I'd said a few times before the Bulls that the biggest hole in Foley's game was his general play kicking. That was proven to be the case at Loftus. He does, however, need to add that dimension. I hope we see some more tactical kicking this week, because Foley needs runs on the board in that regard or teams will start trying to force him to kick more and more.
Foley is still basically a Sevens player. He plays well close to the tackle line, can put guys through gaps if they aimed themselves right and he can surprise opponents by running himself as he did at the Cake Tin.
Now and then he does something useful with his foot like slotting a goal to win a game or to cross-kick to someone to score a try but, like a lot of Aussie flyhalves, he can't make the ball talk off his boot, let alone make it sing.
He won't be getting job offers from European clubs. They like fellows like Brock James or Compass Parks who can get their team around the park, then kick the goals - because for 3 months of the season you can't play the rugby there that we play here.
You need such a game at Loftus too to get out of your territory otherwise Steyn, or some clone of his, will keep you pegged back and force you into making mistakes in the wrong real estate.
Foley is only a stopgap until we get an all-rounder flyhalf and that may not be for some time.
The kind of fellow we want is someone like David Horwitz or Jake McIntyre who were both at school last year. I'm not saying these guys are going to be good enough to play Super Rugby, but we should be looking at fellows with an all-round game like them, not just runners with, or passers of, the ball.
PS I have written a blog that includes a preview of the Kings game here:
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/preview-aussie-matches-in-round-12/
