But isn’t it ever so at The Ricoh? It seems to be a bogie ground for us, we seem to lose consistently there. Today though, we only had ourselves to blame. We came here on the back of a 5 match winning run in the Aviva which included away wins to Falcons & Barff….Surely we could pick off those pesky Wasps this time around?
I know we went in, after 40 minutes, ahead but, having been there and watched the game, I think that was more by luck than judgement.
It wasn’t meant to be. Don’t get me wrong. Wasps didn’t win. We lost. We handed it to them on a plate, particularly those last two tries in the 76th & 78th which took us from “losing” to “shameful”. Well worked moves by a skillful opposition that carefully earn yardage over the gain line and add pressure, look for space, chivvy a little chip onto a sniper out on the wing, who can’t but admire such dexterity and poise? But to seemingly, literally, throw the ball into the opposition’s hands when there is no defender between them and the try line is suicide.
It seemed that we couldn’t put two passes together today without a handling error.
The stats say we lost 2 out of our 13 line outs. Who that was there believes that? If the stats said we won 2 out of 13 I might be able to believe it. Hanson had a mare. I honestly believed I would be looking at the worst line out stats of the season.
Wasps defence was reasonably good so you could understand 57 trying to get behind the gain line with some kicks, but our runners were no-where to be seen when those kicks came to earth; Willi just didn’t seem to be getting the height on them that he usually does.
We lost Paddy early on which I’m told is hopefully a twisted MCL, rather than torn, but that leaves our front row dangerously depleted with R-R & Balmain out also.
So we lost, rather than Wasps won. I have a Waspy mate that will be crowing but on that performance I’m not sure he has a huge amount to crow about; it certainly wasn’t the Wasps of old. It wasn’t the “resurgence” he said would come at this stage of the season. Any gloss they seemed to shine was just because we were so poor.
It was potentially a game that had all the makings of a memorable fixture. One we would look back on in years to come. Such as the May 2013 fixture at Sandy Park. But it really didn’t live up to it’s billing. Perhaps, both teams knowing it might prove to be a season decider struggled to play their game. Who knows. Entertaining rugby it wasn’t. A disappointing loss it was.
But, if I was to try and take any positives from the game it is this. I would want to convince Ricoh to make a change. Please, please, please Wasps. Stop the crap. Stop the shitty drums. Stop the whining tannoy. Stop the crap music. The attempt to artificially create an atmosphere is, genuinely, worse than no atmosphere at all.
And yes, we all know you gave away 10k tickets so don’t try & pretend otherwise.
Having seen what we are capable of, having studied our games and looked for institutional errors, having looked at our upcoming fixtures and considered my pre-season comments. I suggested we would start climbing the table in the new year. I suggested that Johan’s impact would start having an effect around then. Gratefully it seems I was wrong. Yes we lost a single game to Wasps but I think it may prove a necessary shock to the system. Perhaps a cocky side that needed a slap to re-focus. To know and learn they are not invincible?
I may be an optimist but I see our next potential downfall all the way in the future in April, at Sandy Park. I believe every Aviva game twixt now & then is winnable……IF we play as we have seen we can.
winnyssite 