Everyone's on fire.
#1 Tah
Thanks for posting that clip. One of the reasons why I bagged my own team, the Tahs, for playing such boring rugby during most of 2010 is that I felt that I knew the players as well as anybody outside of people involved in the game, and knew they could play like that most of the time, but didn't.
There were occasions when play had to be narrow, such as against the Brumbies, and whilst closing out other games, but there were quite a few times in the season when they played too narrowly, for too long.
As meritorious as Carter is, he can be a firewall. When people extol his good attributes they are right, but not all of his strong points are conducive to adding value to those playing outside him. Sometimes they hinder it.
Players tend to play to their strengths, and if they are good at running through tackles they will try it a lot, and often times when an outside player has a better opportunity. They also avoid their weaknesses. If they are not good at dodging tackles with steps or swerves, or positioning to be in a gap before a passer dishes the ball out to them, or good at using the ball in a way to help the receiver, they won't try these things as often as they should.
We shouldn't blame Carter alone for the type of game the Tahs played; just some. The Tahs forwards didn't always go forward and there seemed to be a lack of alertness around the rucks that harked back to the 90's. Burgess' meerkat scoping from the base of rucks created several exciting moves, but when a snipe was not made, the meerkat delay used up time that rightly belonged to the 10 and 12. That meant space was stolen also as opponents did not wait until Burgess passed the ball and they were closer than they should have been when the 10 and 12 got it.
Halangahu did not launch the backline in the way I thought he would; for me 2010 was the year when he would step up, but he didn't. People have mentioned Barnes playing flat for Sydney Uni, and he did, but he was often too deep for the Tahs. Therefore players outside him had to recover a bit of real estate before they were in territory and momentum profit. I thought Barnes stood too far back because it was his nature as I had seen him play like that as the Reds 10, but maybe it wasn't all his fault because he saw his time would be too short playing flat - or maybe he has just changed recently. One thing for sure: his short, flat stint with Uni will have done him no harm.
Looking at that video clip makes me sad thinking of the current absence of Horne. He is quite a player with and without the ball isn't he? Perversely his absence has helped the Wallabies by forcing AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) to move for most of the 2010 test year to 13 and Beale moving to 15 full-time, or at least permanent part-time. Serendipity.
PS – I know that my benign bagging of Carter should be offset by considering his defensive qualities. I would certainly pick him for a Brumbies type game. I know also that I have not criticised the coaching staff, or the recruitment of Cross. Life is too short to do all things.
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