Wasps Vs Bristol, Sat 17tj

[jimKRFC]

Wasps:
1 Robin Hislop, 2 Tom Cruse, 3 John Ryan, 4 Joe Launchbury (C), 5 Kiran McDonald, 6 Tom Willis, 7 Jack Willis, 8 Alfie Barbeary, 9 Will Porter, 10 Charlie Atkinson, 11 Josh Bassett, 12 Burger Odendaal, 13 Sam Spink, 14 Zach Kibirige, 15 Ali Crossdale

Replacements
16 Dan Frost, 17 Tom West, 18 Biyi Alo, 19 Tim Cardall
20 Nizaam Carr, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Ryan Mills, 23 Will Haydon-Wood

Bristol:
15. Charles Piutau (65 apps), 14. Luke Morahan (99 apps), 13. Piers O'Conor (109 apps), 12. Sam Bedlow (48 apps), 11. Jack Bates (22 apps); 10. Callum Sheedy (133 apps), 9. Harry Randall (86 apps); 1. Jake Woolmore (109 apps), 2. Will Capon (60 apps), 3. Kyle Sinckler (33 apps), 4. Joe Joyce (152 apps), 5. Chris Vui (94 apps), 6. Sam Jeffries (55 apps), 7. Jake Heenan (c) (66 apps), 8. Magnus Bradbury (1 apps).

Subs: 16. Bryan Byrne (33 apps), 17. Yann Thomas (90 apps), 18. Max Lahiff (41 apps), 19. Ed Holmes (86 apps), 20. Sam Lewis (1 apps), 21. Andy Uren (136 apps), 22. AJ MacGinty (1 apps), 23. Rich Lane (6 apps).

Wasps had a bad start but Bristol haven't won away to them and weren't great against Bath. I predict a home win, especially if Bris don't sort the line out.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Love the Wasps backrow! And pleased they've started Porter over Robson.

[Raggs]

I'm mostly pleased to see West back.

[jimKRFC]

Article on Jeff Reece's come back:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/ ... -privilege

[FKAS]

Looks a pretty handy Wasps pack there. They've recruited cleverly in that area.

No Genge I presume is rest rather than Lam having broken him already.

[fivepointer]

Wasps have got 2 good young 10's to call upon. Going to be very interesting to see how they shape up this season. That back row does look good and i like the look of Porter.
These look 2 well matched sides.

[fivepointer]

Bristol win 23-8. Doesnt appear to have been a thriller.

[jimKRFC]

Bristol win 23-8. Doesnt appear to have been a thriller.

First away win in 22 years so don't care how they did it!

[I R Geech]

Same old same old from Wasps. Next week is already a cripple fight. Thanks Lee, but it’s not working out.

[Scrumhead]

Just watched the highlights and Bradbury’s try looked a bit dodgy to me. Looked like 3 of the passes in the move including the final offload were forward. The TMO seemed to have reviewed it but it looked worse every time I watched it?

[fivepointer]

2 of the passes certainly looked pretty suspect. Maybe got away with it as there was nothing definitive to show they were forward?
Looked a very meagre crowd at the game.

[Beasties]

Wasps must’ve set a new world record for dropped balls.

[Banyans]

Probably a record, the stats on hand had it as 18 handling errors but it felt like a lot more.

Robson dropping it underlittle pressure and pretending it was a Bristol players leg was the highlight for me!

[jimKRFC]

Not a great game, but still happy with the first win away to Wasps in 22 years.

Thoughts on Wasps, without the Willis they appear to not have a lot of threat. Not sure if that's the case (don't watch them often) but pretty much it was them dragging the rest of the side along. They made a lot of errors - but hard to say if they were just bad or Bristol's defence made them bad. I know I often think "team x were lucky, Bris were rubbish" and more balanced viewer might see it's a good defence effort that causes the errors.

Bristol, often we've dragged into a really loose match against Wasps and be killed by them (well the Willis) at the breakdown and got hammered. We played a much more structured game, kept to the plan, and didn't fall apart. It's early in the season but I think the influence of the new coaches are showing. Sheedy's kicking to touch and from hand seems long (Aldred), the defence kept shape and didn't concede tries easily (Crane) and the scrum, maul and maul defence is going back to where it was in 20/21 (Irish).

Injuries to Jeff Reece, who was really good, and Sam Lewis leave Bris short in the back row though with Luatua, Thomas, and Harding all out already.