to keep the momentum going and his confidence growing

[Sting]

Relief at the result. Very happy.
Dan though was poor.
We got lucky at the end (about time too)
Kicking away possesion on 78 minutes!!!
Lucky for us Bris kicked it back on 79!!
Agree about Jacob.

[RBB]

Interesting that the local Bristol paper gave Nathan a 5 https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/rugby/match-reports/bristol-bears-player-ratings-shock-3685358, I thought the fact we were so familiar with him was telling as he had minimal impact, we neutralised him well and his ability to barrel through was stopped on numerous occasions.

The low point of the game for me was Nathan calling for a yellow for Joe, when he was incorrectly pinged for a penalty by Pearce, who to be fair did warn Nathan, nevertheless he grew up in the game with Joe, poor form.

[BlackCountryWasp]

Massive, massive win. The feeling of relief as Nemo went over was huge.
The lads put one hell of a shift in, especially when defending. Set piece was strong and despite a few poor decisions by Sir, we did it!
Umaga is getting better with every game, he will make errors but that's the risk and he didn't let it get to him. I also thought Fekitoa had his best game for us so far.
Now to use the win as the springboard. In the commentary last night, the view was that winning in the way we did would do more good than an easier one. I agree, it shows all of us that we can do it when the pressure is on.
Bring on Saints!!!!

[wasps]

Watching the nizaam Carr try over and over again.

When Nathan attempts to tackle him, he does enough to throw Nemo off balance.
While trying to recover, he turns his body in field, which in turn causes the covering Charles Piutau to check slightly in case Carr is about to step inside him

It's literally a fraction of a second, but is what's needed to stop Charles making the tackle.


If Nathan had missed Carr completely, I think Charles had him lined up, but it looks to me that knocking him sightly off balance worked in our favour

[wasps]

While I'm at it.

Charles showed great speed, power and technique to stop Marcus Watson scoring in the corner

However he seemed to be plodding through treacle when Jacob broke through and scored.


I suspect that young Umaga is actually quicker than he looks, but the camera angle certainly made it look like Piutau was just jogging

[RBB]

While I'm at it.

Charles showed great speed, power and technique to stop Marcus Watson scoring in the corner

However he seemed to be plodding through treacle when Jacob broke through and scored.


I suspect that young Umaga is actually quicker than he looks, but the camera angle certainly made it look like Piutau was just jogging

The difference between the ex All Blacks Piutau and Fekitoa was continuing effort IMO, Piutau's effort levels were lower than Fekitoa's who was relentless in attack and defence, he also looked like he had plenty in the tank. Charles was good in parts but didn't match Malakai's work rate.

I have just re-watched the game on BT Sport, Dai's use of replacements was key in the last try, Jimmy makes the yards, Sione flies in to distract Bristol and Tim Cardall provides the cover for Dan to get the ball away and out to Umaga.

And was it just me or did Ugo Pointless Pundit Monye seem massively disappointed we had turned it around at the end, please can BT sport just ask Ugo to step away from the microphone for good?

[InBetweenWasp]

I think it’s easy to be overly pessimistic or optimistic after a win/loss.  My wife and I were both saying that so far, this season is probably the hardest as fans in about 17-18 years - Even the near relegation season didn’t feel as hard to watch.  We just seem so un-Wasps like.

In my opinion, last night really shows how fine the margins are this season.  We’ve been very close to a couple of wins and small errors have cost us precious points.  I’m not sure we were markedly better last night than we have been all season.  Defence was better and those last passes, or breaks just seemed to come off.  I do also wonder whether some consistency in selection helped with fluidity somewhat.

Thought both Fekitoa and MLB, despite a couple of silly errors, had much better games together and started to look a bit more at home.  We dominated the breakdown and thus possession, we really are lucky to have both Willis and YY in the same team.

Pearce had a couple of howlers that impacted us pretty badly, but thought he had good intent - Made it clear early on that he wouldn’t take any crap at the breakdown, or the scrum and encouraged both teams to get on and play which I liked a lot.

Bristol didn’t seem to have quite the same spark about them, whether they were deflated after last weeks result against Sarries, or had enjoyed Christmas a bit too much they certainly didn’t look as lively.

Lastly, the score flattered Bristol somewhat - If Jacob had of gotten his earlier, easier kicks we’d have been home and dry (albeit we might not have gone for the TBP at the end).  Fair play to him stepping up at the end to nail what was probably his toughest kick of the evening.  Takes guts.