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Wasps seek help after becoming the most penalised team in the Premiership

Rob Miller of Wasps fights with Santiago Socino (David Rogers/Getty)

Wasps are seeking help from referees after becoming the most penalised team in the Gallagher Premiership as they prepare to face leaders Bristol on Friday night.

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Wasps have conceded 153 penalties this season and while on a positive note they lead the list in most turnovers won, recent matches have seen a spike in problems with referees with Saturday’s 20-19 loss to Gloucester featuring 15 penalties and a yellow card of Malakai Fekitoa.

As a result, Lee Blackett, the Wasps director of rugby, is planning to call in a referee to work with the players in training in a bid to improve their discipline while also asking Tony Spreadbury, the Rugby Football Union’s refereeing chief for feedback.

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Blackett, whose team have now lost four home games in a row for the first time since they moved to the Ricoh Arena in 2014, now finds himself in ninth place and ten points off the play-off places. Wasps were beaten by Exeter in last season’s play-off final at Twickenham but have little chance of being back in the title mix unless they clean up their disciplinary act.

Blackett said: “We have to fix up the discipline side – definitely. We are going to speak to referees this week because there is a perception out there about us. We want to work with referees to improve our discipline or else you are not going to win games. We lost discipline against Gloucester and, as a result, spent too long in the wrong half of the pitch.

“When I speak to the referees I want to know their perceptions. We have tried to sort out the penalties at the breakdown and only conceded one (against Gloucester) when it has been three or four and then we think we have sorted offside and then get three against Gloucester. I want to work with the referees because six weeks ago we were one of the most disciplined teams in the league and this is something that has happened in this spell of games.

“Too many people want to use referees as excuses and that is not what we are about. Tony Spreadbury is very good and we get a report every week and I am going to ring him and try to get a referee into training.

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“Bristol can be devastating and in your 22 the last thing we want to do is give them penalties. Our attack was a big positive and despite the discipline and line out we still put ourselves in a position to win it. “

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J
JW 1 hour ago
'They smelt it': Scott Robertson says Italy sensed All Blacks' vulnerability

Even the 20/30 cappers did too I reckon.


IDK, I think Jordan has a limited life span in this side unless he can develop more to his game. Like you go on to mention, I think theyres more important things to worry about than the effectiveness of someone's extra strings, or secondary components to their game.


Bash backs are Fosters thing, and to a large part they've made it work. Theyre now one of the best teams in the world.


They boy's trucked it up a bit against Italy in the redzone, and against France, wasn't that effective without the right players probably.


Try and take a look at it this way. Dissapointed Havili and Blackadder were in the side? Havili despite clearly shown that he can't do what the team needs at 12 was kept on for the RWC. Back goes down and he brings in Blackadder who doesn't play. Refuses to drop Christie when he should and look who starts this season. Beauden Barret not playing well enough to keep his 10 jersey but we gotta keep him in the side. Weve only got one 8, we stuff developing another I'll just play Ardie every game.


This years team wasn't burdened overly with injuries but they were in every position Razor might have wanted to try and development, severely limiting options. I'm not defending Razor as there was also plenty of other opportunity to make up for it and he was a little gunshy, but I'm also not going to overly criticise him because he chose cohesion over a black slate.

How long are we going to keep blaming All Black failings on Ian Foster.

I think more and more people are on board with it being time to try alternatives, but then again, how would they have reacted to a loss against Italy? 😉

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