Agree, Joker – but still much to ponder over at Hunters Hill.
Make no mistake, Barker were up for this game in a big way. Defensive aggression, taking penalty goals on offer (in a ‘trial’!), the off the ball niggle, the coach yelling at the ref for 70mins, and the wild celebrations at full time – it was obviously a big day marked on their calendar. They were more than worthy of the 4 tries to 2 win.
Joeys by comparison were flat, slow to react, and off the pace. We know Joeys don’t buy into the whole ‘psyche up’ stuff before games, but you expect composure, low tackling, and execution in attack as the trade off, but yesterday really was a poor day out in those areas. Joeys had the dominant scrum and the props and No. 8 carry very well. The 2nd row-backrow combination is still a work in progress but a bit light and imbalanced given there is no traditional over-the-ball fetcher among them.
In the backs, they had their preferred back three combination together, but due to injuries no two of the 10-12-13 combinations have stayed together for a full game yet. It meant they were too lateral and the final pass resulted in errors. It will definitely improve in the next few weeks, although the 10 getting concussed in his first game back will be a set back.
Very interesting GPS comp ahead. Joeys, Kings and Shore all play ‘two-pod’ rugby and like to commit fewer to the breakdown in preparation for the next pod. View, Scots and New play more ‘one-pod’ rugby off the 9 with power runners coming one-off. Kings and Scots have good depth outside the 1st XV, less so the other teams. Either way, any team good enough in the simple basics of set piece, tackle accuracy, low handling error rates, and good discipline without the ball will be good enough to beat any other side this year – and that is where Scots are maybe ahead of others at the moment - not in brilliance, but the core basics.