Wasps vs Bris Sunday 1300

[Raggs]

Wasps 15 Lima Sopoaga (43)
14 Zach Kibirige (26)
13 Juan de Jongh (59)
12 Jimmy Gopperth (106)
11 Josh Bassett (127)
10 Jacob Umaga (31)
9 Ben Vellacott (8)
1 Simon McIntyre (172)
2 Tommy Taylor (71)
3 Kieran Brookes (41)
4 Tim Cardall (19)
5 James Gaskell (121)
6 Jack Willis (62)
7 Thomas Young (120)
8 Brad Shields (34)
Replacements 16 Tom Cruse (83) 17 Tom West (34) 18 Jeff Toomaga-Allen (21) 19 Levi Douglas (1) 20 Alfie Barbeary (6) 21 Tom Willis (22) 22 Sam Wolstenholme (11) 23 Paolo Odogwu (8)

[fivepointer]

Willis fit to play then.....

Bedlow at FH for Bris. Must be a first.

[Tigersman]

Big wasps win.

[jimKRFC]

Bedlow at FH for Bris. Must be a first.

Yup, our first 3 10s are all called up and Eden has blown his chance it seems. No idea who Wilstead is.....

[Raggs]

Willis fit to play then.....

Bedlow at FH for Bris. Must be a first.

Which is why England said it was a selection thing, not a fitness thing.

My reading was they expected him to be fit by the weekend, but simply not able to train. He's too new to the setup to be able to play against Ireland without training in my mind.

[Peej]

Hmm, not sure how big Wasps' hangover will be.

Out of interest, how does the bubble thing work if players are being released back to their clubs?

[Raggs]

Despite writing 1300 on this thread, I remained convinced it was on at 3pm... so I missed the first 55 minutes. Don't think I missed much.

[twitchy]

It's been a decent game despite the scoreline.

[twitchy]

Exciting end.

[Raggs]

Bloody Wasps and bloody heart attach endings!

[Oakboy]

Only saw the second half but what an entertaining 40 minutes of rugby!

[fivepointer]

Very good 2nd half. 1st was a bit scrappy as the teams struggled for fluency.

Willis MotM again and he did play well.

Bris so close to a fine win. Randall excellent and Bedlow did well for a makeshift 10.

[twitchy]

Had a proper look at willis junior. He does have potential doesn't he.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

[Puja]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

He is a ridiculous talent. Watching him rip the ball from the opposition, charge into contact, and counterruck set rucks and knock them backwards - he has stupid levels of strength and very solid all around technique. To be wrecking grown men at his age is highly impressive.

I'm genuinely not sure if he'll end up at hooker. He's so good at 6 that the temptation has to be to keep him there.

Puja

[Peej]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

He is a ridiculous talent. Watching him rip the ball from the opposition, charge into contact, and counterruck set rucks and knock them backwards - he has stupid levels of strength and very solid all around technique. To be wrecking grown men at his age is highly impressive.

I'm genuinely not sure if he'll end up at hooker. He's so good at 6 that the temptation has to be to keep him there.

Puja

I agree entirely

[Peej]

Only saw the second half but what an entertaining 40 minutes of rugby!

The first half was bloody terrible.

Bris were excellent given their long list of absences, their makeshift 10. Wasps were very lucky.

Wasps on the other hand were dreadful. Sluggish, lacklustre. Umaga was quite poor, the defence was opened up far too easily in the first half (and only Bris' mistakes stopped it being turned into tries), I'm not sure they caught once kick off properly after the first one of the match. They were way too flat in attack. Vellacott was slow and made poor decisions. Losing Shields could be a real problem.

On the plus side, Barbeary shows Covid has had no long-term impact on him, Tom Willis can also mix it at this level. Wasps second row depth is a little better than thought. We finally have a decent cohort of front rows.

[16th man]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

He is a ridiculous talent. Watching him rip the ball from the opposition, charge into contact, and counterruck set rucks and knock them backwards - he has stupid levels of strength and very solid all around technique. To be wrecking grown men at his age is highly impressive.

I'm genuinely not sure if he'll end up at hooker. He's so good at 6 that the temptation has to be to keep him there.

Puja

I agree entirely

Could really do with him playing at 12 to be quite honest.

[Banquo]

It's been a decent game despite the scoreline.

I clocked off after 25 minutes as it was so error strewn and fast forwarded to the last 15– which had the same amount of mistakes but was interesting at least. It must have perked up a bit in that 40 mins.

[Banquo]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

He is a ridiculous talent. Watching him rip the ball from the opposition, charge into contact, and counterruck set rucks and knock them backwards - he has stupid levels of strength and very solid all around technique. To be wrecking grown men at his age is highly impressive.

I'm genuinely not sure if he'll end up at hooker. He's so good at 6 that the temptation has to be to keep him there.

Puja

And replace Willis?

[Raggs]

With young, Willis, Willis, shields, Curran i think he'd be better off at hooker. Cruse and Taylor arent old but neither are they that young with Oghre as well it would seem like a natural progression to me.

[Puja]

Barbeary made quite some impact off the bench too. Be nice now to see him get a shot at hooker off the bench.

He is a ridiculous talent. Watching him rip the ball from the opposition, charge into contact, and counterruck set rucks and knock them backwards - he has stupid levels of strength and very solid all around technique. To be wrecking grown men at his age is highly impressive.

I'm genuinely not sure if he'll end up at hooker. He's so good at 6 that the temptation has to be to keep him there.

Puja

And replace Willis?

Willis has played both 7 and 8 before. He'd be more likely to play alongside Barbeary like he did today.

With young, Willis, Willis, shields, Curran i think he'd be better off at hooker. Cruse and Taylor arent old but neither are they that young with Oghre as well it would seem like a natural progression to me.

I think the situation is less "who else is in his way" and more "where will they get the best from him"? He will have to either go through Young/Shields or Cruse/Taylor/Ogre whichever way he goes and he's a good enough player to do that, but the question is whether you want him just barnstorming around the pitch or whether you want him losing energy in the scrums and focussing on being a good enough lineout thrower.

I genuinely don't know. If we can get the same loose performances from him at 2 as we do from 6 and all of his technical stuff is great as well, then I'm definitely game, but it feels like a risk getting him to take on extra responsibilities. Risk worth taking? Probably, but I can understand if they don't.

Puja

[Epaminondas Pules]

Physical ability aside I'm not seeing much that says a conversion to backrow stands out, and then physical ability is something that works from hooker too, look at LCD. It would mean you can't have him running lines off a lineout in the centres, as he'd be throwing in. He's not going to offer much of a lineout presence either, and most of what people have seen of him would be possible from any position in the pack. There is more fatigue to consider, but he has played hooker for a few years now, so it is not like he'd be converting.

In a similar way that his physicality stood out at age group, this was certainly true in the scrum as well, though obviously that's not him alone, and having props like Nearchou (at Wasps) helped.

I'm hoping Wasps start to give him some chances in the front row, rather than skewing the bench to get him and Willis T involved.

[Scrumhead]

Yeah, I’m inclined to agree. If his set piece game reaches the necessary level, Barbeary could be an absolute beast at hooker. Taylor, Cruse and Oghre are all good players, but I’d argue that both Willis brothers, Young and Shields are better. If I was going to take one player out of that group to accommodate Barbeary, it would be one of the hookers, so if I were Blackett, I’d stick with the plan they’ve got.

[fivepointer]

A cross between Harry Thacker and LCD....hooker works for me. Think he could be effective wherever he plays but i'd like to see him in the front row.