By KevinTheB
November 5 2005

Watching from the top deck of seats, it looked very much like we're a team with no confidence.Our danger in the past has always been that we'll wear you down, tie you in, then send a speedster through a gap to get behind the defence, and then, to paraphrase Maximus, "Unleash Hell!". I haven't seen much evidence of this of late.

Last night we looked like we were playing the type of rugby old-boy Nigel Melville introduced at Gloucester - a set of pre-planned plays with the hope to get the opposition out of position. However, we looked too drilled - we seemed (in my opinion) to be looking at the next planned move, without heads up and seeing where the opposition had moved away from and then attacking their weakness.

I am sure there is a reason to keep taking a two-forward drive into contact, but last night it did not seem to achieve anything except run the clock down.

Except for Voyce's brilliant run and Tom Rees's further display of a wonderful future talent, the best and probably only glimpse of Wasps of old was when John Hart was put through behind with two men outside him and only the full back to beat. To give him his due, he decided to fix Going and release the ball to the backs outside but, as a lot of things have done this season, the pass went behind the support straight into touch. This is a sure sign to me of a lack of confidence and concentration.

Are we going back to "basics" to get the confidence back? Playing poorly we head the table this morning. It has been obvious that had a few passes gone to hand in previous games we would be far and away in front.

Is this just the normal Wasps early season problems, caused in part by many of the squad going away with England and being filled full of B.S., or is it something deeper?

I was (on a more positive note) immensely impressed with George Skivington last night. I think we have another fine ball handling forward in this young man. He has been playing out of his skin in the A games this season, and has more than provided cover for Simon. Eoin Redden's passing last night was a little wayward at times, but I think it snapped out a lot quicker than Daw's, and Alex looked to have a little more time to play.