cherry.pie wrote:It was a good performance overall. We could easily have struggled with the size of their pack and given their good form but we dealt with them quite well even with our tendency to give away daft penalties and concede soft tries.
Just like last week the right edge was exceptional and the left edge a little bit dodgy at times, despite Budgie's hat trick. Some frantic defending on our left looked like it could be exploited. Not sure if it was just Gildart and Burgess making bad judgements or a problem with communication further in field that only became noticeable when the ball came wide but either way it's a concern.
Escare played scrum half the that decision certainly paid off. Tomkins was brilliant throughout at fullback and a contender for man of the match and Escare did well causing problems on the right with good passing and pace. His defence did look a bit suspect late on though - perhaps because he's not used to defending in the line.
Williams was largely ineffective and it's definitely a concern. I do think there are some mitigating cicrumstances in that last season he looked jaded and in need of a rest and a good pre-season, only to go to the World Cup when he shouldn't have been picked. He still looks a shadow of what he was a couple of years ago but these are important years for him and he needs to pick his game up somehow. He's got competition for places now.
Our props did very well. Flower was excellent defensively and was one of the key men in keeping their big forwards quiet. Good efforts from Clubb and Sutton too. Navarrete was impressive, but made a silly error after a cracking kick off return and was subbed shortly after and never returned.
Tautai bagged a try and was a little bit better than previous weeks, but stil a long way from his best form and I'd say still prime candidate for being ousted. On balance Navarrete was more effective.
Once again Bateman was brilliant at centre. Kept Tupou quiet all game, defending well, ran strong and helped provide an attacking threat down the left. People need to get over this dislike of him playing centre. He might not have blown anyone away in that position at the World Cup but he's been our best centre so far this year and with Joel doing well at second row and Isa playing very well there today I just don't see a reason to weaken the centre position simply because people have decided they don't want him there regardless of how well he plays.
In a nutshell CP.
Sam T was excellent today and anybody who writes him off is a fool, he's a champion player.
We need to fix up our left defence and get George ticking again, otherwise a good day at the office.
doc wrote:That's three games in a row where we have been exposed on the edges. Other teams seem to be making the overlap on us too easily and with a bit better execution we could have lost the last thee matches.
We didn't lose them though and I am pleased we have points in the bag even if there are some issues.
The difference so far this season is despite issues such as giving penalties away and going behind we are scoring enough to win the games. I think we'd have lost the Widnes game last season and we came back from behind again today.
This in itself is an improvement from last season. Is it because we have a fully fit side? More confidence? Who knows but I guess we will see as the season progresses if we carry on the same way we can keep winning games. You'd hope we'd start going in at half time with a lead particular at home but so far I'll take the points despite the issues
Sounds like Sam got his goal-kicking together as well, with a couple from the touchline. Could make a difference in some big games. We certainly were hurt last year not having a dedicated kicker who was reliable enough.
Overall, we've got to start games better, otherwise against the best sides in the league we might struggle to pull it back from a poor start.
doc wrote:That's three games in a row where we have been exposed on the edges. Other teams seem to be making the overlap on us too easily and with a bit better execution we could have lost the last thee matches.
We didn't lose them though and I am pleased we have points in the bag even if there are some issues.
The difference so far this season is despite issues such as giving penalties away and going behind we are scoring enough to win the games. I think we'd have lost the Widnes game last season and we came back from behind again today.
This in itself is an improvement from last season. Is it because we have a fully fit side? More confidence? Who knows but I guess we will see as the season progresses if we carry on the same way we can keep winning games. You'd hope we'd start going in at half time with a lead particular at home but so far I'll take the points despite the issues
We're defending better which is always a good start.
I'm not sure there is any one particular problem in that left edge defence, but there's a lot to be looked at. Marshall earlier and now Burgess have seemed to be drawn in, but the common link is Gildart inside them. So not sure who's really to blame there. Only on the disallowed BJB try did the issue seem to be further in the middle. They tied a lot of players up under the posts, including Farrell, which left the edge short. The other times it seemed to be the guys out wide jumping the gun and rushing in. We shouldn't forget that Wakey are a good side though and score a lot of tries out wide on both sides against whoever they play. Last week there was no issue with Budgie's defence, so hopefully a blip the team will sort out.
It's good seeing that we're willing to go with so many different attacking combinations despite the apparent fan desire to have a settled 1,6,7. I think it means teams have to prepare for a lot of different options. Escaré was decent in the halves, and very busy defensively even if he did miss a couple late on. And positive that Lockers is playing longer minutes these last two weeks. Williams form the last few games isn't great, but he was brilliant the first two games, he'll have plenty of positive contributions to come, but I do worry that he's not working hard enough to improve his weaknesses, like decision making and positional kicking.
I think earlier posters have spotted the defensive problem. Our tactics and tackling tend to mean that players are isolated in the middle on the wrong side of the tackle and thus out of the game. This leaves a hole in the middle (Daryl Clark & Roby are experts at diving through that hole) so our left side, in particular, get drawn across to cover and leave gaps on the fringe. I hoped that FPN's departure might solve that but it seems to be a part of the basic tactics.
On a brighter note, has anyone else noticed that we can now score tries when labouring across the field because Sam is adept at 'flipping' the ball on and speeding up the play?
I think it's a bit harsh to blame Burgess for the second try. Gidart came in to shut down a play and almost succeeded, but the Wakey player managed to just get the ball out of the tackle. Sam Powell and another player "Isa or Farrell" took the receiver to ground but Powell got caught behind the ptb. Gildart sprinted back to get into position but credit to Wakey, they moved the ball very quickly and accurately to create the space for BJB to score.
Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the good rugby from the opposition.
Leaving Sam at fullback and Escare in the halves was what I advocated before the season started. I would like Escare to take on more of the long kicking roll as that does seem a weakness at present, but I do think that there is another 25 - 30% improvement to come yet in overall performance.
Southern Softy wrote:I think earlier posters have spotted the defensive problem. Our tactics and tackling tend to mean that players are isolated in the middle on the wrong side of the tackle and thus out of the game. This leaves a hole in the middle (Daryl Clark & Roby are experts at diving through that hole) so our left side, in particular, get drawn across to cover and leave gaps on the fringe. I hoped that FPN's departure might solve that but it seems to be a part of the basic tactics.
On a brighter note, has anyone else noticed that we can now score tries when labouring across the field because Sam is adept at 'flipping' the ball on and speeding up the play?
For sure, Sam's speed of hands and speed of thought were a highlight of the game.
We are also scoring tries by forwards barging over with an advantage of being near the sticks and six points.
Sam's conversions from the touchline are helping there too.
A lot of our concerns from last season are and have been addressed so far and the team is playing in an improved fashion with better results and pleasing style of play.
having read most of what on this thread i think the general consensus is that people are happy or relatively with current state. we are 4 wins from 5, and IMO gave the loss away by going to Oz, so overall not in bad shape
defensively i was watching our left side in the 2nd half and it looked to be a defensive play / system. Both Gildart and Burgess both seemed to move up very quickly but also diagonally infield, which did leave space out wider. i thought we were either lucky or scrambled very well to prevent any further tries there on Sunday. i know the ref pulled back 2 forward passes (but missed the blatent one in the 1st half)
i agree with one of previous posters re the try in 1st half. gildart came in and made a good tackle to stop the play, and Wakey exposed that by going quickly to their right and scoring as they realised he was out of position and we hadnt slid far / fast enough
i personally thought we coped well with their pack as they had some big units out there as well as a couple of good solid seasoned half backs who can get a team around the park.
so overall good 2 points as they had been playing well. Decent performance with quite a bit more to come IMO
