RugbyRebels

Wasps:
1 T. West (74)
2 G. Oghre (68)
3 B. Alo (40)
4 J. Launchbury (C) (171)
5 E. Stooke (26)
6 B. Shields (78)
7 J. Willis (76)
8 A. Barbeary (30)
9 D. Robson (156)
10 C. Atkinson (34)
11 J. Bassett (177)
12 J. Gopperth (154)
13 M. Fekitoa (47)
14 F. Hougaard (11)
15 A. Crossdale (14)

Replacements

16 D. Frost (18)
17 R. Hislop (20)
18 E. Millar-Mills (15)
19 J. Gaskell (152)
20 T. Willis (61)
21 W. Porter (54)
22 R. Miller (134)
23 P. Odogwu (37)

SALE: 15. Sam James, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Robert du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi 11. Arron Reed, 10. AJ MacGinty, 9. Faf de Klerk; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Akker van der Merwe, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Jean-Luc du Preez, 5. Lood de Jager, 6. Jono Ross (C), 7. Tom Curry, 8. Daniel du Preez.

Replacements: 16. Ewan Ashman, 17. Simon McIntyre, 18. Coenie Oosthuizen, 19. Cobus Wiese, 20. Ben Curry, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 23. Simon Hammersley

Wasps are going for a novel approach of playing a 15 at 15, albeit one who hasn't played in weeks. Dropping Umaga at this stage of the season doesn't make much sense. No Mills in the team but an over-reliance on Gopperth doesn't make much sense either.

Wasps always struggle against Sale, they just seem to get overpowered. They'll be desperate for a win to make up for last week and see if they can salvage 8th, but I don't see them beating Sale.

Wasps selections are getting into Eddie tombola territory lately trying to work out who plays and who doesn’t and where.

Beasties wrote:Wasps selections are getting into Eddie tombola territory lately trying to work out who plays and who doesn’t and where.

I was just going to comment this is the most settled this Wasps side (aside from Crossdale at 15) has looked for ages, given their injuries???

Beasties wrote:Wasps selections are getting into Eddie tombola territory lately trying to work out who plays and who doesn’t and where.

? that's the same team that started last week, bar Umaga disappearing (dropped or injured? If the latter, then the former should have been the case anyway).

I thought the same TBH.

Slightly surprised to see Crossdale and I’m surprised Spink isn’t on the bench, but that’s pretty much the team I would have expected.

Yeah, apart from 15, that's basically a very settled side, slight changes on the bench but I think some of that is down to injury.

Apart from 15 where Luke James would start, that's probably best 23 for Sale. Worried about SJs lack of pace at FB though. Tough one to call but the Bookies have Wasps as slight favourites, which is probably fair given home advantage. Wouldn't want to be stuck between those packs though! We need Akkers darts to be right, Faf not to have his brain farts and AJ to be fully firing after his lay-off

Yeah, settled ish but when you consider the moving about of players positionally and then in and out of the 22 completely it’s hard to see a thread. Miller for instance has appeared on the bench from nowhere and Spink and Umaga disappeared from view. More of a comment on such as Kibirige experiment at FB etc.

Is it so Miller can have a final appearance at home before he moves on in the summer?

Hadn’t thought of that, fair enough, he’s been a great servant and should’ve had more chances than he has.

FKAS wrote:Is it so Miller can have a final appearance at home before he moves on in the summer?

Any news on where he's off to? No chance he fancies coming back to Sale is there?

Can anybody explain the Robson yellow card to me? I'm only half watching but seemed to me that de Klerk was just being slow.

Mr Mwenda wrote:Can anybody explain the Robson yellow card to me? I'm only half watching but seemed to me that de Klerk was just being slow.

The call was a deliberate knock, but it didn’t forwards and Faff was caught faffing.

And Austin Healey is doing his usual anti Wasps shtick.

I R Geech wrote:

Mr Mwenda wrote:Can anybody explain the Robson yellow card to me? I'm only half watching but seemed to me that de Klerk was just being slow.

The call was a deliberate knock, but it didn’t forwards and Faff was caught faffing.

And Austin Healey is doing his usual anti Wasps shtick.

I thought the concensus was he was hard done by. He dives forward, goes to slap the hand away (as Faff had earlier done to him) but misses and slaps the ball out of Faff's hands. Tempest originally pings him for offside but after conferring with the TMO who said he slapped it straight down it was given as a deliberate knock on. Harsh yellow.

Nasty looking injury for Stooke. Hopefully he's able to get back to fitness and it's not as bad as it looks.

That was a hard watch.

Wasps were just so bad.

Peej wrote:Wasps were just so bad.

Bit of a who was less worse game imo

Really poor game with very little to get excited about. Sale were the better side and deserved the win but they hardly put in a glittering performance. I do like their 2 young wingers, though.
J Willis had a good tussle with T Curry. Overall, not a great advert for the Prem and the home support seemed a bit sparse too.

fivepointer wrote:Really poor game with very little to get excited about. Sale were the better side and deserved the win but they hardly put in a glittering performance. I do like their 2 young wingers, though.
J Willis had a good tussle with T Curry. Overall, not a great advert for the Prem and the home support seemed a bit sparse too.

Reed has kicked on this season and has bags of gas and Roebuck has shown he definitely has the talent to kick on. Both are Academy lads and good to see them come through and getting playing time. Sale have had an 'interesting' time with wingers this season with Denny leaving mid season to return to NZ, McGuigan having a few injuries and lacking some form and he who shall not be named released by the club it has given an opportunity to Reed and Roebuck who seem to have both taken their chances

Spartan Shark wrote:

fivepointer wrote:Really poor game with very little to get excited about. Sale were the better side and deserved the win but they hardly put in a glittering performance. I do like their 2 young wingers, though.
J Willis had a good tussle with T Curry. Overall, not a great advert for the Prem and the home support seemed a bit sparse too.

Reed has kicked on this season and has bags of gas and Roebuck has shown he definitely has the talent to kick on. Both are Academy lads and good to see them come through and getting playing time. Sale have had an 'interesting' time with wingers this season with Denny leaving mid season to return to NZ, McGuigan having a few injuries and lacking some form and he who shall not be named released by the club it has given an opportunity to Reed and Roebuck who seem to have both taken their chances

Has he actually been released? I had though it was still just a suspension.

Puja

Has he actually been released? I had though it was still just a suspension.

Puja[/quote]

I think you are right and that to keep things legal it is a suspension whilst the claims are being investigated but understand his contract is up end of this season and no real appetite to renew.