Our halves were playing behind a pack that had plenty of go forward. Api had us hitting the Ad line and we certainly tried to play with patience. Neither AD or Luai ahd a good day out on Saturday;, but it isn't time to chuck it all in given that we put so much work into AD/Laui as a combiantion over the off season. With Luai injured there is an opportunity for Latu or Andrews to step up and take on the role with AD driving the ship.
So there were a couple of things that went astray on Saturday - we failed to recognise and take advantage of the way the Bunnies defended (which they did well). We continued to try and execute our game plan with a clear belief that with patience points would come. While frustrating we were still in the game until the end so it is not as if our game plan was poor. This is the positive for us - we stuck to the plan and for the most part were pretty patient.
What we didn't do was adjust the plan, when we realised that defensively souths were eating our attack. They had studied our play and didn't collapse their defence. They were very strong on the edges and Whighton in particular had a field day (because he was very close to offside on most defensive plays).
This is where our leadership was lacking and AD, in particular, was deficient as a half. We needed to identify the issue and work a solution. We were being pushed back inside, especially on the right edge. A simple kick or two, in behind Whighton early in a a couple of sets would have put him and the outside backs in two minds. This should have been the first step in creating time and space for our outside men on our right edge.
On the other side of the paddock we had some kids up against experience - they made a couple of poor defensive reads but for the most part held their own in attack - there just weren't many opportunities. Luai was not able to create due to the defensive resolve; but Trells edge was not "almost offside" every play so required a different solution. We certainly created enough opportunites but it was not to be - I'm sure that Big Mak and Luke learned a lot though and will be much better for the experience.
Overall, I think we lost the game in the halves; but the issue was with our leadership not with effort. We were not, for the most part, outplayed as individuals. Souths defensive plan nullified our attack and as a team we failed to react appropriately. On the field this is a bit about leadership and off the paddock a bit about coaching. My gut feel though is our leadership and coaching staff had belief in our system and expected that, with patience, results would come.
Game 2 of the season - lots of lessons identified. If we learn from them it is not a bad result!
