I liked watching Cheika as a player - his take no prisoners approach during his time at Randwick was always entertaining and he should have earned higher rep honours. Regrettably he's yet to instill this same attitude in the Tah's forwards and I don't know that he's got the raw material to do it anyway. Mongrel is not a crown that sits easily on the most of the forwards heads - from last night's game Ryan, Hooper and Douglas wore it and Ulugia was next best. As for the others Timani doesn't understand the meaning of work rate, Robbo was OK but by no means as impressive as last week and consistency of performance is an issue, McCutcheon was a major disappointment at 8 and got smashed every time he carried the ball whilst Dennis, as good a player as he can be, is struggling as captain and is not leading by example in defence, attack and general follow me attitude.
Cheika has been quoted as saying that teams must firstly dominate in the forwards to earn the opportunity to go wide - got to say that I didn't see that last night other than for a short period of the second half when the forwards played a tighter and quicker game with repetitive pick and drives and short pass interchanges whilst all the time going forward. My pet hate with the way the Tahs play is the long flat pass from a ruck to a near stationary wide forward who ultimately gets absolutely smashed before getting anywhere near let alone over the advantage line. Ryan, Douglas and Hooper are the only forwards who understand the need to time your run in these circumstances and to run a reasonable line when doing so - they also have something that the other forwards lack - good footwork in tight.
As for the backs McKibben has suffered from not having a dominating pack in front of him and just shit lineout ball - but that said how hard is it to pass the ball in front of your 10 and other runners. I've been shouted down before but Folau should have 13 on his back. You can't play a non kicker at 15 and his propensity to break the line or stand in the tackle and offload is just wasted on the wing. Betham showed plenty of promise and will be better for his first start for the year. Jury's out for me on AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) and Turner - I'd have Mitchell ahead of both of them as he reads the game so well, cleans up heaps, makes few errors and can kick with both feet. Not sure that Foley might be better suited at 15 - but who to play at 10 with Barnes continuing run of injuries? Probably the biggest issue backs wise is that we don't have any real match winners - there's no Beale, Mogg, Cooper, O'Connor, Tapuai or Lealiifano - yes they're not all perfect but they more than often deliver - who's our go to back?
Bottom line - not enough mongrel forwards and no match winner in the backs will consign the Tahs to another poor season. I expect Cheika will be undertaking a big cleanout come season's end.