Schedulers add insult to injury for Wasps
Wasps are on the ropes with a squad that is down to the bare bones and the schedulers have hit them with a low blow ahead of the Champions Cup kick-off.
The men from Coventry have now lost four in a row in the Premiership and director of rugby Dai Young had 15 first team squad members out injured this weekend. Not an ideal backdrop for them as they head into Europe and those in charge of scheduling have kicked them while they’re down as well.
It’s ludicrous to play Saracens away on Sunday in a big Premiership clash and then your first European game away at Ulster the following Friday. I don’t agree with five-day turnarounds at all. It’s not as if one of them is an Anglo Welsh Cup game and you’re putting the kids out.
The powers that be that are overseeing the scheduling of these fixtures need to take a look at themselves. Going into Europe, there should be an absolute minimum of six days’ preparation for everyone.
Monday will be a recovery day, players will still be recovering on Tuesday, you can train normally on Wednesday but then you have to travel and can only have a light team run, so conceivably Wasps only have one proper day of training to prepare for a big European game.
When you take into consideration how affected they are by injuries at the moment as well, it’s a ludicrous situation to be in. Ulster beat Connacht at home on Friday night, so they’ve had an extra two days of preparation for this weekend’s match compared to Wasps. It beggars belief really.
The club won’t complain about it too much and Dai isn’t the type to look for excuses but it’s a situation that absolutely shouldn’t happen in this day and age.
I actually thought they fronted up pretty well against Saracens. If you take away the two soft tries they conceded early on in the game, it would have been a narrow defeat away at the European champions with a severely depleted squad.
I was impressed with how much grit and determination they had in the face of adversity and how the young guys like Jack Willis and Marcus Garratt performed. They’ll really benefit from the experience.
However, they lost the gainline battle, admittedly against the most physical defence in the Premiership, but they’ll be disappointed with that. Their set piece was also an issue and they got absolutely destroyed in the scrum at times in the second half, which will hurt Dai Young personally as well as the players.
A change of competition will be good for them this week but it doesn’t get any easier with a trip to Ulster up next.
When I was at Wasps a couple of years ago we lost our opening two games and then won four on the spin to qualify for the quarter-finals but we were the first team to do that.
It isn’t impossible to get out of your pool if you lose your first two games but it doesn’t happen very often, so they need to pick up a win in the next couple of weeks.
From Wasps’ point of view, a losing bonus point at the Kingspan Stadium on Friday will be a minimum requirement and then they have the chance to get revenge on Harlequins after they ended their home streak in the Premiership a few weeks ago.
As well as Dai Young’s injury crisis, Quins have 45 per cent of their squad unavailable. They have been training with London Irish and the situation is becoming almost unmanageable for certain teams, with those in charge of the new law changes now in the firing line.
It is a balancing act and you can’t just blame the lawmakers for creating lots more contacts when people were crying out for those changes before.
Two years ago everybody was moaning about the ball in play time being too low and saying that needed to improve in order to make the game more attractive.
There are now around 50 more contacts per game than there were in the past few years, according to some statistics that came out recently.
Skill levels have increased and the laws have been changed to make the sport more appealing to the public but the ball being in play for longer means that there are more contacts, there is more fatigue for players and the risk of injury is naturally higher.
We all want to see a more fluid game with less dead time and fewer reset scrums but we don’t want to see the injuries that result from having more contacts, so it’s taking time to get that balance right.
Injuries or no injuries, the Kingspan Stadium is a ridiculously tough place to go but a change is as good as a rest at times and it could be just what Wasps need right now.
Comments on RugbyPass
I certainly don’t miss drinking beers at 8am in the morning watching rugby games being played in NZ.
1 Go to commentsThis looks like a damage limitation exercise for Wales, keeping back some of their more effective players for the last 20/25 minutes to try and counter England’s fresh legs so the Red Roses don’t rack up a big score.
1 Go to commentsVery unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
2 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
2 Go to commentsThere’s a bit of depth there but realistically Australian players have a long way to go to now catch up. The game is moving on fast and Australia are falling behind. Australian sides still don’t priories the breakdown like they should, it’s a non-negotiable if you want to compete on the international stage. That goes for forwards and backs. The Australian team could have a back row that could make a difference but the problem is they don’t have a tight five that can do the business. Tupou is limited in defence, overweight and unfit and the locks are a long way from international standard. Frost is soft and Salakai-Loto is too small so that means they need a Valentini at 8 who has to do the hard graft so limits the effectiveness of the backrow. Schmidt really needs to get a hard working, tough tight 5 if he wants to get this team firing.
3 Go to commentsSorry Morgan you must have been the “go to for a quote” ex player this week. Its rnd 6 and there is plenty of time to cement a starting 15 and finishing 8 so I have no such concerns.
2 Go to commentsGreat read. I wish you had done this article on the ROAR.
2 Go to commentsThe current AB coaching team is basically the Crusaders so it smacks of wanting their familiar leaders around. This is not a good look for the future of the ABs or the younger players in Super working their way up the player ladder. Razor is touted as innovative, forward looking but his early moves look like insecurity and insular, provincial thinking. He is the AB's coach not the Golden Oldies.
10 Go to commentsSimple reason for wanting him back. Robertson wants him as captain. Otherwise he wouldn’t be bothering chasing him. Not enough reason to come back just to mentor.
10 Go to commentsI had not considered this topic like this at all, brilliant read. I had been looking at his record at the Waratahs and thought it odd the Crusaders appointed him, then couple that with all that experience and talent departing and boom. They’ve got some great talent developing though, and in all honesty I don’t think anyone would be over confident taking them on in a playoff match, no matter how poor the first half of their season was. I think they can pull a game out of their ass when it counts.
2 Go to commentsNot a bad list but not Porecki and not Donaldson. Not because they are Tahs, or Ex Tahs, they are just not good enough. Edmed should be ahead. Far more potential. Wilson should be 8 and Valentini 6. Wilson needs to be told by his father and his coach, stop bloody running in to brick wall defence. You’re not playing under the genius Thorn any more. He’s a fantastic angle runner. The young new 8 from the Brumbies looks really good too. The Lonegrans are just too small for international rugby as is Paisami, as is Hamish Stewart at 12. Both great at Super Rugby level. Stewart could have been a great 10 if not for Brad Thorn. Uru should be there and so should Tupou. Tupou just needs good Australian coaching which he hasn’t been getting. I don’t think Schmidt will excite him.
3 Go to commentsIf he wants to come back then he should. He will be a major asset to the younger locks and could easily be played as an impact player off the bench coming on in the last 30. He is fit, strong and capable and has all the experience to make up for any loss in physical prowess. He could also be brought back with a view to coaching within the structures one day. Duane Vermeulen played until he was 37 or 38. He is now a roaming coach within the South African coaching structures. He was valuable in the last world cup and has been a major influence on Jasper Wiese and other young players which has helped and accelerated their development and growth. Whitelock could do the exact same thing for NZ
10 Go to commentsBrett Excellent words… finally someone (other than DC) has noted that Hanigan is very hard and very good at doing what Backrow should do… his performance via the Drua sauna was quite daunting for those on the other side… very high tackle count… carries with good end result… constant threat to make a good 20-25 meters with those long legs… providing his mass effectively to crunching the Drua pack… Finally he is returning to quality form… way to much injury time over the last 2 years… smart-strong-competent in his skills… caught every lineout throw aimed at him and delivered clean pass to whoever was down below… and he worked hard for the whole 80 minutes… Ned has to be in the top 5 for backrow honors… He knows what is required as he has been there before…
20 Go to commentsI think Sam Whitelock should not touch a return with a bargepole. He went out on a high, playing in the RWC Final. He would be coming back into a team that will be weaker than last years, and might even be struggling to win games, especially against the Boks. Stay in France, enjoy another year with Pau, playing alongside his brother.
10 Go to commentsRyan Coxon has been very impressive considering he was signed by WF as injury cover whilst Uru has been a standout for QR, surprised neither of those mentioned
3 Go to comments