The two SA losses unfortunately - sadly even - confirm what I mostly believed and said all year:
- there is something seriously amiss in the Reds' coaching group's skill set, or motivation, or cohesion, or Link-going distractions, or all of these things. This is demonstrated in many symptoms of the Reds' 2013 performances but the biggest of course is the massive decline since 2011 in the Reds' attacking design, depth of execution and, the result, an alarming consistent lack of try scoring. Looking at last night's game, I'd also again argue that the coaching group is not focussing on or succeeding with individual skills improvements from game to game or month to month and just as badly, crucial 'technical' facets of the teams' skills in restarts, line outs, etc.
Other than generally good defense, very few facets of Reds' play stood out last night as a mark of excellence, there was only marginal at best improvement from the Cheetahs game (and when some raw bad luck played a part in that game). QC (Quade Cooper) was one of our better players, and far too few others stood out in any form. Genia was adequate, but old flaws are creeping back into his game, and the reckless cross-field kick to the wing when we had an excellent try-scoring position on the Stormers' line was foolishly risky at that phase of play and poorly executed. I hope Genia is not starting to believe the OTT praise he's been getting pre BIL.
We must unsentimentally ask: what individual and team skills have improved since 2013 season commencement or indeed, and even more revealingly, since July 2011? Being objective, this 'improvements audit' would show far too little growth in too many crucial team parameters and players. I'd list: defense (somewhat, especially QC (Quade Cooper)'s); Quirk, Schatz and Gill (though this trio have not performed particularly well in SA which is a new concern), maul from line out, and virtually nothing else. And in 2013, we've had way less serious injuries as legitimate excuses than 2012. Given the comparative improvement rate of many others teams and players, this is by no means enough aggregate improvement across the entire spectrum of team capability. In any sport, if you want to stay on top, you have to keep innovating and growing your holistic capabilities and individual capabilities. There's no alternative. One reason is that players will get injured and players will leave - you have to be good enough and growing enough in depth to cope with these realities.
- we must also face the need for personnel changes, we no longer have enough outstanding or simply very consistently good players in key roles. Relying on, for example, Daley, S and A Fainga'a, Lance, etc in crucial starting or bench positions is not going to propel us again into the top ranks. External recruitment will be essential if we are to both upgrade our total capability and compensate for the loss of the likes of Higgers (agree with poster above as to how much we've actually missed him) and Diggers, and generally refresh the team's skills balance.
In summary and standing back, having achieved only 3-4 outstanding, complete Reds' performances in two sequential seasons is simply not good enough 'when greatness calls' and when we have genuine aspirations to once again be S15 champions.
