Alan79
Kennel Legend
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2007
- Messages
- 13,438
- Reaction score
- 19,657
In contrast to last week our game yesterday was not characterised by brilliant defence. I'll remember the sheer number of unforced errors.
In some ways I saw improvement. Our structure wasn't quite as dominated by forwards chasing the ball to within inches of the sideline. Our outside backs had more room to move as a result ànd looked more likely to score.
Our forwards were generally playing well. However poor handling resulted in them having a lot more work to do. By halftime we were on the wrong end of a 61/39% split of posession. Under those circumstances a monster like Taumalolo thrived. The second half saw less errors, but the damage had mostly been done. I saw it as a closer arm wrestle.
Our backline looked better this week. They had more space to move and threatened the line on multiple occasions. Lewis started well with a 40/20 and a try. But seemed to push passes when we were behind and a few of them went badly astray. Wakeham had a shocking kick on the third tackle that never looked like staying in the field of play. But I think it was a better game from Lewis in terms of creativity. Wakeham had a couple of better moments after Lewis was subbed off. But Averillo looked the better of the three in the second half. But having fresh legs probably have him a big advantage there.
Overall I saw some big negative things from a few players. I never like seeing the backline allowing the ball to bounce when defending a kick inside our 20m line and it gave me a heart condition seeing DWZ standing back and letting it bounce in traffic, Stimson missed some crucial tackles on his edge and as mentioned above, the unforced errors were abundant from multiple players.
The big positives are that we didn't give up when we were down on the scoreboard. Our backline looked more potent than in round 1 and that Averillo had a pretty positive debut. I like that he's following the ball. His support play can be very useful if he's able to do it frequently.
Given how much ball we coughed up we didn't deserve to win. In all honesty the scoreline could have been a lot worse if not for our defence which was far from perfect, but still good. I see a big part of our issue this week was a lack of composure. In the end I think we'd have been closer to having the chance of a very late comeback win if the second captains challenge had been ruled a strip (maybe I'm biased, but it looked pretty clear that it was to me), and I thought that Smith was held back off the ball as well resulting in the late knock on on the try line.
In summary, our attack looked better, our defence was still pretty solid. But composure issues and unforced errors really cost us during this game.
In some ways I saw improvement. Our structure wasn't quite as dominated by forwards chasing the ball to within inches of the sideline. Our outside backs had more room to move as a result ànd looked more likely to score.
Our forwards were generally playing well. However poor handling resulted in them having a lot more work to do. By halftime we were on the wrong end of a 61/39% split of posession. Under those circumstances a monster like Taumalolo thrived. The second half saw less errors, but the damage had mostly been done. I saw it as a closer arm wrestle.
Our backline looked better this week. They had more space to move and threatened the line on multiple occasions. Lewis started well with a 40/20 and a try. But seemed to push passes when we were behind and a few of them went badly astray. Wakeham had a shocking kick on the third tackle that never looked like staying in the field of play. But I think it was a better game from Lewis in terms of creativity. Wakeham had a couple of better moments after Lewis was subbed off. But Averillo looked the better of the three in the second half. But having fresh legs probably have him a big advantage there.
Overall I saw some big negative things from a few players. I never like seeing the backline allowing the ball to bounce when defending a kick inside our 20m line and it gave me a heart condition seeing DWZ standing back and letting it bounce in traffic, Stimson missed some crucial tackles on his edge and as mentioned above, the unforced errors were abundant from multiple players.
The big positives are that we didn't give up when we were down on the scoreboard. Our backline looked more potent than in round 1 and that Averillo had a pretty positive debut. I like that he's following the ball. His support play can be very useful if he's able to do it frequently.
Given how much ball we coughed up we didn't deserve to win. In all honesty the scoreline could have been a lot worse if not for our defence which was far from perfect, but still good. I see a big part of our issue this week was a lack of composure. In the end I think we'd have been closer to having the chance of a very late comeback win if the second captains challenge had been ruled a strip (maybe I'm biased, but it looked pretty clear that it was to me), and I thought that Smith was held back off the ball as well resulting in the late knock on on the try line.
In summary, our attack looked better, our defence was still pretty solid. But composure issues and unforced errors really cost us during this game.
