There's an old cliché in rugby, that forwards win matches and backs decide by how much. It didn't seem to ring true when we beat Gloucester or Bath earlier in the season but oh, how true it became on Sunday. It was bad enough to sit in the stands and watch the Wasps pack being comprehensively dismantled by Saracens' assortment of ogres. How much more embarrassing must it have been for Trevor Woodman, watching his charges being driven into the waterlogged surface of the Vicarage Road pitch? As winter comes on apace, it's sobering to think that the conditions in which Wasps struggled so much at the weekend are going to prevail for a good few months yet. Yes, we'll be better when the ground gets harder, but we have to learn how to handle the soft ground and the wet ball, and quickly, otherwise we'll be out of contention by the time we start running again.

Just before the autumn internationals, Warren Gatland was quoted as saying that this season's Guinness Premiership was the weakest he can remember. Taking away Gats' predilection for stirring things up, there's a nugget of truth in what he says (as anyone in the Watford area on Sunday would be able to testify). Fewer tries are being scored, the tedious aerial to-and-fro of last season hasn't abated despite the rejection of most of the ELVs, fear of being turned over continues to make discretion the better part of valour, and the breakdown remains a mess. I would question whether these issues are specific to the Premiership but they are certainly prevalent in many of the games we have seen this season. Take Leicester as an example. They have scored just five tries in eight GP games this season, and yet they are in fifth place in the table. That's not a complaint about the Tigers, just a reflection of how bad the rest of us must be.

When Gatland made his comments, it was in connection with the non-selection of Sale prop Eiffion Lewis-Roberts for the Wales squad. No matter how well he plays in the Premiership, Gatland was saying, that's no indicator of his suitability for international rugby. Indeed, there seems to be a growing body of opinion that the Magners League is overtaking the Premiership in terms of quality. Certainly, from what I've seen this season, it's more open. There's more room for the backs to manoeuvre and the ball from rucks appears to be faster. However, there also seems to be a lack of intensity in the Magners League – the defences are less suffocating, the rucks frequently less competitive. Is this simply my perception, having been used to a diet of Premiership heave and grind?

Two seasons ago the Premiership was itself awash with running rugby, and with more or less the same set of laws as we play under today. Defences were no less professional in those days, so what has happened between then and now to make so many teams clam up and so frequently go for the safety first option? Have the ELVs induced a mind-set in coaches and players that it will take time to work our way out of? Has the interpretation of referees at the breakdown altered that dramatically? One thing that has changed is the role of the tackler and the first man to arrive at the breakdown. The tackler can now stand up and play the ball from where he is – he doesn't need to come through the gate. And if either the tackler or the first man to arrive at the tackle have their hands on the ball before the ruck forms, a new protocol allows them to keep playing it. In the ivory towers inhabited by those who run the game, turnovers are the key component in opening up the pitch and allowing teams to attack. In reality, on the ground (as it were), we are just getting a piecemeal game riddled with penalties for hanging on and teams frightened to attack as a result.

When Sale won their first Premiership title in the 2005/6 season, they did so playing the sort of effective attacking game that we see all too rarely at the moment. Funded by Brian Kennedy and led by coaches Philippe St Andre and Kingsley Jones, they broke Wasps' stranglehold on the Premiership, beating us in the semi-final up in Stockport before thrashing Leicester 45-20 in the final. It wasn't, however, to be the springboard to future success that they might have hoped. The next season saw them finish ninth in the league, and the last two seasons ended with them just outside the play-off places. This season they have started tentatively, winning just three out of their first eight games. St Andre has left and Kingsley Jones has stepped up to the Director of Rugby post, with Jason Robinson coming in as head coach. The latter appointment raised many eyebrows around the Premiership, given Robinson's lack of coaching experience, but then again if it's good enough for England...

As well as the aformentioned Lewis-Roberts, Sale boast veteran Charlie Hodgson at fly-half, utility back Mat Tait in whichever position he picks out of the hat on the day, and winger cum emergency full-back Mark Cueto at wing...or full-back. All three of these players have had their tribulations with England over the years: Hodgson discarded after a (in some people's eyes) poor run of matches, Mat Tait constantly wooed and then rejected, Cueto ever dependable but frequently supplanted by the next overhyped model. Get these three together and they could probably fill a book with the things that are wrong with the England set-up – although Cueto seems to think that everything's fine and dandy at the moment, judging by his reaction to Josh Lewsey's recent airing of opinions. He obviously hasn't been looking at the same scoreboards or watching the same on-pitch performances as the rest of us.

For Wasps, a promising start to the season has been followed in recent weeks by a bit of a wobble. We have lost our last two GP matches and, with Leicester to come next week, it's vital that we get back on track at Edgeley Park this Friday. However, given that the last time Wasps won up at Sale was March 2005, history doesn't seem to be on our side. Last season they beat us home and away. Having played the three teams above us in the table as well as the bottom five, these coming matches are against the teams immediately below us, and are the sort of games we must win to consolidate a position in the top four. For that to happen, however, we need to find our winter game. Let's hope that a dark Friday night in Stockport is just the thing to bring it out of us.

Prediction: not a confident one this week, but Wasps to win – just.

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