weren't we all
Maybe so, but I still gave it a praise for the "we're gonna belt you next week bit" :-)Originally Posted by Burgs
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Are you kidding me? You must not have seen the Tahs game. He was getting over the advantage line all day long. He DOES indeed decidedly influence the game. Do you think TPN just started throwing crooked throws all night for the fun of it? Or do you think he was disrupted or trying to avoid Sharpie in the lineouts?
He may not have had a blinder against the Rabble, but you're barking up the wrong tree if you're looking for someone to blame.
So, is it time to give Harvey a crack at 10? And 12 is definitely the bogey position right now. I've kept telling myself that Stanley just needs a little time, but his allotment of chances just ran out, methinks. He was poor - how many times did he try to put some footwork on and get snotted behind the gainline? And I don't think Sidey brings much either. Just the opposite - NO footwork, doesn't pass, and haven't seen him bending or breaking any defensive lines.
Once again, we seemed to be on the receiving end of a lot of crap calls - getting pinged in the scrum for a prop putting his hand down because the opposition has crumbled and there's nothing to push against; Mafi getting pinged after Harry Highpants Huxley takes a dive, where we would've had a good attacking position with a few minutes left; and Poey's penalty that resulted in the winning kick. Disappointing.
They didn't help themselves with backchat that resulted in 3 points, kickoffs straight into touch, kicking the ball right down the throat of some good counterattackers, etc., etc.
On the bright side, there's a scrum that is starting to become formidable (although their last two opponents have been soft in that area), and they look a little more dangerous when they put some width on their attack.
That said, this loss seems like an opportunity to turn around the season that was wasted. With the banged up Reds up next, there was a good opportunity for a nice three-game streak.
Im not being a smart ass nor being arrogant (with some of my previous comments) but WHO IS OUR ATTACK COACH ? I have just reviewed the www.westernforce.com.au website and this is what i found :
Richard Graham - Head Coach
Nick Stiles - Forward Coach
Phil Blake - Defence & Skills Coach
& then perfomance coaches - http://www.westernforce.com.au/Team/CoachingStaff.aspx
Does it really take a rocket scientist to know there is an "attack & defence" to all games ??
Shows that the game against the rebels was our 1st, 4 point bonus try since 2010 against the highlanders in perth
Well I enjoyed the endeavour, the openness of the play and the four tries - yes I know that we struggled in some areas, and didn't start playing for the first 25 minutes, but open running rugby is what I want - Thanks RG for not reverting to the JM playbook
I think so, or possibly even Seymour. He looked good when he came in and played at 10 a few games ago, but hasn't got another chance in the position. I would like to see something like this for next week, and probably good timing with Quade and Harris most likely out:
9 - Stannard
10 - Harvey
11 - Nalaga / Shepherd (hopefully one of them is back from injury)
12 - Seymour (or Dellit if he's fit)
13 - Cummins
14 - Wara
15 - Mafi
I think Cummins has to move to 13. He doesn't really seem to have enough pace for the wing and was playing 13 really well in the first half of last season.
Pretty sure RG is the head coach and attack coach.
You know what I am sick of? Always knowing exactly what play we will do off of a Scrum. Always off the 10 to a hot it up back. Gets a little predictable...
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Which wouldn't be so bad if the pass was not at the feet or behind the runner everytime!
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What if the back who going to hit it up was standing deep?
You know, like you get taught when you first start playing the game?
Cam Sheppard wrote an article in our weekend paper about S15 players influencing Refs to obtain yellow cards or penalties, much like they do in the round ball code. I really hope that doesn't become mainstream/accepted like it is in soccer. For mine, I'd rather we win fair than dirty.
After travelling to Melb to watch the game and sitting in the front row the following are my observations.
The drive within the team is there. Biggest problems IMHO are:
Stannard, he hasnt a kicking game, and his defensive structures are poor, he tends to run away from too much play.
Sheehan waddles across the park before passing, very slow delivery from both set pieces and phase play.
Very predictable attack, are not playing to whats in front of them, playing to the play book. So many overlaps on the outside not taken because of this constant desire to pass back to the inside.
Kicking in general play is atrocious, not many exceptions but Stannard and Sheehan are the ones that stand out because of being consistanly bad.
Defensive structure is not adapting to play well, but not helped by a lot of missed tackles.
Solutions:
I think the team needs to be able to play with a bit more ball in hand not silly kicking, and let them express themselves more.
I think that we need to give the following backline a go.
9. Stannard
10. Harvey
11. Nalaga/Wara
12. Seymour
13. Delitt
14. Cummins
15. Shepard/ Mafi
Given our poor start to the season it is evident that this team will win more games, as we have had some of the most inconsistant referreeing in at least 2 games. We are not being rewarded for our domnant forward pack, and this will change I hope. Given faster ball our backs will be able to have a better platform to attack from.
It is then that we can assess what our outside backs can do.
IMHO if David Harvey's radar had been working as good as the previous game, it would have been a total different outcome!
I think you can split the match into three phases:
1. The first 20 minutes. There appeared to be some sort of game plan to throw the ball around more than previously; getting faster ball to the backs. This worked disastrously, partly due to poor execution and partly due to the fact that the Rebels backs work well off broken play.
2. The middle 40 minutes. We smashed the Rebels 29-6 in this phase. The team/coaches worked out that a fast and loose game wasn't going to work, so we kept the ball in the forwards more, using a mixture of one-out ball to forwards and moving backs, and some more expansive play.
3. The last 20 minutes. Having got out noses in front we did what we did last season and change our style of play. Gone was the powerful forward play and going through the phases, and in came the kicking for territory. When the ref bizarrely pinged Poey (IIRC, not rolling away when he was on his feet contesting for a ball which should have been released) and the Rebels got back in front we didn't/couldn't change back to the style of play which had been so successful. The Rebels did very well in this phase of the match, as they kept possession when given it (apart from some aerial ping-pong, which they are better at than us).
Other thoughts on the game:
The forwards were so dominant that I can only imagine the ref was penalising us because he couldn't believe we were so dominant legally. Driving a Rebels scrum back 10m resulted in a scrum penalty against us. OK, the scrum wheeled 90 degrees, but if I was the ref, I'd think maybe it was the side being battered which lost it. The line-outs were pretty good, too. The Rebels had to throw un-straight to win (which was again missed by the ref!).
Unfortunately, the looser game which we appeared to play early in the game (Sheehan seemed to be getting the ball out of the breakdown a bit faster, although it may have been my imagination) back-fired. But, that was against the Rebels, who have good backs but lousy forwards. I hope that the idea of faster ball doesn't get forgotten about as a failed experiment - it should work against some teams, we just have to get better at tailoring our game plan for our opponent.
Will someone please show Sheehan a video of Gregan playing scrum-half? I love Sheehan, he's a gutsy player and works really hard, but who taught him to crab sideways prior to passing? A great scrum-half will pass off the base of the ruck. This gives his team the ball with the defence stuck behind the front of the ruck, and it's easy to get to the gain-line. Sheehan's sideways crabbing gives the defence the chance to come up and dominate the gain-line.
Rugby's not dying in WA yet. We complain on here about the state of the team, but we still get over 15,000 to home matches. The Tahs' crowd was ~14,000 on a Saturday evening, and in a stadium which holds 45,000 that was awful. The Rebels' crowd was under 11,000 in a stadium which holds 30,000.
BTW, the Rabbitohs pulled 15,600 at Nib, a similar crowd to our first game, and about 75% capacity.
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