Woodman: We were sloppy not tired (From Bucks Free Press)

Wasps kicking themselves after Worcester defeat

12:55pm Monday 4th March 2013 in Sport By Alan Feldberg

WASPS forwards coach Trevor Woodman has blamed sloppy mistakes rather than tiredness for their defeat at Worcester last Friday.

The black and golds slipped back to sixth in the table with a 29-23 defeat.

But while they looked heavy-legged at London Irish, Woodman insists the players had no excuses at the Sixways Stadium.

He said: “We looked very tired last weekend, but this weekend there were no excuses. We didn’t overtrain the boys during the week.

“They know they let themselves down with their performance last week [at Irish] but I don’t think there was tiredness out there, just a little bit of sloppiness.”

Wasps faded in the first half as they let a 6-3 lead erode to a 15-6 deficit, but they surged back at Worcester to lead 18-15 before fading again midway through the second period.

Woodman said: “We started off strong but a lot of mistakes crept into our game before half time.

“We spoke at half time about how imporant it was to get back in the game and score first, and we managed that.

“We played some good stuff in the second half, we moved the ball well and kept it tight with the forwards when we needed to.

“We got our noses in front, but then we gave away three penalites and suddenly they were camped on our five-yard line.

“We’d done the hard work and it was there for the taking, but our own sloppy mistakes cost us.

“It was a combination of everything. If you put yourself in a field position five metres from your own line through stupid discipline errors your defence is going to come under a huge amount of pressure.

“Then if you miss a tackle on your own try line it’s an easy five points.

“The dressing room is in a bad place because we got our noses in front and the game was there.”

There was some consolation though.

While they failed to pick up anything at the Madejski Stadium the previous weeks, Wasps did at least rally strongly in Worcester to come away with a bonus point.

Woodman said: “We finished strongly and pushed hard in that last five minutes to make sure we came away with something.

“That was the disappointment last weekend so it was really important we had something to come away with.

“We don’t have any games for the next two weeks now so it’s a good chance for the players to get some rest and then we’ll be back for some hard work before we face Northampton.”

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