rubber duckie wrote:
Now the red mist has gone....
The state of our team come down once again to a lightweight pack...and how we roll with it..
No finger at Hill. We are getting hammered up front. There is little go forward meters from Sims again and Cooper.
Yes we're short on front rowers with grunt but why don't we try and roll early with the pack we have out and get a lead and then try the kicking game and hold on to the lead while the forwards take a breather?
From minute one...we had the outside backs running the ball up!!! What in heavens? You can't tell me the forwards need a break that early on!?
Yes our back are average at best excluding Lineham but behind a dominant pack on the front foot, even our backs would look great.
I think you may well be correct, there are problems wherever you look atm, but could the pack be the key one ?
Last year our pack made little ground with the ball and relied heavily on Chris Hill, who played long minutes for a prop. TS relied on Russell scooting, plus Clark to get us up field and in an attacking position. This year there was no Hill, Russell has lost his one and only ability - to make big yards, and the two signings Cooper and Crosby have failed to really strengthen the pack.
When you look at our games this year we spend nearly all the time in our own half with an increasingly desperate side trying to force the play and making matters worse by giving the ball away / penalties. With the pack on the back foot players like Clark and Dwyer are never going to flourish because they rely on fast play the balls and small gaps. As we continue to lose games morale and confidence falls and it just becomes one vicious circle.
As Hill gets match fitter it will help, and perhaps Crosby too will pick up after his absence, but we need to drop Russell, focus on basic rugby without the off-loads, charge-downs, handling errors.
