Quote: WindleSaint "I did acknowledge this in my opening post....but...think of the very few opportunities our wide men had, ball in hand. If I remember right, Meli had some space in the 1st half were he could have done much better, and Foster had a few on the other. Admittedly, they were only half chances. If they had some pace, they'd have got us much further up that pitch or created a chance for a supporting player to run on to. What happened though, Meli got quickly closed down, tried to go inside & tackled easily-chance gone. Foster, tried to kick past the covering defence. Which is creative play to be fair but he didn't have the speed to chase the ball, despite the defence having to turn.
I'm not slagging them off in terms of quality, but in terms of pace our backline doesn't trouble the opposition like we used too. This might sound a bit daft...but wingers (and centres) are supposed to be very fast! As usual, there seems to be a lack of respect for the wing position in this country. We throw players who are centres, stand off's, scrum halfs etc in the Youth team on the wing in the 1st team???!!! ie. There's a lad who plays stand off in the youth team, they all harp on about him being next big thing. So what do we do, we promote them to the 1st team & throw them on the bloody wing. If they're not good enough to trust them to play in the same position as they do in the youth team then don't pick them!! The winger position is a specialist position & should be treated as such.'"
Sorry for ranting, but just to add...what if you're signed from an amateur club & you play on the wing. And you watch the lads playing in the halfs being promoted to the 1st team to play in your specialist position. You'd be gutted. No wonder the Aussies always smash us in the backs.
