Wasps, much like Munster, are a side working in the aftermath of disruption, with all that entails. For Wasps, that means the same covid disruption as everyone else with a healthy dollop of catastrophic injury issues across multiple positions and deep into depth charts.
Like ourselves, performances have fluctuated up and down as different players have cycled in and out of training and availability. We caught them on the hop in the first round of this year’s tournament when we were at our most disrupted – at least in theory – but, if anything, we had a settled side that were training two weeks out and, when it came to the test internationals that were the core of that selection, they came into that “situation” on the back of consistent momentum from Ireland camp.
That was still an excellent win in the circumstances – a special win, in many ways – don’t get me wrong but in context, I think this game was things working out more or less as they should have given the two sides that actually took to the field.
I realised an hour before kickoff that if I saw this Wasps team lined up for a preseason friendly, I would expect this Munster team to beat them. Why? Because I know how good these young lads are, in tandem with already knowing how good the likes of Dave Kilcoyne, Peter O’Mahony, Damian De Allende, Chris Farrell, Keith Earls, Andrew Conway, Conor Murray, Joey Carbery and Tadhg Beirne are.
I knew how good Scott Buckley could be. I knew how good Daniel Okeke could be. I knew how good Eoin O’Connor could be. I knew how good Pa Campbell could be. I knew how good John Hodnett IS, right now, with plenty more potential in the tank.
This wasn’t a shock.
Wasps were all over the place during that period – understandably so – and results followed. Since then, they’ve begun to pull their season around as they’ve brought players back in from the injury list. Performances have still been up and down, for sure, but in the last few weeks they’ve picked up big wins against Leicester and, just last week, the reigning European champions Toulouse.
Like everyone else in this pool format, they can still qualify for the knockouts so this game is a live issue for them, as it is for us. They are still missing players – none more important than the outstanding Alfie Barbeary – but are still in something of a similar flux to earlier in the season, despite their recent uptick in performance. I feel the loss of Gopperth and Umaga will be tough for them to recover from structurally but they won’t be short of confidence.
Let’s get into it.
Wasps Rugby: 15. Ali Crossdale, 14. Marcus Watson, 13. Paolo Odogwu, 12. Ryan Mills, 11. Josh Bassett; 10. Charlie Atkinson, 9. Dan Robson; 1. Tom West, 2. Tom Cruse, 3. Elliot Millar-Mills, 4. Elliott Stooke, 5. James Gaskell, 6. Brad Shields (c), 7. Thomas Young, 8. Nizaam Carr
Replacements: 16. Gabriel Oghre, 17. Rodrigo Martinez, 18. Pieter Scholtz, 19. Tim Cardall, 20. Ben Morris, 21. Will Porter, 22. Rob Miller, 23. Sam Spink
Wasps last two big wins have been defined by their off-ball work.
When they beat Leicester and Toulouse they kicked – and kicked long – they won and forced turnovers and they played smart on transition. Against Toulouse, in particular, there was definitely an element of luck involved with the refereeing and the washing machine like conditions but you take what you can get against a side as good as Toulouse and Wasps more than deserved their win.
Against Tigers – one of the highest volume kicking teams in Europe – Wasps went kick for kick (40 kicks to 41) and matched possession 50/50. They ceded territory to Tigers in that game because, in fairness, most teams do but they made their kicks when Leicester didn’t and narrowly swiped a big home win despite conceding more penalties and more turnovers.
Against Toulouse, Wasps upped their kicking game – even before Umaga’s red card – and won a tonne of big moments at the breakdown. Despite being down to 14 men for much of the game and losing the possession battle against one of the best offensive sides in Europe, Wasps hung on in there and grabbed a famous win.
Wasps were fairly comfortable with Toulouse in possession and won big turnovers in the maul and at the breakdown.
Is part of that down to Toulouse being incrementally simpler to defend – in concept, not application – without Dupont adding an extra layer of compression around the breakdown? Absolutely but Wasps were clever – they picked the right moments to strike, they were accurate and they played the referee perfectly.
This weekend we will be refereed by French referee Tual Trainini – a real stickler in the scrum – so our read on this game will be based in part on our read of him.
Offensively speaking, I think there is value in loading Wasps with possession, at least initially. Our starting selection seems to reflect this. Healy comes back in, which we might expect, but his length off the boot gives us the option of stressing Wasps decision making deep in their own half, especially when they are down creative and intellectual lynchpins like Gopperth and Umaga.
Young Charlie Atkinson – just 20 years of age – has done well in the games I’ve seen him in but against Toulouse, he had Gopperth and Umaga, at least for a time, helping him run different aspects of Wasps game. Watch out for the Atkinson/Bassett loop, as an aside.
So if you’re designing an approach for this Wasps selection, I think an early-game approach that stresses Wasps management of possession in their own half is a good strategy. They are best without the ball so, in the early game, why not see what their possession management is like around their own 22? Can we stress their attacking breakdown? Can we force errors? Can we force Wasps into overplaying? Will Atkinson look to bail out to touch more often than keeping play infield? They’re the questions I’d be looking to ask anyway.
If so, our starting back five makes a lot of sense. There’s power there, sure, but a lot of explosivity in the lineout on both sides of the throw, certainly enough to hurt Wasps in the air and give Healy more freedom to kick long and deep looking for the touchline as a starter play.
Will our transition work be enough to hurt Wasps? That’s an active question that needs answering. Either way, our offensive accuracy will need to improve off the lineout and inside Wasps 10m line.
I feel our late mid-game and late-game strategy will focus on pace and a more “on-ball” approach from deeper in our own half. The likes of Crowley, Casey, Buckley, Hodnett and Zebo are players that are capable of hurting any opposition on either phase of play – set piece launch, settled phase play and, most importantly, transition.
If we can shift from an off-ball to on-ball style successfully – something we’re set up to do while we’re still relatively underpowered from where we would have schemed to be during preseason – I think we should have the quality to handle most of what Wasps can throw at us. If we get either phase of play wrong – inaccurate kicking, poor chasing or poor defensive resets – Wasps will hurt us. If we can’t win collisions during our on-ball phases, Wasps have the breakdown specialists to win turnovers and frustrate us.
A lot will ride on those issues, I feel.
