Everybody Makes Mistakes

Its the 21 March 2021.

SuperRugby-AU has finished 4 Rounds of Rugby.

And the favorite topic seems to be Team bashing because of mistakes that are being made on the field.

So I am here to share a couple of home truths.

• Mistakes happen
• When under pressure mistakes are more likely to happen.

In my memory - I don't think that any team in the history of Rugby has played the perfect match. The All Blacks at the height of their powers have never claimed perfection. And they were BLOODY GOOD.

The 2021 Season has, just like last year, been impacted by COVID. Ask any head coach or team manager and they will tell you that 2 or 3 practice matches prior to the start of a season. Our Western Force had one. Did we even have an Inter-Team match??

Our team also seems to be in a constant build-up. Sitaleki Timani the latest addition that has been rushed into a team that is working hard at being a strong unit - but still it has to be unsettling.

No one is questioning our Team's heart or passion. Defensively they are firing on all cylinders. They are a finely tuned wrecking machine.

The pack, the piggies are doing great.

The backs. I believe is still a work in progress.

I believe that we will win more matches this year.

A little faith and a little patience are all that I ask for.

However, some of the mistakes have happened match after match.

I do think that they are learning, as I think they only made one mistake when kicking for the line yesterday.

I too can see improvement and I think that's all we can ask for

McIntyre was vastly improved on Saturday, much more composed, kicked well in general play and for penalties (both post and line) and showed some ability running the ball even though he wasn't afforded a lot of space.

Kuridrani has definitely been a disappointment, not beding the line as we're used to from his days at the Brumbies, but I think that's a bit of a team issue at the moment.

I see that the opposition are easily capable of withholding our attack and resetting the line before we can recycle, this is limiting the space for our backs and especially those outside backs like Ralston and Kuridrani. I think it's time for a modification of the system more than the personnel. Perhaps we need to run more outside-in style of attack, maybe faster recycle, maybe more offloads and short kicks, I don't think we can expect Kuridrani to make 8m per carry when he's running into a brick wall. Taefu was good at 12 and I don't see Kahui being very comfortable outside of that channel (maybe 13, but certainly not the wing) It's be really interesting to see Kahui and Taefu start and then bring Kuridrani off the bench for 30 minutes in the second half with a point to prove. Start Taefs at 13 and then rest Kahui, shifting Taefs to 12. It will greatly change the complaexion of the attack, not cost a single thing in defense and maybe Kuridrani will get a rocket up his ass.

Other than that, we just need to find a way to break the line, there were some really pretty plays last week, but many of them didn't get the desired result.