Quote: Lord God Jose Mourinho "IMO if Inglis had been given the ball that Shenton or Bridge had, they wouldn't have been able to do anything either. It's extremely harsh to judge Shenton or Bridge as attackers when they are given absolutely nothing to work with.
And the notion that they weren't given anything because we don't think they could do anything is also wrong. At the very least they would be making their opposite numbers have to work in defence. But what we did was pretty much give their 3/4s the shift off in defence so they were fresh for their attacks.'"
I suppose there's chicken and egg there. Do they not attack because we don't give them ball, or do we not give them ball because they can't attack ?
I think there was another key issue last night about the way the threequarters played : when Thurston and Lockyer take the ball, they do traditional half-back things, like standing deep to receive to give themselves space and then running sideways across the pitch looking to put runners in gaps. As we saw in the last twenty yesterday, they had no shortage of backs hitting those gaps. The reason Inglis, Hodges and Slater made so many breaks is because they were hitting passes from the halves at pace in holes. Contrast that with our halves. Eastmond and Tomkins both took the ball close to the PTB so the rush defence gave them very little time. Then their choices were either to ship it from a standing position - esentially just losing us yards and not challenging the defence - or to go for the individual effort, stepping, ducking, trying to break the line themselves, which against an international defence isn't going to happen. I think it was really noticeable that our best fifteen minutes at the start coincided with Eastmond playing more of a creative role, running flat and turning balls inside and outside for runners to hit gaps. We didn't do it as well as the Aussies, but it was working for us. However, after that first quarter we saw almost none of that.
That's partly about the fact that our threequarters and second-rows don't run at gaps like the Aussies do, but it's also about what we expect from halves in this country. We tend to go for small, nippy blokes who can see an opportunity for themselves, or are good at backing up, but a creative half like Thurston or Lockyer ? Who was the last one you can remember ? I'd say Goulding. Any advances on him ?
We have some serious issues about the way the game is coached in this country, and what we expect of threequarters, fullbacks and half-backs. Coaching these basic skills and a basic understanding of what is required of the position is something that has to start early and be maintained.
