TSR
Andrew Slack (58)
Some interesting thoughts on here. Some I agree with, some I don’t. Luckily this was a game I’ll able to sit through a second time.
For what it’s worth, a couple of points from me -
- up front we saw the plus & minus of Tupou. I thought Ala'alatoa was excellent in general play with his tackling, breakdown work and presenting himself as a carrying option. Much better work rate. On the flip side our scrum looked decidedly weaker - which isn’t all down to Ala'alatoa at all, but I just think Tupou was missed there.
- very strong game by Faessler. It’s good to have a thrower hitting his target consistently (although has to share some blame for the scrum)
- thought Skelton was good and very happy to see our lineout function well with him out there.
- Frost did some good things but his 1 on 1 tackling is an issue
- I thought Uru was excellent. Really filled his role well. Along with Gleeson & Wright we now have a couple of good options for the bench forward
- McReight & Valetini both busy and effective
- I thought White was pretty good. Surprised by some of the criticism of him
- Lolesio also very solid IMO. Maybe his best test
- Ikitau showing his class & Wright brilliant. Suddenly we have some genuine potency in our backline. I look at how Tom Wright is going now and can’t help but think back that Latham was a bit flaky at the start of his career. Hopefully Wright continues in his current form
- Likewise really impressed by Kellaway and Jorgensen so far. Lots of quality involvement
- as above I was pretty impressed with Kerevi. Not being able to play next week is disappointing but I reckon Schmidt will definitely want to include him next year
All up great to see the backline showing some genuine ability to score tries but the big take from my point of view is that our forward pack are standing up and winning the collisions and suddenly everyone looks like they can play rugby again. Our defence looks stronger but still with lots of room for improvement.
For what it’s worth, a couple of points from me -
- up front we saw the plus & minus of Tupou. I thought Ala'alatoa was excellent in general play with his tackling, breakdown work and presenting himself as a carrying option. Much better work rate. On the flip side our scrum looked decidedly weaker - which isn’t all down to Ala'alatoa at all, but I just think Tupou was missed there.
- very strong game by Faessler. It’s good to have a thrower hitting his target consistently (although has to share some blame for the scrum)
- thought Skelton was good and very happy to see our lineout function well with him out there.
- Frost did some good things but his 1 on 1 tackling is an issue
- I thought Uru was excellent. Really filled his role well. Along with Gleeson & Wright we now have a couple of good options for the bench forward
- McReight & Valetini both busy and effective
- I thought White was pretty good. Surprised by some of the criticism of him
- Lolesio also very solid IMO. Maybe his best test
- Ikitau showing his class & Wright brilliant. Suddenly we have some genuine potency in our backline. I look at how Tom Wright is going now and can’t help but think back that Latham was a bit flaky at the start of his career. Hopefully Wright continues in his current form
- Likewise really impressed by Kellaway and Jorgensen so far. Lots of quality involvement
- as above I was pretty impressed with Kerevi. Not being able to play next week is disappointing but I reckon Schmidt will definitely want to include him next year
All up great to see the backline showing some genuine ability to score tries but the big take from my point of view is that our forward pack are standing up and winning the collisions and suddenly everyone looks like they can play rugby again. Our defence looks stronger but still with lots of room for improvement.