I'm not losing hope for this year, not discounting how awful the team has been through these first 3 rounds, but the forward pack has actually been very solid.
We are not seeing teams just roll through the middle with ease as we have in the past couple years. Seeing some real sting in defence and a bit of controlled aggression that's been missing for a long time. And they are making good meters with ball in hand, getting good PTB speed in the process.
Easy to see the 1,6,7 combination is the problem.
All the strike players were on the left but every sweep play went right yesterday. Up and under kicks to Toa/Nofa's wing when you have Tupou and Naden on the other side just boils my brain.
Let's hope they can take some momentum from the last 20min of that game into next week. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I don't think we are as far off as some think.