@jirskyr said in [Mbye is the worst fullback in the competition](/post/1009938) said:
Mbye undoubtedly contributed to Roosters opportunities with dropped kicks for sure. However, fullbacks only need to worry about deadly kicks when either the kickers are elite (which they were) or their team does nothing to stop those kicks (which we didn't).
At some point, if your fullback is being inundated with horrendous bombs, you need to ask yourself why the opposition can do that, rather than simply pointing fingers at the fullback for not fielding countless horrendous bombs. It's like focusing on why the fullback fails to make cover tackles when the front line is letting through 40 missed tackles per game.
So of course fullback should field all kicks, but his capacity to do this starts to wane when the opposition drops bombs on him at will, with a full defending line on his hammer. I don't think they ever keep stats on bombs defused under different types of pressure, but ultimately Mbye also *took* a large number of difficult kicks - because there were literally 15+ bombs dropped on us, that's all the Roosters did all game. Roosters rolled through 60m per set then dropped bombs from 40 out.
For me, the real turning point was Marsters and he shoulders the blame for the point where Roosters took ascendancy. Roosters split his side w Fonua for try 1. Marsters drops the ball cold from a hitup close to the line and then fails to cover Toupou for the next try (he was there to make the tackle after Fonua came in, but just turnstyled it). Marsters gets thrown off like a ragdoll by Latrell for Try 3.
That's 18 points on Marsters' side scored by or set up by the bloke Marsters is supposed to be marking.
And that's goodnight nurse, 18-6 to Roosters, what team currently is arresting that momentum shift?
So if you are going to finger a bloke for high contribution to the loss, Marsters is first. And Marsters involvement in tries or almost-tries... nil?