In retrospect I think I am more down about the win than the performance the week before.
Against Quins we rocked in attack, wasted some chances and got the brown end if the reffing stick by some margin, and still scored a hat full.
It is theoretically easier to tighten a try scoring team than it is to make a team struggling to register suddenly score 4 tries.
Yesterday we tried to build a lead, the right decisions in theory, but we were not very good at it. Truth be told it is not exactly stamped into Wasp DNA, is it? Every team needs to be able to grind out wins but we have never been great at it when we were the top dogs.
I think it was the Sarries game last year where apparently the team talk basically was "**** it, just give for it", after yet more disruption, and I feel that last week we went back to that approach. This week we had more expectation if a win and tried to play with mire caution, and were actually less clinical and more stilted.
I don't think we are miles off top 4, but that is because top 4 is not relevant, top 2 is and there is a light year between us and that, even if we keep the key guys fit. Top 4 matters for the play offs, but whether it is Saints or Sale next year, Quins or us, the top 4 is there to have a shot at the title, and Chiefs and Bristol are some way ahead. The team finishing 8th won't be a hugely worse team than the one scraping 4th. If we had won all our 77 minute matches we would be thinking we could be in the top 4, but nobody would be thinking of a title. There is a massive gap needing bridging.
The one big glimmer of light from yesterday, besides the result, was the scrum. If JTA can actually become a solid performer in the scrum we could be set fair, and Alo also looks to have some potential.