Quote: BrisbaneRhino "One thing that really does stand out, both in these games and when England play is the gap in error rate is enormous. Sl sides far too often lose the ball in the tackle or make rubbish passes mand aimless kicks. Aus/NZ and NRL sides do make errors, but far fewer absolute howlers in bad parts of the field. SL allows such mistakes because they simply aren't punished as harshly as they are in the NRL. They also don't necessarily show up in the stats, but its as clear as day to anybody watching.
Its interesting that the lack of size/strength in the outside backs is a problem for some SL teams. Souths themselves had virtually the same pack last year as 2013, but they replaced 2-5 with bigger, stronger players and it made a huge difference both in attack and defence. The days of small outside backs are probably long gone.'"
I agree there were far too many basic errors and spilled ball across the 3 games which ultimately cost the SL side, especially Wire and Wigan in the tight games. Some of the mistakes this weekend though were in the diabolical category, i mean Joe Burgess must have coughed the ball up at least 3 times in his own 25, and these really were not brought about because of opposition pressure, just really bad drops you would expect to make once every few games. I can't recall seeing any of that during his breakthrough year.Then you had Simms for the wire, he spilled at least a couple of times in his own half, 1 leading to a try and he is an NRL veteran. Just one of those things i guess but it shows you can't afford to turn ball over against top sides or they will kill you.
Regarding the three quarters, The game is going the way of Union in this regard, big seems to be the way but i do think there is still a place for the smaller, quick and elusive guys just not a full back line of them.Saints three quarters, who are in the small category, made no headway against there far bigger counter parts. And i thought Josh Dugan who is a big unit for a FB made a lot of good yards bringing the ball back on friday.