jirskyr
Well-known member
@ said:@ said:I thought Mats played alright. He was really the lone prop today, Hooth is a lock and Aloiai is a backrower, Sue wasn't overly involved, Grant replaced Mats.
You can't get into him for that high shot, it was hardly careless or reckless, just bounced off the footy.
Thing about Mats is he is one of the few forwards that really sticks with his tackles. I love it, he really flattens the oppositions and he's tidy enough laterally as well, working from marker. His hitups are alright; he doesn't make made metres but that's not the gameplan frankly - none of our forwards are getting much over 100m in any game this year.
The idea seems to be sharing out the work - decent hitups, quick PTB, tackle your ring off, get subbed. 4 blokes rotate and run 70-90 metres, the back 3 stay on as long as possible and hold the middle.
He made 55m and you think that's alright?from our Representative prop forward who should have stood up because of the fact that he was the only starting prop.
To my eyes 4 plays lost us that game, 2 from Nofo 2 from Matulino.
Both of them have no one else to blame, Nofos directly led to tries.
Matulinos indirectly but crucial plays at crucial times, when I found out he only made 55m that just topped it off.
Not good enough
Yeah it was alright.
For starters he hasn't played rep footy in 3 years, so if he's a rep player, so is Tim Grant, so is Mahe Fonua, so is Tui.
I can think of about 20 plays that cost us the game, and don't get me wrong that Nofo and Mats contributed, but if Benji makes his 1-1 tackle on Ma'u, or the refs call a forward pass, we aren't having this conversation. What about Aloiai's dropped balls? What about Godinet's bad kick, or Liddle's missed tackles? MCK's bad pass? Benji's early tackle kicks?
I also don't agree with your argument that because he was the only proper prop we played, he should have stood up. Send out Matt Scott with a pack of cheerleaders and see how many metres he makes.
Fox Sports says Mats made 65m from 9 runs. Not great but where is his support? Sue made 65, Lawrence 92 (but he played all game), Rochow 68, Hooth 65, Grant 70, Aloiai 100.
Also the Tigers very clearly shifted the football a lot yesterday, which I believe contributed greatly to the lower metres gained across the whole pack. This is evident by the fact that every one of the back 5 made more than 100m.
By contrast Tim Mannah made 156m yesterday yet had a costly dropped ball that lead to a try. One more of those and he would have been in Matulino territory, and Mat's didn't even give up a dropped ball all game?
Sue made 65m,