Looking at the game at a basic level, it’s not too hard. The platform to build a winning NRL game starts in the middle. From the kick off, if you allow the opposition to roll up 60-70 metres, they kick on the fifth, you take it and are still inside your 30 or 40 on your last tackle, then already you’re playing the game in your own half. For the most part with us it just kept getting worse with the opposition dominating field position putting in attacking kicks while we tried to kick it out of our own 30.
Add a few other issues - such as no line speed, no grunt in our D, poor ruck D and marker D, dropped balls, errors in the ptb, six agains, etc. There you have it…. How to lose a game of Rugby League!!
Pretty basic really. And that’s before your halves or backs even get a chance to do something with the ball.
The few times we showed up for the fight we stayed in that battle for a large part of the game but often just wore ourselves out, or had costly injuries, or sin bins, or poor bench rotation, or just poor bench!
So, it all starts in the middle and you build the game from there - if you’re not at least in the arm wrestle you generally have no hope unless the opposition self destructs.
