Quote: fez1 "I think Mattie Russell deserves a shout out here - he's not been mentioned.
I thought he did his usual thing of bringing the ball out strongly - similar to Ashton.
Thewlis also comes out with credit.
Naughty step - awful game from Kasiano, Dudson poor. The fact that Bullock got Wire MoM from his limited minutes says it all
Whilst Dufty was found out in the halves, I do recall a number of people calling for him to be in the halves instead of Ratch.
It cant be Dufty next week.
(I suspect he will go for PM so that Wrench can slot back in with Thewlis on the wing and Dufty back at fb even though Russell has done nothing wrong. I'd suggest Dufty could be better from the bench).
A disappointment for me was that when we had the ball we just didnt seem to put any set plays on, with different players on different scripts (no chase for kick throughs etc etc).
Very difficult times. Easy to complain - and people have every right to, but it doesn't solve the problem.
From what I've read no-one has a coherent and compelling solution.'"
This is the job for the coaching and management teams, who are not getting anywhere near the best out of this squad. DP was brought in on the premise that he gets the best out of players, which perhaps has happened for a few, but just hasn't happened in enough cases.
My take on some areas that need addressing
1) Defence. Our poor line speed is the biggest problem, which allows our opponents too many easy yards and their halfbacks too much space and time to work in. Work on turning your opponent over in the tackle (Wigan in the cup were a great example that we should be replicating).
2) Attack. It's all one up stuff at the moment. We need to support the ball player, then when anyone makes a half break and can offload, there's a team mate ready to accept it. There's no planned moves, lets work on some as were really playing the most tedious brand of rugby that's too easy to defend against. Find the floor on your front and get quicker play the balls, work on not getting turned over in the tackle.
3) Motivation. The squad need to brought together and encouraged to put the McGuire issue behind them, and to get to the harmony we seemed to have earlier in the season.
4) Fitness. Kasiano has a silhouette of a seventies rugby player, and can only play for a few minutes a game. Our lack of line speed my be down to a lack of fitness, we might have a big pack this year, but they've got to be mobile as well.
I'm sure there's other stuff, but the above should not be that difficult to implement and for us to improve. The only proviso being that the squad is willing to work with the coach. As DP has already got rid of the "bad apples" who wouldn't work with him when he joined, and if his assembled squad currently does not want to work with him, then DP is the problem, not the solution.
