I think the true low point of the match for me was when Stefano and Blore watched Munster score. Sure the scrum was a farce, but Melbourne didn't score from the scrum. Instead with 50 seconds on the clock when Munster takes his run, neither Stef or Blore advance off the line; it's beyond pathetic and worse than anything Brooks or Doueihi did all night.
Of course they are young and were probably knackered, but my granny could have scored through that "defence", and you will never be competitive if you cannot defend your line against the most basic of attacks.
Would have been such a different thing going into the break 16-6 rather than 22-6 - score first second half and it's 16-12.
Apart from that I thought Doueihi was OK at fullback and it might be workable this season. Definitely more of a threat than Laurie and his carries are far better - it's actually a decent thing to have Doueihi take an early carry each set.
Bateman was good, Tupou was really good - we won't see Noffa again barring injuries. IP probably had his best game for us. I thought Wakeham dug into the line really well and really tried, he's just never going to get over the lack of size and athleticism at this level. Wakeham's short kicking unfortunately also fairly terrible.
Brooks was obviously horrid and you'd think after all these years he'd learn something, even to try and just play at the most basic level like a Chad Townsend.
Also want to say - Munster threw about 6 or 7 forward passes, none of them called, and at least 2 in the lead-up to tries. As farcical as any of Brooks' kicks to not pick one of those up.
But the obvious things let us down, firstly line speed. I watched the Dolphins match straight after, and they are a fairly average roster really, with injuries already starting to bite, but their line speed is really good and they work up and back all match. Tigers just switch off and we almost never try or manage to achieve any form of match control with our defence. They will race up for a few tackles at a time, but they will lose the ruck and be back-pedaling for significant portions of the match, particularly in the first half.
Secondly - our blokes are always getting turned onto their backs. They have to work on landing on front, because we don't get enough roll-on for the halves.
Lastly - at least the effort is generally there, that's something. They aren't getting flogged, and although we haven't played anyone really good, the Tigers are still in the back 20 of every match, it's just a lack of skill and handling that let's us down, but not a lack of effort. We'll be in super-big trouble if we start letting in 50 or 60 points, because that's a team that has given up.
