Quote: St pete "Teams will just kick to Tommy all the as he's a poor kick returner. He basically hits the ground on impact. He never beats a man and never puts us on the front foot.
Thst first kick return is the most important run of the set, it can determine how the set pans out by who wins the ptb. All last year we struggled with kick returns as Quinlan was poor on kick returns and thst sets the tone for the set.'"
Got to agree with St Pete here, Swift isn,t much of a liability on high kicks these days, his kick returns is very likely meaning we are completing our set in the opponents half and applying pressure. Swift has a lot of upper body strength these days and is more likely to find ground with a quicker play the ball. Makinson use to get held up, mauled, pulled on his back and the opposing defence is set.
On the subject of high kicks, our full back whoever it is, does not get enough protection from our own players, quite often we allow the opposition to have a free direct run to our full back, for Owens it makes him very nervy.