A Painful Defeat

Watford put in their worst performance of the season in a thumping loss at Wasps.

Thankfully there’s no video evidence of this one, even Mike Lee would struggle to put a positive spin on that performance. Without going into the minutiae of the match, the bottom line is we weren’t good enough.

Things didn’t get off to a great start. Watford were missing an entire front row with Gary, Beesy and Roelfy all unavailable and then lost Georgio to a broken hand within the first ten minutes. Wasps were superior in most facets of the game, particularly up front where they dominated at the scrum and rolling maul. A series of penalties in Watford’s red zone eventually saw Pete Nelson take one for the team and get sent to the bin. Wasps were scoring freely, playing an effective game plan which revolved around their big strike runners crashing hard around the fringes. We are a team which prides itself on physicality and to be quite honest we were nowhere near physical or aggressive enough – something the home team were.

The few positives were around individual performances. Man of the Match Simon Bram was exemplary in defence, putting in some massive hits and never let his head drop. Likewise Tom Gordon showed up well on the wing with some great tackles – one in particular on the Wasps prop epitomised his commitment and never say die attitude. Adam ‘Radish’ Hancock made his first appearance of the season from the bench and put in a typically committed performance.

The other positive… the pitch. Like playing on a bowling green, really lovely.

As mentioned, there isn’t much point going into the details of the game and to be quite honest a fair few brain cells were wiped out in the ensuing drink up. Credit to Wasps who executed their game plan to perfection, there is no doubt the best team won.

Things won’t get any easier in a tough league, however previous performances have shown that as a club we are more than capable of competing at this level. The weekends game will only be a waste if, as a group, we fail to learn lessons from it. Training takes on even greater importance with two tough home games coming up on Saturday – those who want to improve our club will be there at both sessions I’m sure.

Finally, on behalf of all the players – a big thank you to the many WRFC fans who made the effort to come and support us on the day. Despite the way things were panning out your constant support and encouragement was a huge lift on a difficult day. Hopefully we can repay you with a better showing this weekend.

Two difficult games coming up – 1st XV home to unbeaten table toppers Bank of England, 2nd XV home against Black Horse. Both games K.O 3 pm.

MOTM – Simon Bram. Led the way with some crunching hits in midfield and never let his head drop.