Waratahs v Highlanders trial - Thursday 16 February 2017

[fatprop]

fatprop

I understand your jest about the whole competition but you guys sure can pile on the points.

Aussie conference a certainty particularly with Israel playing well.

Hooper starts off like he left off. By far and away the Tahs best player (yep even better than Folau)

We will some days, and others days it will turn to shit

 

[2bluesfan]

It is. I usually post using by tablet and it's not uncommon for me to hit the wrong character if I'm not paying enough attention to where my thumbs are going.

And there was I wondering if we had just witnessed the birth of a new word

 

[Dave Beat]

They announced that number in the last quarter - there was more capacity on the hills and the stands behind one of the try lines.

Perhaps it could get to 7.5k if it was 100% full but I don't think it could get much further than that.

Great ground for viewing though.

Just goes to show NRL can't count cause they would give a far greater number

 

[I like to watch]

With 5004 people there the ground was almost at capacity - is that commercially viable for the Tahs?

Crowd record there is 27k
They regularly get crowds >17k

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

And there was I wondering if we had just witnessed the birth of a new word

If it became a thing I'll be happy to share credit.

 

[Dave Beat]

Crowd record there is 27k
They regularly get crowds >17k

Would have ben interesting to see how 3 times last nights crowd would have squeezed in then.

 

[Braveheart81]

I'm not that keen on this structure, there are wingers in this comp,you simply can't allow to get the ball on the run,with a couple of metres of space.
Having said that,in the first half if they decided not to beat us on the edge,they strolled through the middle.
There is a lot of work to be done, we can't rely on opposition teams to be benching their A team at 1/2 time for us to be competitive

Agreed.

It doesn't really hold up against a Naholo type player busting those cover tackles and excellent support play and offloads to/from players like Aaron Smith who can regularly score a try once they've been given that much space.

In that first stanza we didn't have nearly enough dominant tackles. They were making easy metres through the middle against a shellshocked defensive line.

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[Brumby Runner]

They were caught short on the first try but the big defensive error was from Latu.

He rushed out of the line but rushed at no one. He needed to go straight at Naholo who was always going to get the ball.

The cover that needs to come across in this defensive structure where you are leaving space on the outside needs to be faster. It wasn't close to being up to scratch last night. Hopefully they don't take long to get it right otherwise they will leak some soft tries.

Shades of the Wallabies' defensive setup in the early 2016 test matches, for which most unforgivably blamed DHP. With a change in structure later on, DHP was able to show exactly why he is a valuable player for the Wallabies.

 

[Braveheart81]

Shades of the Wallabies' defensive setup in the early 2016 test matches, for which most unforgivably blamed DHP. With a change in structure later on, DHP was able to show exactly why he is a valuable player for the Wallabies.

It cuts both ways though. Any defensive stricture relies on players not missing 1 on 1 tackles.

DHP missed plenty early in the year but then was much better later in the season.

I guess the contrast is you're figuring that it should be easier to shut down a break out the wide when you have the touchline to help and only support runners on the inside compared with a midfield break where you can have support runners on both sides.



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[Brumby Runner]

Further comment - it strikes me that the Tahs' and the Wallabies' defensive coach is one and the same. Has he learnt a lesson from the Wallabies' woes last year?

 

[Strewthcobber]

Further comment - it strikes me that the Tahs' and the Wallabies' defensive coach is one and the same. Has he learnt a lesson from the Wallabies' woes last year?

Hopefully, he's learned the big lesson and Cheiks won't have anyone as poor at one-on-one tackles as DHP in the key defensive spot moving forward

 

[TOCC]

Would have ben interesting to see how 3 times last nights crowd would have squeezed in then.

A bit of a side bar but I really think the Tahs need to take a regular season game out to the new Parramatta stadium once it opens

 

[barbarian]

I've heard that is very much on the cards TOCC

 

[lpd]

Are there any highlights from this?

 

[Dave Beat]

A bit of a side bar but I really think the Tahs need to take a regular season game out to the new Parramatta stadium once it opens

I've been to Parra once 20 years ago so cant comment about the area.

Whats the parking like?

 

[Brumby Runner]

Hopefully, he's learned the big lesson and Cheiks won't have anyone as poor at one-on-one tackles as DHP in the key defensive spot moving forward

Nah - DHP is ok one-on-one. It was just that he often had two or three coming at him at once. Just like Henry Speight when he got on during the EOYT. The structure was the problem, and if it hasn't changed for the Tahs, they will have similar problems, especially against the NZ sides who like to go wide at any opportunity.

 

[TOCC]

Speights defence is another issue altogether.. I believe his issues are more then just the defensive structure


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[Marcelo]

Looks like Waratahs are the only real contender for the NZ franchises this season. Reds are a mystery so far.

 

[Scrubber2050]

Tahs will dominate all our little cousins across the ditch

 

[Micheal]

Tahs will dominate all our little cousins across the ditch

HEY HEY HEY.

Whats going on here?

None of this pre-season Tahs optimism thank-you-very-much.

I think we should all expect the Tahs to come 8th and anything more than that will just be a happy surprise.

Reds to top the Aus conference and win the comp.