Was always going to be a tight game. Like last week I thought Gwaze and Fairbank gave us the impetus when they were on. We were dominating the 2nd half through basic play and completing our sets with solid defence - that's all it needed. Then 2 mistakes in sucession, a knock on from an unnecessary forced pass and a cheap offside from resulting scrum, gave them territory and momentum we didn't seem to recover from.

As for team/subs selection, I didn't get the subs with the weather. I'd have rather gambled on an extra forward in Morris.

One of the main turning points for me was when we had just defended our line and got a relieving penalty only for our captain to throw an awful pass above a forwards head that was knocked on. If that does not scream to a coach that a player is fatigued then I really don't know what else will. Then with about 6 minutes to go the same player takes the wrong option, runs round in a circle, and we end up trying to get a drop goal off in the mudbath area of the pitch. Im a massive Moore fan but I can't help but think that the reason Jouffret was left on the bench was to prove a point, its the same way that Joe Martin has been brought in to play fullback and Walmsley has been made the scapegoat and has not had a look in.

Last year I said the same thing about the Springer signing, Grix must have known exactly the type of player he were getting when he signed him and for this season its like he is seeing something he does not like in a few of the players sitting out which could suggest a lack of research on the signings.

Moore is a top player in this division but I say again, I don't think making him captain has done him or the team any good.

On Jouffret can’t make my mind up wether with Wood missing leaving him out of the 17 completely would have been an even bigger statement (and he’d done that against London) than after including him and not even to get on the field.
Grix stated that both he and Finny had a similar game plan just rolling the same middles on and off the field.
From that I can only think that LJ was on the bench to give cover for the 1,6,7 & 9 slots which I suppose makes sense.
If that was the case and even if Brandon was still okay for the full 80, when chasing the game at the end LJ could have come on for one of the halves, say Aston to bring a bit of extra zip and momentum to the side, so we’ve focussed on the 9 slot but other options were possible.
Downside of that it would have used up one of the bigger middle interchanges SG had based his game plan on.
Anyway, all conjecture and I for one am always wiser after the event, it didn’t happen and we’ll never know.