You’ve been very selective on stats there.
Anyway stats tell one story, reality is the Reds forwards pack and set piece was touched against the Force in the game you’ve mentioned, and nowhere more evident was that then in the second row and line out.
No, not selective on stats. They are the stats.
Reds won the first game v Force , at home, Round 4. Blyth was playing. They were not touched up on set piece or line outs.
R8 v Force over in WA, they had LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) and ASY (Angus Scott-Young) playing lock in round 8 away at WA. They were completely touched up in line outs, scrums, go forward etc.
Not ASY (Angus Scott-Young)'s fault, he was a 6 who was asked to play lock. He did a record 18 tackles, yet we were still touched up in every aspect of the forwards play. And had our first loss of the season. Completely folded under the pressure. It was a clear example of the power of the Lock position and why it is one of the highest paid positions in the northern hemisphere comps.
My comments and statistical feedback, (so not just opinion) are on the back of the other comments from punters who cannot understand the lock selections of Smith over Blyth. There was a great complimentary pairing of Blyth and LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) developing. I'm happy to get on the Smith support crew if anyone can give me a good reason to do so, I'm sure he is a great lad with plenty off potential, but 3 starts and average stats, doesn't give any credibility leading in to a GF. Can anyone explain what has happened, cause going in to the GF, the nerves start to rise and you want your experienced guys there.
Just asking like everyone else and trying to provide some stats to support, or rule out "misguided" opinion.
And I'm already on the bandwagon, Tate for 80mins!