Wasps
MATCH PREVIEW: WASPS v LEICESTER
Smiles all round?
By Dobbin
September 16 2010
Oh dear. Two games in, and already some of the predictable pre-season optimism is wearing off. Two games, two points, one draw, one loss. No wins. Is it time to take stock already? If it is, then it couldn't come at a worse time. The champions are visiting on Saturday.
The bald facts are these. We have failed to win two matches that last season resulted in victories, against two teams that you wouldn't expect to be figuring in the play-offs at the end of May (although, as always, I reserve the right to be completely wrong about this). More worryingly, in those two games, Wasps have faded badly in the second half. In eighty minutes of second half rugby we have scored six points, conceded twenty-nine, and squandered half-time leads in both cases. It's too early to call this a pattern, but it must be worrying for the coaches nonetheless.
Last season, of course, we also won the upcoming fixture, home against Leicester Tigers. One of the better, more entertaining games in the early part of 2009/10, Wasps played the sort of fluent rugby that seemed all too infrequent in the rest of the campaign, despite Tigers coming back at the last, as is their wont, to secure a bonus point with a Jordan Crane try. It would be nice to see more of the same attacking spark from Wasps this time around, and it would be even nicer if they could maintain it for a full eighty minutes. There is certainly no disincentive to attack this season. As I mentioned in a post earlier in the week, the encouragement to keep the ball in hand is almost overwhelming at the moment, given the way the breakdown is being refereed. Turnovers are few and far between. The team with the ball is given every chance to go through the phases, and if they can hang onto the thing and advance up-field, then a score becomes more likely than not. Which reminds us of another aspect of Wasps' early season play – the plethora of handling errors.
Is the game more entertaining this season? Early indications are that it is, but then nothing could be less entertaining than the mind-numbing kick-fests that resulted from the fear of turnovers last term. There is a caveat, though. All this running rugby is all very nice, but has it gone too far? Are we in the process of turning a game predicated on a contest for possession of the ball into a game where the contest is for territory instead? Of course the attacking team must be encouraged to attack. You have to weight the breakdown in their favour, otherwise they're just as well off without the ball another forty metres up-field. But you also have to give the defending team an incentive to compete at the breakdown. You have to hold out the possibility that they can steal the ball. At the moment, what would have been cast-iron turnovers not just last season but for quite a few seasons past are resulting either in continued possession for the attacking team or, worse, a penalty against the defending team. It's a hard balance to strike, no doubt, but what we're witnessing at the moment, it seem to me, is rugby union, Jim, but not as we've known it.
As I say, however, the resulting contests have been mostly entertaining, and perhaps at the top end of the game entertainment matters more than purity of ethos. Leicester have themselves been involved in two of the most entertaining games this season. A first week loss to Northampton was followed up last week by a wonderful match against Premiership new boys Exeter Chiefs. Trailing 10-20 at half-time and still four points adrift as the final ten minutes approached, Leicester eventually came through and nicked the game with two late tries. Exeter were hardly disgraced in leaving Welford Road with nothing, however. The intriguing question that the game gives rise to is this: did the closeness of the scoreline have anything to do with the new interpretations, or was it a genuine indication of Exeter's competitiveness at this level? In a sense, I suppose, they equate to the same thing at the moment. One thing's for sure – it'll have put the fear of god into those teams who find themselves languishing at the bottom end of the table come Christmas.
And so to this weekend. Two teams with very different experiences so far, but still, at this early stage of the season, with everything to play for. Leicester are without fly-half Toby Flood after a knee injury sustained at Franklin's Gardens, meaning ex-Wasp Jeremy Staunton will probably deputize at Adams Park this Saturday. It's the same scenario that Leicester faced for much of last season, and while their ability to score tries was compromised at that time, it didn't seem to do them any harm in the long run (it remains to be seen whether winning games on defence and penalty-kicks is a realistic prospect under the new interpretations, but then this isn't exactly the only weapon in Leicester's armoury anyway). Their pack will be as fearsome as ever, Dan Cole and Martin Castrogiovanni taking it in turns to menace opposing loose-heads, a back-row without Lewis Moody still able to compete with the best, and a second row enhanced by another ex-Wasp, George Skivington. Skivs doesn't yet seem to have shown the form for the Tigers that so many Wasps fans remember him for, and most of us will be hoping he'll postpone it for another week at least, but whoever Wasps select to oppose him in the second row will know he's got his work cut out. Behind the pack, and livewire new England scrum-half Ben Youngs, Leicester's back division doesn't have the outright pace that many of their rivals can boast, but it has nous and a nose for the try-line in abundance, and you don't have to score from first or second phase any more. Dangerous? When have Leicester ever been anything but?
Wasps apparently have an early-season injury crisis to compound their poor start. It looks likely that we'll be denied, once again, the mouth-watering prospect of a Youngs-Simpson battle at scrum-half, and with reserve scrum-half Nic Berry also reportedly struggling to be fit, Charlie Davies could be asked to make his full home debut in the furnace of a match against the reigning champions. With Birkett and Ward-Smith also apparently doubtful, a second-row of Cannon and Shaw seems likely, with either Blind-Hope or Devout-Prayer to cover for them on the bench. Waldouck and Vickery are the other reported injuries, though whether this means John Hart is now fit I don't know. It would certainly be welcome news if he is. Thankfully cover at prop and centre is significantly more plentiful than it was at times last season. Hopefully – and this goes for the whole squad - they've all got eighty minutes inside their legs this week.
A game against Leicester is always one to be relished. Perennially the benchmark against which other clubs judge themselves, the East Midlands club are no less formidable than in any other season, despite the loss to Saints and the apparent wobble against Exeter last week. It's early season and they will only get stronger. Those of us minded to bemoan Wasps first two results should probably take the same attitude towards our own team – early season, things can change. With the challenges coming up in the next few weeks, however, it would be nice if they could start changing this Saturday at Adams Park.
Allez Wasps!
THIS WEEK'S OTHER FIXTURES:
Northampton v Bath
Sale v Harlequins
Exeter v Newcastle
Leeds v Saracens
London Irish v Gloucester
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Quote:Richardwasp
Where did our third point come from
shhhhhh we'll take it
