LIVE GAME Round 12 v Cowboys

Live Game Discussion
To me the Cowboys were poor, but a big reason for that was our possession. The cowboys were gassed, even when they had their resurgence in the second half.

I said it a few weeks ago, a big win is coming, and it came. The last try was off a ruck move that they’ve attempted the last few weeks if didn’t quite come off. Yesterday it did because the Cowboys were out on their legs and our execution was tighter.

Just goes to show what belief and time can do. Keep things positive and build the team up - well done Sheens and coaching staff.

I’m quietly confident Talau will become a force. He was the best player in his year at Westfields, played Australian schoolboys etc he has the talent, just needs some confidence and time to hit has straps after an ACL. Look at Toa - the Knights lost their patience with him after 15 games! Hes another player that killed it at a junior level that everyone expected to be a seasoned first grader by 20. It doesn’t happen that way.

Just want to give a mention to Brooks for his no-look short ball to Stefano. That’s a player playing with confidence. Good to have you back Brooksie!
 
It is very clear that our defence has two weaknesses…
We struggle to defend an error and our goaline defence inside our 20 is soft.
Everything else you can do to limit the opposition scoring we are doing. Almost every game this year we have won the possession tug of war and have done so through higher completion rates than our opposition. We have also generally enjoyed higher field position percentages in opposition territory. Even when we’re playing poorly, teams were not blowing us away as they were struggling to cover the territory required to enter our red zone. Once they did though, usually through an error - and even last night it happened, we give up easy tries.

Like you said, if our attack was clicking a bit better earlier this year, we would be on 6 or 7 wins. Once we fix our structures and techniques on the goal line and get over the psychological barrier of defending an error at our end, we will be tough to beat because we already are doing everything else to a high standard to ensure it’s hard to pile points on us.
Not the best thing letting them score 3 times with 3 sets in our 20 and with 35% posession. They pretty much scored every time they had an opportunity too. Hopefully it's not overlooked by the coaching staff
 
Not the best thing letting them score 3 times with 3 sets in our 20 and with 35% posession. They pretty much scored every time they had an opportunity too. Hopefully it's not overlooked by the coaching staff
Soon as klem went off, we looked easy beats thru the middle, where the cows were pushing thru. Soon as Stefano and klem came back on, we went on another run. Need definite back up on the bench. Twal is a metre eater but is possibly the slowest prop in the world bar woods
 
Not the best thing letting them score 3 times with 3 sets in our 20 and with 35% posession. They pretty much scored every time they had an opportunity too. Hopefully it's not overlooked by the coaching staff
Yes that’s my point.
We gave them bugger all chances to score last night and they capitalised each time. I even remember saying that if we didn’t regain control of the last 18 minutes, we were in danger of being run down.
Well we dominated that 18 minutes to great reward. Just shut them out.
 
It is very clear that our defence has two weaknesses…
We struggle to defend an error and our goaline defence inside our 20 is soft.
Everything else you can do to limit the opposition scoring we are doing. Almost every game this year we have won the possession tug of war and have done so through higher completion rates than our opposition. We have also generally enjoyed higher field position percentages in opposition territory. Even when we’re playing poorly, teams were not blowing us away as they were struggling to cover the territory required to enter our red zone. Once they did though, usually through an error - and even last night it happened, we give up easy tries.

Like you said, if our attack was clicking a bit better earlier this year, we would be on 6 or 7 wins. Once we fix our structures and techniques on the goal line and get over the psychological barrier of defending an error at our end, we will be tough to beat because we already are doing everything else to a high standard to ensure it’s hard to pile points on us.

Cannot fully agree with the inside our 20 defence issue, even though it is a weakness, and Bula has saved a bunch of tries by putting his body on the line since coming in.

Rather, I would say that the not being able to defend an error and the above are intertwined. In that it seems that we can defend pretty well with a set line from stoppages, such as drop-outs and scrums, along with six again calls, but have trouble resetting from change of possession and broken play.

Needs to be fixed, though basically, the boys struggle when the opposition first arrive in the attacking zone, but are as good defensively as the best, once they are already there.
 
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