Aviva Prem End Of Season Reports: London Wasps

The Lions tour may be in full flow, but the I had started my end of term reports for the 2012/13 Aviva Premiership season, and I shall attempt to get them out in the brief lulls between bouts of Antipodean warfare being waged on the other side of the world. You know the format by now, I take a look at how each team has fared, whilst running the well-trodden 'School Report' thread through it. 

I'll look at each team in reverse finishing order, looking at what went well, what didn't, stand out players and areas for improvement for the coming season:

London Wasps

Final Position: 8th
P: 22	W: 9	L: 13	D: 0	F: 511	A: 528	Pts: 48

(For the record, I am a Wasps fan, but I shall try and remain objective!)

Plus Marks:

Wasps are really the first of the teams who can start to think that they ended the 2012/13 season in credit.  An 8th place finish sounds low in the context of a 12 team league, but they were 13 points above the 9th placed team and were in the picture for a Heineken spot for the majority of the season.  Considering the desperate struggle to avoid relegation in the 2011/12 season, this has to be a positive.

 

Wasps have played some devastatingly expansive and incisive rugby with the ball in hand this season, and set their stall out for this in the most public way possible when Christian Wade stood up George Lowe in the London Double Header at Twickenham. When they have managed to secure possession (more on this later) they have unleashed what must feel like hell on opposition defences following a surprisingly simple formula - softening first with the sledgehammers of Masi, Bell and Southwell before unleashing the guile and genuinely terrifying pace of Wade, Varndell and Daly.  Simple though the formula is, the right balance is surprisingly hard to stumble upon - indeed most teams seem happy to spend 75 minutes on the former before going to the latter!  A lot of credit must go to attack coach Shane Howarth for his work here.  They come in 5th in the table for tries scored, and by way of context, scored 6 more than table toppers South Saracens.

 

Upfront, it has been more of a mixed bag, but the emergence of the Likes of Joe Launchbury, Sam Jones and Billy Vunipola has been undoubtedly a plus point.

 

The takeover by Derek Richardson in April has, for now, resolved the speculation about the future of the club.

 

Detentions:

As incisive and clinical as they have been in attack, Wasps have at times looked like they are being managed by Kevin Keegan when it comes to defence, very much subscribing to the "you score 50, we'll score 51" philosophy.  Some of their defence, both as a scheme and personal level this year has been woeful.  Some of the tries scored by Leinster in their Amlin QF matchup best demonstrates this I think - the positioning seems to be shoddy, and some of the 1:1 tackling would shame a schoolboy much less a professional player.

 

They have also not had a competitive enough forward pack, too often getting bullied out of games and having a creaky set piece all year.  This seems to be the statement of a madman when you consider personnel: Palmer, Wentzel, Launchbury, Tualafo, Payne, Vunipola, Johnson and Haskell do not read like names you could ever accuse of being bullied, but this has been the case. 

 

Tom Lindsay is developing well at hooker, looking promising in broken play, but his lineout in particular considering the targets he has had at his disposal has been awful and needs shoring up quickly if he is to progress. 

 

Whilst I have lauded Shane Howarth's work with the backline, the forward pack needs to be looked at along with the defence and I would hope Wasps look hard at who the right people are to do this.

 

My final point in the negative column is letting Shane Howarth leave the club for Worcester - have you not just been reading what I have written about him?!

 

Head Boy:

This one was obvious, and not even a close race (not many races with Christian Wade in are).  Honourable mentions go to fellow try monster Tom Varndell and England player of the year Joe Launchbury, but Christian Wade has had a season that honestly deserves the adjective sensational. 

He shredded Quins at Twickenham with two tries (not to mention the one he gave to Varndell after he was over the line) to kick the season off and has continued in the same vain therafter, topping the try scoring charts with 13 tries (He and Varndell between them scored 4 less tries than London Welsh managed in total). 

So persistent has been his brilliance, that even the ever present niggles about his size and defensive credentials have been silenced (for the record, whilst he is not Alesana Tuilagi, he is a lot better than some will imply, I find it a bit of a lazy criticism). 

Inevitable comparisons to the likes of Jason Robinson and Shane Williams have been made, and his stock has risen first with England caps following his non cap appearance against the Barbarians last year, and then his late call into the Lions squad.  Is it baffling why he was called in? Yes, but as a pointer to how high his stock is rising in the game it is very useful. 

I am probably, hopefully not alone in thinking that Wade is looking set to become a fixture in the England team in the coming years. Sorry Chris Ashton, but wingers who don't score tries fall quickly into the chocolate teapot category...

 

Predicted Grades Next Year:

This is a genuinely hard call to make, and a lot depends on what happens and who arrives this close season.  The defence and forward pack need to improve, drastically.  This is easily done, the players are in place, with perhaps a couple of gnarly front row additions, there just needs the right input to them.
Some important players have left, Billy Vunipola to Saracens (who are seemingly unburdened by any salary cap options) perhaps the most notable of the lot, but Wentzel will be missed and Zak Tualafo, off to the money at Stade Francais, has been probably their best scrummager.
There has also been some movement at fly half, with Nick Robinson off to Bristol and Stephen Jones finally deciding to hang his boots up.  This has led to a double snatch from Worcester that I like A LOT - Andy Goode will hopefully provide the wise old head, game management and metronomic boot in the short term and Joe Carlisle a Worcester academy product shows tremendous promise in the longer term.
Dai Young is not one to stand around, as this season has proven, and I would think that again Wasps will be making a serious challenge for the Heineken cup places next season.

JUST SORT THE DEFENCE OUT!