tragic
John Solomon (38)
Who gives a shit about wingers?
Let's be real here. We don't beat the ABs because our wingers had great games. It's all about the blokes with the low numbers on their backs.
And even after the last few weeks they aren't getting enough attention. We are sorely behind the Boks and ABs in positions 1,2,3,6 and 8. I genuinely believe our locks are up to it, and Hooper. But after that it gets ugly.
Codie Taylor scored a try for the ABs out wide where he caught a long pass on his toes, and showed enough speed to dot down before the Lions winger caught him. Could Moore/TPN/Latu do that? Never in a million years.
We have a serious lack of hard-edged, raw-boned big blokes. We need guys with Hanigan's attitude but Timani's build. And I'm not sure where they are coming from.
.
The problem is there's so little point of difference between our options at 6-8 that there's not really a clear solution.
But our backs all bring different skills to the table.
For some years we won with a forward pack that at most had parity and was probably actually slightly below the standard of our opposition. We won due to our ability to make the most of the ball we got.
So I do give a shit about our wingers, and the rest of our back line.
We had enough ball, territory and possession to beat the English last year and Scotland this year despite our forward deficiencies.
If we select the right back line, get our defence right, capitalise on our line breaks, and fix our bloody kicking and exits from our 22 then we can be back to no 2 in the world with the forwards we've got - maybe even give the ABs a scare or two.