posted May 31, 2008

I thought Loffreda did ok for his first season, joining the club late this season,due to WC commitments with Argentina, then reaching the final of the GP. That is pretty good for your first year. Almost as good as reaching the WC Final and losing, then following that with a 2nd place in the Six nations in your first year. Still, Ashton got fired for that, technically the second best English Coach in years since SCW.

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posted May 31, 2008

I'll miss LOL a great deal he's the main reason I started watching Wasps. I used to play league as a youngster and thought union was just a mud fight, but I always admired the way he played the game. Saw them win the HC in 2007 at HQ but this one was better!!!

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posted May 31, 2008

"but i find the GP final a little meaningless seeing as neither team could make it out of their groups in the main event, the HEC. " - so I take it you find the ML meaningless as the winner of that didn't get out of the pool stages either . However the Wasps and Leicester players had only just finished the RWC whe the HEC started.

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posted May 31, 2008

Sorry - I thought we were talking about the GP final today - not all the other finals that have taken place in the past 5 years! I was there - great atmosphere, pity about the game -until the last 20 minutes anyway. We had probably the 2 best teams in the English league at the moment playing, and it was, frankly, disappointing until Leicester finally woke up to the fact they were losing. Wasps were right on top pretty well all the time - a fitting swan song for LOL, and well done Wasps! And I'm a Leicester supporter!

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posted Jun 1, 2008

Why can't I see the recorded interviews online ~ because I am out of the country ???
Ridiculous. Get your act together BBC and do something about servicing the many hundreds of thousands outside the UK but still British citizens.

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posted Jun 2, 2008

I think we learned some very interesting things about the game this weekend and last. Apparently there were empty seats at the Super 14 final (I haven't verified this) and we had a world record club crowd at Twickenham. What we learned about the European game is that the powerhouses haven't really changed over the last few years - Munster, Toulouse, Wasps, Leicester. One or two other teams might have a good season or two but aren't really challenging long-term yet. That might change.

The game at twickenham illustrated to me that Haskell and Rees are likely to be in the England back you for a number of years (Haskell's big mistake notwithstanding). That the continued lunancy of not playing Lewsey for England gets shown up every time he plays a game for Wasps - he is an awkward character playing in a succesful side full of awkward characters. How come Wasps can embrace this and England cannot? Managers and coaches who don't have the imagination to accommodate people who are not like themselves is why.

We learnt too that the lack of foresight on the part of senior RFU people has meant that England have missed out on the leading UK coach of his generation (and well done Wales for getting him). I think we learned too that Harry Ellis is a very good player even when playing behind a beaten pack. He must however learn to get to the breakdown quicker - a big problem for him when he was playing for England.

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posted Jun 2, 2008

I don't think that Leicester ever thought they could win this one.

Cockerill may be as subtle as a brick wall, but he only said what everyone thought. They have had a rotten season and were setting themselves up for some masive internal split when Sale gifted them the most ludicrous of lifelines on the final day of the regular.

They had the nous to scrape past the likes of Gloucester in the SF because the Cherries simply don't yet have the temperament to win on the big occasion. But they knew that their classic enemy of the past six years don't crack under pressure and would expose the weaknesses that have existed at Leicester all season.

And that's what happened. They got smashed off the park in the first half - game over. They came back a bit in the second half - an inevitability because Wasps have leaked a massive number of points this season, but the final result was never in doubt.

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posted Jun 2, 2008

Mythicword... how do you pay your license fee?

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posted Jun 2, 2008

Perhaps we could extend the playoffs for the GP Final to include all 12 teams who finish 1 to 12 in the regular season - they could all play each other and the winner of that be crowned Premiership Champions. Or is that just too easy. A disgruntled Gloucester (or Bath or Leicester fan).

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posted Jun 2, 2008

There's definately something in the water in the West Country..makes people down there speak..err...nonsense...

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