[SSR]

So the change might be just J Ford, or a combo but to start judging and dismissing Bortalami impact after 2 games. 1 in awful conditions and both with players who haven’t had a proper pre season to bed in with new coaches is ludicrous. Let’s judge by Christmas.

I think the lack of proper pre-season is a bit of a red herring. We have not had a big recruitment,
and stand downs have not had a big effect. Our scrum has been going well.
Injuries are affecting us more. GF has been outstanding and not playing much differently
than he usually does. To be honest, the first game was OK but we were lucky to get the
bonus point try. Friday nights game was always going to be a hard game but Bath were
affected more by stand-downs than we were, the conditions were the same for both sides.
The conditions were predicted early in the week.
We are going to be affected by call-ups both for the Autumn Internationals, 'A' games
and the 6 nations after Christmas in all likelihood.
We are not going to have a great number of games unless we use the Cup matches
for first team run outs before Christmas ( like other sides ).
Some of my Bortolami comments stem from the fact that he seems invisible to the media.
At the games and after it is all Axe. Axe says much the same stuff as he always does.
Joe Ford and Byron get interviewed but Marco B does not. Is he not integrated yet or is
he just there to prop up Axe ? The changes we do see from the first game is the attempts
to go wide , but then TOF seems to be the go to guy rather than Reed. We are still
box kicking a lot.
I guess I am just not as optimistic as you, I fear we might have been better spending the
Bortolami money on more recruitment. I hope you are right and I am way wrong.

[LJK]

It was disappointing not to get the losing BP, and before the game many on here thought that was the target, against a team absolutely 'on it' in the last year. I couldn't believe that there was still a chance late in 2nd half, when we could have nicked it, but for a few minutes that seemed a possibility. Then a line out malfunction and WGJ idiocy 3 times, lost us both
The defence for much of the 2nd half was epic...huge congrats to all, but yes we lacked tries and relied on the wonder boots of Ford.
Watched the Exeter v Ncl game yesterday and though they have some individual players of quality, think we should beat them next Friday.

[dinogyro]

Having calmed down now and able to think a bit more rationally; one of the Bath tries was a bit of an unlucky bounce for us when the entire team were chasing the ball, the ref calls didn't go our way, WGJ lost his brain, weather made handling a bit of a lottery, RMW & Vermuelen out, BC a bit quiet. In spite of all this we nearly got the losing BP.

I'm not worried yet.

[SSR]

Sadly it looked like Ben C was carrying an injury last week and was at fault for one of the Bath tries on Friday.
I wonder if with Vermuelen being injured we did not have the personnel to rest Ben?
Probably explains why Bath backrow had a bit of a field day at the breakdown.
If DDP is nowhere near fully fit, then our backrow is going to have a hard time in the coming
matches. We really need an 8 that can break the line in traffic and worry the try line.
Unfortunately not much hope of that if DDP cannot be used to full advantage.

[Surbiton_Shark]

After 2 games we seem to have our usual patterns emerging (and this is not 'counting' the Bath game due to conditions)

Most of other teams are playing multi-phase rugby with forwards getting involved in passing/offload/phase play. We are still quite seemingly happy to have forwards primarily used to truck it up then kick for territory. Our 9/10 offer no running threat so a defence can charge at our centres in fairly safe knowledge so we either pass deep or cross field kick.

Just watched the Sanderson post match interview (he's quite downbeat) - even he is saying we need to do more than just 'bang people' - kinda seems odd - he's the DoR!!!!

The Curry's remain a concern for me - just don't seem to be able to get through 1 or 2 matches without an injury

My major worry is all this talk about being an 'emotional' team - when Sanderson is your DoR who is fully emotional - this really isn't going to change.

Just feel, already, we are going to be left behind and it's certainly not going to help our attendance at home by encouraging people to watch how we play. Not starting Reed and George during our first game taking points towards the end instead of kicking for the corner to give us a chance for a BP try (our achilles heel) - I know we got it in the end...the very end....it's just the mentality that we still playing very conservative rugby reliant on kicking

[poyntonshark]

Not sure I follow fully. Against Gloucester, there was an obvious shift in our intent, not always executed well, admittedly. But we had little pre-season, quite a few of our players had none, and it was our first game. I felt that our reliance on the box kick had lessened dramatically. I'm not sure we can draw many conclusions from the Bath game, particularly on the style of play in such poor weather. We did revert to box-kicking tactics, which could be some cause for concern, but I think it is far too early to tell. Much though I like Dugdale, I feel that in the absence of DDP, we need to field a much stronger ball carrier somewhere. I'm not sure who that is, but there were teasers that Louw could fit the bill; maybe RMW is becoming that, too. I'm excited about the possibilities for Logan, but it may be a while before he is ready. Perhaps Jark, who was also missing against Bath.

I am choosing to see positive signs.

[SSR]

Perhaps Jark, who was also missing against Bath.

I am struggling with this one ?

[Yareet]

Perhaps Jark, who was also missing against Bath.

I am struggling with this one ?

Vermeulen?

[SSR]

On the subject of Jacques Vermeulen, how worried should we be with his injury ?
He was sidelined at Exeter for a long period with a variety of injuries to his legs .
I was quite excited by his signing and hoped that with good management we would
get regular appearances throughout the season. I hope that this is not another of our famous
signings that we rarely see.

[RinTin]

WGJ hit with a 3 game ban, reduced to 2 if he does a course. Good imo. After that complete brain fade he needs to sit out and get it under control.

Can't help but feel he was playing Bath with a point to prove as Archie Griffin was the other tighthead on the pitch. Both vying for Wales squad places.

[Olyy]

He's lucky they reduced it considering it was multiple incidents all within a few minutes

Presumably Harper moves onto the bench and Bell takes his spot as travelling reserve

[Flumpty]

WGJ hit with a 3 game ban, reduced to 2 if he does a course.

He was cited by the match day observer and here is the disciplinary report

https://rfu.widen.net/s/ppdxbwlrm6/will ... tober-2025