On that rush defence……….. it’s not like we don’t have strong ball carriers who can get us over the advantage line.
Again, stop with the predictable unders pass out wide when it isn’t on and dish out the short ball to Tupou, or Valetini or Wilson or Slipper or Koroibete or whoever else and smash it up the middle.
This + our often inaccurate/non-existant first clean-out is the reason we are being owned with the ball. Not the size of our lads. First to arrive in a good position often wins when it comes to the breakdown.
Ball runners hard at the advantage line with support on their inside hip makes for quick , front foot attacking ruck recycle. Hasn’t got to be done every time , but when you get the opportunity play to the bloke at the line rather than the totally predictable second man play, it asks a few more questions of the defence. The “second backline”, out the back play is consistently leaving us isolated behind the advantage line against an advancing defensive structure. Plus the French and would imagine every other top tier nation, are having very little problem reading and defending it.
It’s being compounded by our lack of a genuine second playmaker. MT very predictable and Banks not being a ball player leaves you with an unbalanced backline . You can probably argue individually they should all be there , but as a backline it’s not working.
The whole attacking structure is lacking eyes up rugby ……. too deep behind the avantage line and way too predictable.