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I think David Vaealiki reminds me of Kevin Iro. He was brilliant again on Friday and I am sure he will go from strength to strength

agreed going forward but he needs to be more composed and tactical in defense. he needs to learn to hold the line

Agree has loads of promise, but him going for the interception and not the man is what that let in the last Bradford try.

Just watching a copy of Wigan's second game that was sent to me and Dave did some impressive things but he was far from his best in that game so i think you can expect more from him as he gets used to the game. Still think he's lacking some of the strength he normally has so possibly getting that back too.

When Dave first came to Parra his defense was very questionable but by the time he left us it was probably the most solid part of his game.

Morning/ Afternoon/whatever time it is when you read this Vaealikis Girl.

Dave had a good game on Friday and showed good strength and mobility to get his two tries.

Given the fact that he was reasonably unheard of before he came over if he keeps on the way he's going he'll be a crowd favourite.

Defensively he made a couple of errors on Friday night that contributed to us losing but I think he was dog tired like the rest of the team in the last 10 minutes. Also it's only his second full game as he was subbed in the Salford game so I guess with more matches the endurance and fitness will return.

All in all he's been one of the positives so far this season.

Cleveland Pieman posted:
Agree has loads of promise, but him going for the interception and not the man is what that let in the last Bradford try.

But they had a 4 to 2 overlap at the time. I think he had to gamble - if he goes for the tackle and the guy offloads first, that leaves Dallas against 3 opposition players, and even he ain't that good.

He was caught out of position - the long pass was going to hit a man running through outside of him (as it did), so he had to try the intercept. THe problem was with his initial position in the line - he wasn't marking his (or any) man, he was too far inside. Wigan's defence is very compressed (its probably our system), but if the ball goes wide we are vunerable on the wings. Its probably because we are a little lightweight in the pack, so the compressed defence may be aimed to stop breaks up the middle by big opposition forwards.

Overall, I think the Bulls were going to score on that play anyway even if Vaealiki had been in position - it only needed a couple more passes. It could have been stopped with a clasic man-and-ball tackle though. :conf:

Mike posted:It could have been stopped with a clasic man-and-ball tackle though. :conf:

Exactly!

Dave

Maurice said we needed prolific try scoring centre and i think he has got one

Good to hear that he's got a lot more to show. Going forward he's getting much better, he showed good strength and good support for his two tries. His defence though is a different matter. He's been positionally out of place in all three SL games this season at one time or another and it has cost us points. If he was dog tired why would you attempt an interception which to me looked impossible.

I think you made a good point about the defence Mike, we are throwing 3-5 men into the tackles to accomodate for our smaller pack which has to bring guys in from somewhere but staying in the line is a far better tactic that going for a difficult ball when you're shattered.

Early days yet, it's a shame we don't have more preseason friendlies so that players can get match fit before the season begins! Also the amount of ankle and knee injuries is worrying, lets hope some grass can grow in a fortnight whilst we play away.