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Lima Sopoaga will provide sting Wasps are missing

By Sam Warlow

After narrowly edging Worcester 21-20 in their first competitive hit-out of the new Premiership season, Wasps director of rugby Dai Young conceded his side were ‘nowhere near perfect’.

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While not at full-strength, a last-gasp victory that could have easily been an opening-round loss – against a side who were on the brink of relegation last year, no less – may yield concerns for last year’s semi-finalists.

The Wasps attack looked lethargic, clunky and far-removed from a side that scored 76 tries last season – third most in the competition. They stumbled out of the blocks on Saturday and never really found their rhythm. One would be forgiven for thinking the Wasps had lost their sting.

Young is renowned for his attacking brand of rugby, evidenced by the impressive strike rates of Christian Wade, Josh Bassett and Elliot Daly in recent years. So why did they fail to fire on Saturday afternoon at Sixways? And what can they do before next weekend’s clash with Exeter Chiefs.

A lot of Wasps’ attacking woes started and ended with debutant fly-half Billy Searle. The 22-year-old left Bristol for Coventry and will likely be usurped by million-dollar man Lima Sopoaga as early as next weekend.

While Searle showed some flashes – and a cool head in scoring what turned out to be the winning points with a 68th minute penalty – his ability as a distributor and playmaker led to the stagnation and essential elimination of Wasps’ most potent attacking weapons.

Too often Searle opted to hit a forward short or take the ball into contact himself, as he was unable to free up his backline who were starved of the ball. Elliot Daly was limited to just five touches and five metres in the midfield, while left wing Josh Bassett saw the ball four times.

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After a couple of early attempts to get Wade involved on the right wing, it took 24 minutes for the ball to be released left to Bassett. With little deception the wing was able to carve off a 30 metre gain. Despite the result, Wasps rarely spread the ball back to the wings after this instance. The addition of Sopoaga and eventual return of fullback Willie Le Roux should help remedy this.

27-year-old Sopoaga is coming into a unique situation in Coventry. It’s not often that a club’s marquee signing has big boots to fill. Last season the Wasps were an attacking force with England flyhalf Danny Cipriani pulling the strings, and will be hoping to replicate that level of point production with Sopoaga at the helm.

Cipriani was hugely influential on the Wasps attack from flyhalf, showing an incredible knack for creating space and freeing up the rest of his backline before finding them with precise and crisp passes. Like Cipriani, Sopoaga is an elite option taker, with excellent vision and the ability to get the ball to where it needs to be in a multitude of ways from both hand and boot.

In his side’s Super Rugby semi-final, Sopoaga’s decision making and playmaking ability was on full display as he helped orchestrate a pair of well-worked first-half tries.

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Ten minutes into the match, the flyhalf found space near halfway behind a pair of his forwards, identified a rushing opposition midfielder and sent himself through a hole before perfectly timing a wide ball to hit wing Waisake Naholo in stride for the opening try.

Shortly after, the Highlanders struck again through a broken down set play. Following a couple of phases just outside the opposition 22, Sopoaga looked for left wing Tevita Li running an inside line. When Sopoaga realised the option had been cut off, he quickly read the situation and masterfully kept play alive by spinning and flicking the ball on to Teihorangi Walden, who was freed by a second decoy runner. Walden then found Rob Thompson off his shoulder, who strolled in untouched.

Not long after the second try, Sopoaga identified prop Sekope Kepu isolated on the right wing and placed a cross-field kick into space. Unfortunately the Highlanders had no one giving chase but the kick remained a good option and example of Sopoaga’s supreme attacking vision. At 1.92m tall, a wing like Bassett gives Sopoaga a big target down the edge for these types of kicks, while a speed merchant like Wade should benefit from Sopoaga’s elite passing ability and pinpoint wide balls.

Young acknowledged that while Sopoaga is a different player than Cipriani, he is confident his new man will fit the pattern that isn’t “going to be drastically different to last season.”

While we won’t see what Young has up his sleeve for Sopoaga until at least next week, Young’s expansive style may allow us to see a different version of Sopoaga. What’s scary is we may not have seen him at his best yet. Young’s ball retention model combined with a player who has all of the tools to make the Wasps’ backline just as damaging as they were with Cipriani in charge could be the key to unlocking that.

During his time at the Highlanders, Sopoaga was often asked to pin the opposition deep and trust his defence. Under Young, Wasps rarely kick away possession, which should give the flyhalf ample opportunity to create space for those outside him.

Inserting a ball-playing Sopoaga into a lineup with strike weapons like Daly, Bassett, Wade and Le Roux out wide serves to provide the perfect fit Young has talked about, and allow the side to get maximum production from their backline.

After a shaky start, it’s Lima Sopoaga who will give the Wasps their sting.

In other news:

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Jon 2 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 4 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

15 Go to comments
A
Adrian 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

15 Go to comments
T
Trevor 9 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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