Bath vs Wasps, Friday Night Rugby

[Which Tyler]

15 Tom de Glanville, 14 Joe Cokanasiga, 13 Jonathan Joseph, 12 Max Ojomoh, 11 Will Muir, 10 Orlando Bailey, 9 Louis Schreuder; 1 Lewis Boyce, 2 Tom Dunn ©, 3 Will Stuart, 4 Dave Attwood, 5 Josh McNally, 6 Miles Reid, 7 Chris Cloete, 8 Richard de Carpentier

Impact players

16 Tom Doughty, 17 Juan Schoeman, 18 Aranos Coetzee, 19 Quinn Roux, 20 GJ van Velze, 21 Max Green, 22 Piers Francis, 23 Josh Bayliss







1 Tom West
2 Dan Frost
3 Biyi Alo
4 Joe Launchbury (c)
5 Kiran McDonald
6 Nizaam Carr
7 Jack Willis
8 Tom Willis
9 Will Porter
10 Charlie Atkinson
11 Josh Bassett
12 Burger Odendaal
13 Sam Spink
14 Francois Hougaard
15 Jacob Umaga


Replacements
16 Gabriel Oghre
17 Robin Hislop
18 John Ryan
19 Tim Cardall
20 Ben Morris
21 Dan Robson
22 Ryan Mills
23 Zach Kibirige

[Puja]

One or other of them will get a badly needed kick-start to their season at least (unless they play out a 3-3 draw, which I wouldn't put past them).

I remain startled that de Carpentier is a Premiership starter, although when the alternative is a decrepit Van Velze, it makes more sense.

Puja

[FKAS]

I mean Josh Bayliss is on the bench.

Bath's backline looks made for running rugby if they only score multiples of 3 van Graan should take a long hard look at himself.

This should in theory be a game with plenty of points and probably a catalogue of errors and one team or the other try and find some form and confidence.

[Which Tyler]

Gallagher in for DeGlanville at FB

[Raggs]

Some lovely handling from Umaga so far, and great work from the Willis's in general.

[FKAS]

Wow, not a good night for Bath so far. Losing Cloete so early was definitely a blow.

Wasps look fired up and are just out fighting Bath all over the place. The Wasps 9/10/12 combination just looks rampant in attack.

[twitchy]

Yep, wasps putting on a clinic.

[Which Tyler]

Wow, not a good night for Bath so far. Losing Cloete so early was definitely a blow.

Wasps look fired up and are just out fighting Bath all over the place. The Wasps 9/10/12 combination just looks rampant in attack.

Bath are fighting?

[twitchy]

Bath claw one back.

[FKAS]

Wow, not a good night for Bath so far. Losing Cloete so early was definitely a blow.

Wasps look fired up and are just out fighting Bath all over the place. The Wasps 9/10/12 combination just looks rampant in attack.

Bath are fighting?

Not like they were in week 1.

Just scored a nice try through the backs though. I think it was Spink pulled out of the line to creat the space. Good interplay between 10 and 12.

[Which Tyler]

At least we can do something when we've got a free play.

Don't think I'll bother with the 2nd half - just pathetic

[FKAS]

Spoke too soon. Big old bout of handbags on halftime.

It's not really what van Graan would be wanting to see.

[Which Tyler]

Not like they were in week 1.

You were saying?

[Which Tyler]

If ever there was an advert for relegation, it's Bath in 2022

[Raggs]

I know Umaga has weaknesses, but his passing game is just delightful. Sells dummies with his eyes, picks great passes, has the skill to pull them off.

[Puja]

Hell of a turnaround for Bath. Something to build on with the attitude they showed in the last 30 minutes. Joseph's still an absolute touch of class for them.

Puja

[FKAS]

Bath had plenty of style in the backs and a working rolling maul. Scrum didn't work and the defence was terrible though. The big turnaround happened whilst Wasps were without Jack Willis, those 14 points swung the game significantly.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Hell of a turnaround for Bath. Something to build on with the attitude they showed in the last 30 minutes. Joseph's still an absolute touch of class for them.

Puja

That’s somewhat easier when you’re already banged. Bath are frankly laughable! There is a rotten element starting at the top! I genuinely hate to see such good players in such a mess.

[Beasties]

I know Umaga has weaknesses, but his passing game is just delightful. Sells dummies with his eyes, picks great passes, has the skill to pull them off.

That Bassett try was hilarious. He looked at Bassett, pretended to pass then didn’t look at Bassett but passed anyway. Everyone in the stadium bought it.

Bath’s comeback was inevitable. Wasps -WTAF? Again?

[I R Geech]

Bloody Blackett and his planned substitutions. It all went tits up from there and we were lucky to hold on.

[Oakboy]

Two questions: 1. How good is Spink? 2. Why are both Willises not at the front of the England back-row queue?

[Raggs]

Bloody Blackett and his planned substitutions. It all went tits up from there and we were lucky to hold on.

McDonald was apparently limping, Hougaard got injured, Frost got injured, Front row is hardly exceptional to replace. We're now at 5 out of 8 anyway... Porter had been working ridiculously hard so was probably absolutely shagged. Not sure when/who Mills came on for, nor when Morris replaced Carr.

[Scrumhead]

Two questions: 1. How good is Spink? 2. Why are both Willises not at the front of the England back-row queue?

1. Spink does look good. Early days, but IMO he has more potential than Porter. Feels quite easy to look good against Bath right now though …

2. Hard to know where Jack is ATM? He was pushing very hard before his injury and Eddie did bring him straight back in to the mix as soon as he could which suggests he is definitely up there. I prefer him to Underhill who is out of the AIs anyway, but I’d still expect Lawes an Curry to (deservedly) keep their places. No idea why Tom isn’t fancied. As I’ve said many times before, I actually think he’s the perfect type of 8 for England - almost a half way house between Billy and Dombrandt. Mad to think Chick* has caps and he doesn’t.

*I think Chick is a good player, but nowhere near as good as Tom Willis.

[Shiny]

Two questions: 1. How good is Spink? 2. Why are both Willises not at the front of the England back-row queue?

Because they were out one day riding a tandem bike and they ran over a dog, which turned out to belong to Eddie Jones. That’s the only reason I can think of.

[fivepointer]

Tom and Jack Willis were excellent. I like the Porter/Atkinson half back combo and Spink looks really good.

As ever, Bath are just so much less than the sum of their parts but they did perk up in the 2nd half.