After sleeping on it

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I'm still not sure if we did enough yesterday to stake our claim for silverware.

Yes we got the 5 points, and that is by far the most important thing.  Yes Thompson was great again, Bassett showed he is a great winger, Youngyoung showed a little of his form from the early part of the seaons.  Hasks showed a little of his hard hitting form, Beale and Willie leRoux whoeed their class, and Gopperth justified being first choice right now.

But...

Robson and Cipriani seemed off their usual great form.  Both can be truly great when they hit the straps, but they didn't realy seem to, and it feels symptomatic of the whole squad.  We always seem to play to the levelof our opponents.  We started off trying to find the magic early on and it went terribly wrong, but then even when we settled down and took our chances we seemed to take our foot off the gas.  Where was the hard edge?  Where was the desire to be the best we can be?  We got the 5 in the bag and then let off the pressure.

Was it simply Dai making sure all the bench got a decent run in case they have to play in a truly important game soon?  Or was it just the way we are?  If the former does getting a run count for more than the confidence of truly hammering another team?  And if the latter will it come back to bit us in the last couple of games of the real season, or in the playy-offs beyond.

I really don't know.

It could easily just be that I spent such a long time watching us lose games I knew we should be able to win.  Even after that season we spent a long time just giving in.  Often in games we were winning, or should have won easily.  This feels a little like the same thing.  It still feels alittle like Wasps are the brilliant kid at school who can do better than everyone else in the class, but has learned that they don't have to work hard to succeed.  Sooner or later there will be a point where natural ablity isn't enough any more, and if we haven't learned how to work for it then we may well come a cropper.

Either that or I am just panicking because this is all a bit exciting...

[Raggs]

I really need to watch this again.

I see so many people saying that Robson looked poor, and I just didn't see that.  I know I'm a bit of a Robson fan-boy but clearly I missed something big.

Cips had a bad pass that I recall, but I don't think he looked too bad other than that.  Again, obviously need to rewatch.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I don't think Robson was poor necessarily, but normally when he come off the bench he adds a little spice, and his delivery from the breakdown is lighning fast.  He just looked a little slower than usual to me.  I tend to think that usually Simmo spends a bit of time setting the field as he wants it, whereas Robson just digs the ball out as fast as possible again and again to create some real pressure.  Yesterday he didn't quite seem to be doing that.  It could easily be him responding to Dai telling them not to just chuck it about and hope for magic but to play solid rugby, but either way I'd say Simmo was better yesterday.

Did you get my message by the way?

[Raggs]

Just replied, didn't see any alert, guess i have to set it up to tell me.

I'll rewatch at some point, but it's exactly the sort of game I'd not make judgements on any player on.

[Brandnewtorugby]

Would it be really daft to hope we have a few killer tactics that we are not using until the premiership knock out games (not even deployed in Europe). Perhaps to have few defensive tactics that have been allowed in order to draw a particular tactic against us that we will then exploit in the finals?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Would it be really daft to hope we have a few killer tactics that we are not using until the premiership knock out games (not even deployed in Europe). Perhaps to have few defensive tactics that have been allowed in order to draw a particular tactic against us that we will then exploit in the finals?

Daft is a strong word.  "Hopelessly optimistic" perhaps?

[Raggs]

Defensively i doubt it. I just hope with more intensity it becomes better. In attack? I'd guess we almost certainly have some set piece plays that won't have been seen before.

[Raggs]

Now rewatched, both scrum halves with mistakes (one pass to ground each, think both got caught by a boot when trying to clear it a second time, Simpson was charged down).  Robson had a moment of magic around 69, making a great break, a chip over that with a different bounce could have set himself or Wade up, or with a worse kick from Bristol, given us really great field position.  I'd argue that his pushing the pace also lead to Bassett's 2nd try.

At the point he came on, the game was also already won.  Why push the tempo as much when the TBP and game are both basically secured, better off just trying to keep structures etc.

2 weeks now, hopefully Cips can get fully healed.  Wonder what's in Dai's head for selection.

[Brandnewtorugby]

I get the impression from his Cov Telegraph interview that he will start Gopperth with Beale at 12 and WLR at 15.