stevied
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2011
- Messages
- 1,617
Good, balanced comments. The reason I found the performance so disheartening was that it was the first game where they were truly embarrassed after a season of striving hard and mainly losing games narrowly. All credibility was completely blown out of the water.I just made myself watch ethe replay & fair dinkum 80% of their tries came down our right side (Nofa - Toa - Wakeham - Papalii). Nofa & Wakeham were terrible with some of their reads & efforts in D. Also the inexperience of Bula & Tupou really told too as did 1-2 defensive efforts from Tallyn which is understandable at his age & body strength.
Cowboys really exploited our weaknesses with Drinkwater, Dearden & Holmes storming this edge and then their confidence, home crowd got their energy up to roll through the middle and everything they tried, came off.
We need to put this result behind us. Main thing to do for Thursday night is correct this right edge defence & get the player's mindset that this result isn't on & prove it.
-Nofa to be replaced by Kepaoa or Talau (no other options)
-IP to move back to left side backrow, Bateman to move back to right side backrow
-Wakeham to be replaced by Will Smith at halfback (got to try something, maybe Will's experience will help)
-Assuming Stef is selected for SOO, start with middles Klemmer, Pole & Seyfarth (Matamua, Blore & James bench)
That's all I have.