very positive start to the season. They created momentum and, with an ounce of luck and bit more match fitness, they may well have prevailed. For all those who keep banging the drum on "best defence of the league" last year, I say nonsense. As is known, there are lies, damn lies and statistics. In the last two years the dogs defence has been atrocious. The whole lot were continually back pedalling in defence. Not moving up. Describing it as a sliding defence is a misnomer. Set after set, the dogs defence let the opposition move up-field so far and fast that they were invariably scrambling to defend their own line. By the time the dogs gained possession they were too tired and in a position on the field where they had to work too hard just to clear their line. The tackles so soft the opposition players were never short of puff to snuff out the dogs attack because they were not made to work hard enough when in possession. Even mediocre opposition players were made to look good. One memorable moment was when the entire dogs front row was marched in the tackle back 10 metres by an opponent allowing him to score under the post. Embarrassing. The point is don't get fooled by stats about tries scored against. Its matches won/lost that count. The hallmark of good defence is to make the opposition work hard for field position and to put that little doubt and fear into the minds of opposition players. And on that score this weeks effort was far superior to anything dished out last year.
