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Lee Blackett's reaction to Wasps' dramatic second-half collapse

By PA
PA

Wasps boss Lee Blackett pulled no punches after watching his team’s second-half demise against Gallagher Premiership champions Exeter at Sandy Park.

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Exeter trailed 13-10 at half-time, but then scored 33 unanswered points – including five tries – to leave Wasps floundering.

It was their sixth defeat in the last seven Premiership games, and Blackett said: “They (Exeter) are a team with some very dangerous individuals, but we didn’t help ourselves.

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Kurtley Beale, who lives in Simon Zebo’s old house, guests on The Offload:

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Kurtley Beale, who lives in Simon Zebo’s old house, guests on The Offload:

“I am really disappointed with the last 30 minutes. I felt we rolled over far too easily.

“We are fit enough to play 80 minutes, and that scoreline shouldn’t have been that way.

“There are going to be positives in terms of set-piece and how much we created, but we are disappointed with our errors and that last 30 minutes.

“We don’t want to be a team that plays in fits and starts – we want to be a team that plays for 80 minutes. We can’t have a 30 minutes like we did today.”

Exeter responded to their Heineken Champions Cup exit by resuming domestic business in style.

The Chiefs’ hopes of a successful European title defence were ended by four-time tournament winners Leinster last weekend, and back-to-back Premiership crowns are now their sole focus.

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Full-back Stuart Hogg (2), centre Ollie Devoto, lock Jonny Hill, wing Facundo Cordero, fly-half Joe Simmonds and prop Tomas Francis scored tries, with Simmonds kicking four conversions, while Wasps claimed a Josh Bassett touchdown and eight points from fly-half Jacob Umaga.

There was also a 20-minute return off the replacements’ bench for Chiefs’ England wing Jack Nowell, who made his comeback following six months out due to toe ligament surgery and then a hamstring problem.

Exeter head coach Ali Hepher said: “To mentally come back within a week is a tough ask.

“There has been a lot of debriefing and analysing, and we have probably gone through that (Leinster) game as much as any game in the past, but equally on Wednesday we needed to draw a line under it and shift on.

“That was the challenge today, and we needed to be at a certain level, mentally, because last year they were in the final. They are a tough side.

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“It was almost going to be who decides to keep going and keep driving it home, and who decides to have those negative thoughts, so the biggest thing (at half-time) was pushing the positive head.

“The doubts of a loss like last week do kick in, and you can get slightly reserved. This was always going to be one of those games when you get tested.”

And on Nowell’s return, Hepher added: “It was a bit of a bonus.

“We were aiming for next week (against Bristol), but he has been training really well and he has been itching to get out there for months now.

“I am pleased for him. He has put a lot of hard work in, and hopefully he has a strong end to the season.”

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J
JW 11 minutes ago
Why England's defence of the realm has crumbled without Felix Jones

This piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.


I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.


Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.


The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.

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LONG READ 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame' 'Steve Borthwick hung his troops out to dry - he should take some blame'
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