Fans turn on Jason Taylor after shocking performance at Leichhardt Oval

[Cosimo_Zaretti]

Fans wanted Taylor to move Chris Lawrence — a noted speedster

is this guy serious, lol

Some say he's the next Laurie Daley.

Honestly I thought Taylor had made the right call the time. Lawrence was already 1 try up in the back row and looking dangerous. Lovett made his debut in the centres and it wasn't a disaster; I figured he could hold his own defensively. I was more concerned about Tapau being brought on for Simona, as he'd only just gone off and I was concerned about our rotation in the forwards.

The no try decision where Lawrence was ruled short was the turning point for me. I think if he'd got that down it might have shifted some momentum back our way; certainly would have cast Taylor's decision in a different light had Lawrence bagged a double from the back row.

Sitting comfortably at my desk on Tuesday morning, it's easy for me to say that we persisted too long with a left edge defense that clearly wasn't working. I wonder if further reshuffling would have helped at the time, or just further disorganised our line once Penrith had opened it up. It's done now anyway, all the Tigers can do now is take the lessons into training and try not to do it again.

 

[dazza65]

It's not about Lawrence's pace or lack there of.
What it is is about Lawrence's defensive abilities as a centre, his life long experience in playing one in. He would have read the Penrith attack better and quicker than Lovett and even though slower than Whare would have been much more adept at controlling the left hand edge.
Lovett tried hard but had two disadvantages - lack of speed and a lack of experience playing one in - add in the pedestrian Richards and we were gonski

_Posted using RoarFEED 4.2.0_

 

[Cosimo_Zaretti]

If there's any positive it's that Taylor was faced with a dilemma and opted to keep our attack strong. Obviously he gambled and lost, which is out of character but not necessarily a bad thing.