molman
Jim Lenehan (48)
What do you think of Eddie's decision to leave Dave out there for upwards of 70 minutes, Molman? Did it indicate a lack of confidence in Uelese, perhaps? And if so, why have Uelese in the 23 instead of Faessler who hasn't yet had a run and likely won't against the ABs. Or if he does, he is on a hiding to nothing, would you agree?
Otherwise, I fully support your view of Allan Ala'alatoa. His best game in quite a while.
I found it odd. I have no doubt he'll have his reasons (whether i agree with them or not is another question). With his bench stacked with forwards, I actually thought we'd see a number of those substitutions earlier. I wonder if his plan changed with where the team was at and how the game was unfolding and he wanted to see if those starters could work their way out of it.
Porecki had the second most tackles behind Valentine in that game, with AAA not far behind. Besides that ball he really wasn't expecting from AAA (I think he thought it was going out the back to Valentine), I really can't recall Porecki doing anything wrong. So I'm not sure why people are so critical and us needing to find a hooker gets raised so often, because it's not a change of personnel at hooker that's winning us a game like that.
We really didn't value the ball when we did get it, with our possession at 38% and territory at 35%. Argentina were the better team on the night. Our defence was better, but they still caused the Wallabies issues with their system. It's hard to know how much of the issues stemmed from Ikitau going off injured and the resulting reshuffle. I think it would have been a slightly different game if that mishap hadn't occured.