Very interesting game at Knox on Saturday. Joeys took some time to adjust to a much bigger team in the wet who were happy to just pick and drive, carry one-off, and maul from lineouts. Joeys forwards actually went ok, but really missed not having a much bigger aggressive player like Doyle to disrupt a bigger opponents lineout, mauls, and to just get over the ball in heavy traffic. Maybe a bigger body like Siegmeier into the team is a consideration.
The three youngsters from the 16’s – Taumoepeau, Fowler, and Gough were all good. No reason why they won’t stay in the team. Huge reliance on Young, Sharples and Broe to guide the team around the park (and they are fantastic players). When 2 of the 3 went off it all fell apart. I agree with other comments about the substitutions. Went from dominant control and ready to score more points - to chaos- all inside 10mins. Literally no one stood on the Joeys right wing in the last 10 mins and all the play and tries came down that side. It was truly bizarre. Yep, the officiating was odd, to say the least, but away teams should know that how it works! Really hard to tell how good this Joeys team will be so far during the phoney war of trial matches.