Champions Cup QF. 2 - Leinster Rugby v Wasps

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Suppose it could be worse.......

We could be living in the early 2000s thinking we are still the best team in the land instead of a bit of a mess hahaha

At least that team has its own stadium and identity.

 

[Groundhog]

If Wasps are not living in the mid 2000s they should give it a go. Beats the reality of being based in Coventry.

 

[Midlander]

Points taken......... I disagree but hey that's what this is forums for. Let's pick our teddy's up and enjoy what should be a great game and weekend of Rugby.

 

[TheSaffycen]

I think this is by far the most interesting tie of the round. I will be in the minority but i think wasps will do it. Not sure why but i think with that back line and gopperths boot they will sneak this by 5

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

The coventry banter is fair game. Everyone knows Coventry is a disaster of a place, even the Germans knew it.
The franchise stuff I find a bit tiresome to be honest. Wasps existed for a great deal of time as a small club on small resources, even when we were at the top of the English game. But there's nothing glorious at all about being one of the poorest clubs and even less so in facing extinction because of unpaid debts. I'm not sure what other options were on the table at the time but I know for sure I prefer Coventry to Wasps not existing anymore, even though I'm sure Tigers fans beg to differ!

For better or worse by the way, we do own the Ricoh..

On another note, Guscott tips Wasps to win. Leinster by 50+, then.

 

[Midlander]

The coventry banter is fair game. Everyone knows Coventry is a disaster of a place, even the Germans knew it.
The franchise stuff I find a bit tiresome to be honest. Wasps existed for a great deal of time as a small club on small resources, even when we were at the top of the English game. But there's nothing glorious at all about being one of the poorest clubs and even less so in facing extinction because of unpaid debts. I'm not sure what other options were on the table at the time but I know for sure I prefer Coventry to Wasps not existing anymore, even though I'm sure Tigers fans beg to differ!

For better or worse by the way, we do own the Ricoh..

On another note, Guscott tips Wasps to win. Leinster by 50+, then.

Could not of put it better myself

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

TBH my biggest grip with Wasps move was them trying to take wuss academy areas.

Also don't think you would of ceased to exist if you hadn't moved to Cov.


Don't know modern wasps sort of epitomises modern rugby in every way and I don't particularly like it.

 

[Groundhog]

The coventry banter is fair game. Everyone knows Coventry is a disaster of a place, even the Germans knew it.
The franchise stuff I find a bit tiresome to be honest. Wasps existed for a great deal of time as a small club on small resources, even when we were at the top of the English game. But there's nothing glorious at all about being one of the poorest clubs and even less so in facing extinction because of unpaid debts. I'm not sure what other options were on the table at the time but I know for sure I prefer Coventry to Wasps not existing anymore, even though I'm sure Tigers fans beg to differ!

For better or worse by the way, we do own the Ricoh..

On another note, Guscott tips Wasps to win. Leinster by 50+, then.

Don't even understand what's meant by a franchise in this case. I thought you owned the Ricoh alright. Don't you rent it out to the local 11 a side diving team as well? On the Coventry Wikipedia page under economy the first thing they talk about is being a power house for ribbon making. Says it all really.
I think it would be silly to discount Wasps in reality. Leinster were ****ing **** last weekend and scraped a home win to a team far worse than Wasps. The main thing is that if parity can be gained in the pack, some of the Leinster backs are not near international standard defenders, but the same could be said for Wasps. If Wasps want a win Cipriani can't give away the ball cheaply because the Leinster pack is more than capable of holding that ball and working it where it needs to go. Similarly Leinster need to kick accurately and not let the likes of Wade have green space. I predict Sexton being the difference between these teams tomorrow.

 

[Raggs]

TBH my biggest grip with Wasps move was them trying to take wuss academy areas.

Also don't think you would of ceased to exist if you hadn't moved to Cov.


Don't know modern wasps sort of epitomises modern rugby in every way and I don't particularly like it.

Don't really see how we'd have survived. Last time we were 30 minutes (or less) from actually going under due to a tax bill. Derek Richardson isn't anywhere near rich enough to just prop up the club indefinitely like Wray, Craig or Lansdown. If he'd not been able to find a realistic way for the club to survive (and pay him back a bit I suspect), he'd have bailed (and that would have been fair enough).

People say that we should have just dropped down the leagues, but dropping down the leagues isn't going to suddenly remove millions of debt, even if it may have reduced costs, and seeing as some of that debt was offset with the premiership shares, it would have finished us anyway.

 

[munstermuffin]

Statistically there is 1 away win in QFs. This is probably most likely because Wasps are probably best placed form wise of all away teams and were pool winners. But equally Leinster have good home record and it should be open game. I'm not convinced by Wasps pack

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Don't even understand what's meant by a franchise in this case. I thought you owned the Ricoh alright. Don't you rent it out to the local 11 a side diving team as well? On the Coventry Wikipedia page under economy the first thing they talk about is being a power house for ribbon making. Says it all really.
I think it would be silly to discount Wasps in reality. Leinster were ****ing **** last weekend and scraped a home win to a team far worse than Wasps. The main thing is that if parity can be gained in the pack, some of the Leinster backs are not near international standard defenders, but the same could be said for Wasps. If Wasps want a win Cipriani can't give away the ball cheaply because the Leinster pack is more than capable of holding that ball and working it where it needs to go. Similarly Leinster need to kick accurately and not let the likes of Wade have green space. I predict Sexton being the difference between these teams tomorrow.

Good post...I think Wasps and Leinster were in a similar position last week. Both sides expected to walk all over the opposition and failed to deliver a rounded performance, and both teams probably had an eye on this game the week after. The difference between the two is Leinster and Munster have proven they can easily make the step up from the average pro 12 fixture to European rugby. Sometimes when I look at the pro 12 table I find it surprising that the top Irish provinces ever lose, but I have to remind myself it's all about the occasion. Like I think if Leinster treated every Pro 12 game as they will the game against Wasps, they would almost never lose. Wasps haven't been 'back at the top table' long enough to know for sure how we'll turn up to these huge occasions. We had a pretty easy group, although we got a good result away to Toulouse but we haven't faced this sort of occasion often enough to know where we're at.

The franchise stuff I believe is about Wasps trying to broaden out the business so that they have different revenue streams. E.g the Ricoh has a ton of facilities including a casino which it owns and gets the income from, the thing about Wasps putting out stocks and shares...I think people don't like the idea of first and foremost a rugby side trying to make money in lots of different ways not strictly to do with rugby. However if the Coventry guardian (lol) is to be believed Wasps have failed to meet several loan repayment conditions set to us and the future is no longer as certain. Take note, this is me mansplaining matters of finance in which I have no clue.. I may be reading the franchise critics wrongly too, I don't know...

Tigs - I gather that a condition of the takeover group was the board agreeing to this move to Coventry because of financial viability assessments carried out. Maybe someone else would have come along with another option but for the Richardson consortium, Coventry was a key condition. I'm not sure anyone could have turned down such an opportunity to get out of jail, even if it was midlands. And yeah, there was a hell of a lot of unhappiness and mutiny amongst long-term fans, but most of us could see that it was a necessity if we were to continue to have our club to support...

Back to the game Leinster will heavily target Cipriani and Wade. Wades defence simply is bad, even pound for pound. it usually doesn't matter because of the Wasps philosophy of scoring one more try than the opposition, and Wade usually gets a few of those himself. Personally I think we should try and run Leinster off the park. I think we can win a high scoring game but not a low scoring one, because our defence is significantly weaker.

 

[Raggs]

Wade's defence isn't that terrible, but it's not good. He's not afraid, which helps immensely.

If Leinster target Cips they'd be better off with Henshaw doing it rather than SOB. Cips will get his body in the way and take the charge of a massive guy, he puts a lot less effort into trying to stop a big stepper.

Teams out shortly, wonder if there'll be surprises, a few Wasps are waiting on medical stuff.

Predicted rain for kick off I believe, I don't think that'll hurt Wasps that much really, we play even when it's raining too, handling tends to hold up to it too.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Haskell fit.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

It's true, Cips is one of those who will get his body behind the tackle but when it' sa stepper he sjust sticks out and arm and let's him go through.

Re. Wade his defence not being terrible doesn't win him any points, seeing as I can't even think of many premiership players whose defence would be described as outright terrible . It's a skewed distribution (nerd). But it's a sign of how Wasps choose to play the game that they aren't afraid to leak some tries and instead we want to play exciting rugby. Seeing as we could have Frank 'the tank' Halai, an all-black, on the wing instead, I think it shows a good deal of positivity that we play the attacking options.

I think scoring an early try will go a long way. Very often we do so and it signals out confidence and skill level for the rest of the game, Sometimes it doesn't work early on and you know ****s going to be a bit rusty for the rest of the game too. When we get that early score we loosen up and start to look like we're enjoying it.
Personally I'd consider picking Guy Thompson to give us some dynamism in the back-row - give Thomas Young a rest.

- - - Updated - - -

Edit: Here we go

Wasps team to play Leinster Rugby
15. Kurtley Beale
14. Christian Wade
13. Elliot Daly
12. Jimmy Gopperth
11. Willie Le Roux
10. Danny Cipriani
9. Dan Robson
1. Matt Mullan
2. Tommy Taylor
3. Jake Cooper-Woolley
4. Joe Launchbury ©
5. Kearnan Myall
6. James Haskell
7. Thomas Young
8. Nathan Hughes

16. Ashley Johnson
17. Simon McIntyre
18. Marty Moore
19. Matt Symons
20. Alex Rieder
21. Joe Simpson
22. Alapati Leiua
23. Josh Bassett

Unavailable for selection through injury:

James Gaskell (calf)
Rob Miller (foot)
Sam Jones (ankle/ leg)
Kyle Eastmond (Achilles)
Alex Lundberg (ankle)
George Edgson (ACL)

 

[Groundhog]

Cúige Laighean
15. Joey Carbery
14. Adam Byrne
13. Garry Ringrose
12. Robbie Henshaw
11. Isa Nacewa (Capt)
10. Jonathan Sexton
9. Luke McGrath
1. Jack McGrath
2. Richardt Strauss
3. Tadhg Furlong
4. Devin Toner
5. Hayden Triggs
6. Dan Leavy
7. Sean O'Brien
8. Jack Conan
Replacements:
16. James Tracy
17. Cian Healy
18. Michael Bent
19. Ross Molony
20. Josh van der Flier
21. Jamison Gibson-Park
22. Fergus McFadden
23. Zane Kirchner

Injuries etc won't damage this team at all imo. Very nice look to that side.

 

[Midlander]

It's true, Cips is one of those who will get his body behind the tackle but when it' sa stepper he sjust sticks out and arm and let's him go through.

Re. Wade his defence not being terrible doesn't win him any points, seeing as I can't even think of many premiership players whose defence would be described as outright terrible . It's a skewed distribution (nerd). But it's a sign of how Wasps choose to play the game that they aren't afraid to leak some tries and instead we want to play exciting rugby. Seeing as we could have Frank 'the tank' Halai, an all-black, on the wing instead, I think it shows a good deal of positivity that we play the attacking options.

I think scoring an early try will go a long way. Very often we do so and it signals out confidence and skill level for the rest of the game, Sometimes it doesn't work early on and you know ****s going to be a bit rusty for the rest of the game too. When we get that early score we loosen up and start to look like we're enjoying it.
Personally I'd consider picking Guy Thompson to give us some dynamism in the back-row - give Thomas Young a rest.

- - - Updated - - -

Edit: Here we go

Wasps team to play Leinster Rugby
15. Kurtley Beale
14. Christian Wade
13. Elliot Daly
12. Jimmy Gopperth
11. Willie Le Roux
10. Danny Cipriani
9. Dan Robson
1. Matt Mullan
2. Tommy Taylor
3. Jake Cooper-Woolley
4. Joe Launchbury ©
5. Kearnan Myall
6. James Haskell
7. Thomas Young
8. Nathan Hughes

16. Ashley Johnson
17. Simon McIntyre
18. Marty Moore
19. Matt Symons
20. Alex Rieder
21. Joe Simpson
22. Alapati Leiua
23. Josh Bassett

Unavailable for selection through injury:

James Gaskell (calf)
Rob Miller (foot)
Sam Jones (ankle/ leg)
Kyle Eastmond (Achilles)
Alex Lundberg (ankle)
George Edgson (ACL)

Like the look of that and I agree with you pretty much bang on.

Is guy injured???

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Bench doesn't scream that we're confident in the back threes ability to defend, apart from that its a strong selection. Great to see that, despite injuries to Heaslip and Murphy, competition is huge in the backrow. Arguably only six irreplaceable names in that XV.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Two very strong benches.

Who's this Ringrose ****head? Never heard of him.

 

[Groundhog]

Two very strong benches.

Who's this Ringrose ****head? Never heard of him.

You may know him better simply as 'The Future'

 

[JJFlash]

You may know him better simply as 'The Future'

Is he bright and orange?