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Waratahs 2014

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fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
Nice bit in the guardian, all is not lost

Michael Cheika would have been pleased. The cliché of a loss having more value than a win applies in this case.

Cheika’s team is a work in progress – he’s always said that, notwithstanding stating aspirations for a top two finish. And the Tahs have never hit as hard in the tackle as they did against the Sharks on the weekend. They rattled and shook the Durban side to distraction. However, that steely defence was equally and fatally matched with butter fingers as countless attacking raids came to nought due to a general lack of finesse in breakdown ball security and presentation for the half-back. The handling errors meant the Tahs couldn’t maintain pressure with sustained attacking sequences. The Sharks, meanwhile, weathered the defensive blitz, picked off their penalty goals and scored two tries. Effective rugby but by no means a humbling of the Tahs as some reports have suggested.http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/apr/02/why-the-waratahs-can-take-comfort-in-defeat
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Pfitzy

Pfitzy

George Gregan (70)
Probably a fair assumption. Both sides good defensively, but we suffered the dropsies in a hostile environment. Quite sure it won't happen again when we meet the bastards in a semifinal at Homebush.
 
Hawko

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
Pfitzy said:
Probably a fair assumption. Both sides good defensively, but we suffered the dropsies in a hostile environment. Quite sure it won't happen again when we meet the bastards in a semifinal at Homebush.
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Unlikely to happen. Sharks should get first or second spot from here, that means a home semi for them.

That was a pretty fair assessment by the guardian. As the Sharks play Jakeball, they rarely have to make a run or put a play together. They just kick it away if their pick and drive isn't working and then get their backs to chase like hell. They don't do attacking rucks away from the forwards where they might give away a turnover, so they never have to succeed at attacking rucks. Highly effective when the ruck is being ruled as it is, and they only have difficulty when they play a team like the Bulls, who play a similar style.

We needed to put some balls in behind their wingers for variation and to try to bottle them up.
 
fatprop

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
It will be sweeter to go back for the final, play our game and beat the bastards

Because honestly I would rather see the Tahs go down swinging trying to play the way they are than revert to some form of the abomination that is Jake ball (I can now say that without seeing a pony stampede hit the thread)

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USARugger

USARugger

John Thornett (49)
Honestly, high balls on the touch line to Folau/Crawford chasing through would probably do a lot of damage to the Sharks outside backs. They don't really have anyone big enough to compete other than Pietersen.
 
Pfitzy

Pfitzy

George Gregan (70)
And even if they do catch it, Folau or Crawford can smash the shit out of them into touch.

The question is, can our kicking out of hand achieve that kind of accuracy? Grubbers are a waste IMHO

But if Jake is hoping we'll play that badly again in terms of handling errors, I think he's got another think coming. His limited game plan might have won a World Cup and got the Brumbies back into the finals, but he was unable to pull off the big one because that plan eventually runs out of support.
 
Braveheart81

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
Cross field kicks and more chips need to be utilised by the Tahs in games like the Brumbies and Sharks game.

If the inside backs aren't getting anywhere because they're being shut down to quickly by a defence that really pushes up fast then they need to try and exploit the space around and behind them.

Against the Brumbies we did a couple of chips which were successful and then put it away.

Against the Sharks we didn't really try it much at all.

It's something that could possibly be useful against the Stormers because they're likely to try a fairly similar thing in defence.

When our forward pack is on top and making metres, there's probably not much we have to worry about. With quality ball our backs will carve up most teams.

It's adjusting to teams that can get a little on top of our forwards or achieve parity that we need to work on.

Putting some doubt in the opposition through chip kicks such that they hang back a little or fear a cross field kick so they can't play that umbrella defensive style as much seems like the way to go.

If we can earn that little bit of extra space for Foley and Beale, we can start creating more opportunities against teams such as the Sharks and Brumbies.
 
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