Bryan Redpath believes Gloucester were their own worst enemy when letting their 11-point lead slide in their 21-14 defeat to Wasps.
Gloucester head coach laments pricey mistakes against Wasps
Gloucester head coach Bryan Redpath believes his team were their own worst enemy when letting their 11-point lead slide in their 21-14 LV= Cup defeat to Wasps.
Redpath's side, who suffered their sixth successive defeat in all competitions, appeared likely to relieve their drought when Freddie Burns converted the second of his two tries to give them a 14-3 lead just after half-time.
But the visitors were weaker in the second half while the inclusion of scrum-half Joe Simpson in the 50th minute sparked a comeback for Wasps.
Redpath admitted his team's poor decision-making had lead to them allowing the Wasps to make such an extreme recovery.
"We are cutting our own throats with poor decisions and mistakes," said Redpath.
"We fall off the script and get murdered. Giving away points too easily without playing badly. When you have everyone fit, you can make changes, but we don't have that luxury at the moment.
"We had overthrows at lineouts, a yellow card, allowed Wasps to build momentum.
"I cannot fault the desire, the work ethic, the effort. But we could help ourselves by sticking to what we set out to do.
"We started well, built a good lead, but then I had to make changes to the pack because of guys coming back from injury, and we started to fall away."
Superb
Redpath confessed that scrum-half Simpson had added to Gloucester's woes with a superb performance.
"Simpson came on and we allowed him field position. He'll do you damage if you allow that and he did," he added.
"As a former Test scrum-half, Simpson impressed me. He's a very sharp and pacy player and there cannot be more guys ahead of him at this level."
Wasps welcomed the return of Simon Shaw after his injury lay-off and forwards coach Trevor Woodman believes an England recall for the second row as early as the autumn international Test against New Zealand could be a possibility.
"You want to pick your best team, and I'd have Simon in my team, but that's up to Martin Johnson," said Woodman.
The forwards coach also commended Simpson and hailed the comeback Wasps had made.
"This was a good fightback, and Joe Simpson did target the holes left when Gloucester became a bit tired," he added.
"We have a good blend at Wasps, young lads coming through and experienced guys coming back to full fitness. We don't just chuck out a XV in any competition, we have ambitions in this cup."
