Quote: Jukesays "Same applies to Miski
I too was watching the football in a pub with one ear to the Radio & at the time thought Misko had dropped 2 Howlers!!!!
On review that is far from the case (Even now I;ve seen people on the other site describing them as 2 x mistakes).
He lost 2 challenges, they weren't mistakes, and the first one in particular was very Dubious and could have been called a penalty with the 2nd one being anything other than a mistake, he may need to be better/stronger, but it wasn't a mistake or a howler. And in fact the tacking after the challenge is the real issue, walked through 3 tackles.
His worst contribution isn't even being talked about, it was the drop on the 1st/2nd tackle coming away from his line.
But again I agree it comes back to people following the Loudest voice, which in this instance due to it not being televised was Joe Mills (And Bilko).
I rang my mate after I had seen the 2 Toulouse Tries from kicks and he said the impression I gave him was completely different from what he heard on the radio - He watched the game Monday and rang me and said he agreed. Whilst Miski may be disappointed, they were anything but Howlers.
Again with a review of the whole game and Harry Smith in particular I was expecting a Horror show. Watched ,sot of the game last night, and whilst I would say we were anything but Good, we were more lethargic and Lax rather than Awful.
As you say - Ball in hand we were still pushing and trying to be expansive, we had good offloads, we just defensively didn't build a platform and compounded that with 6/7 poor errors from 20mins through to 60 mins ish.
I'm far from convinced about Smith, but the Barracking he gets on the other site in particular is disgraceful. It's the same with Powell (And on occasions Isa).
it's now become a case of certain fans having made their mind up and it's more important for them now to be proved right than it is to give honest reviews & appraisals of the players contributions.'"
Another night or different officials one or both of the tries involving Miski would have been chalked off.
His worst mistake if I viewed it properly was letting a kick go into touch resulting in a 40/20. Lack of concentration or low in confidence I’m not sure but hopefully he’ll learn and come back stronger but unless there are injuries I think some more time in the reserves awaits him.
Far from a great debut but you can’t write a lad off after one game.
Honestly don’t remember anyone being too highly critical of Smith on the night but he did have a mixed bag of a game. Although Toulouse threw it away and we weren’t at the races I was strangely confident that if Smith got a chance he would drop the goal. Unsure what to make of Smith but I’d like to think that there is decent player there. The vast majority of the team had an off night particularly after the first ten minutes so for me we haven’t seen Smith playing in a fully functional team since he’s made his debut.
As a fan I was more concerned and I am most weeks, about the teams collective performance rather than individual performances. I don’t think one player had a really good game so picking out individuals for me doesn’t really add to the debate. We were second best for the majority of the match and the second game in a row were our pack was second best.
At times without the the ball we were slow. Very slow. This for me more worrying than Smith giving out a couple of misjudged passes. I’m just hoping that we held something back on Saturday with the Catalan game coming up. I’m certainly hoping that our playing tempo is increased by several notches because if it isn’t it could be a long night. I’ve got a feeling that Saturday may have been a wake up call for the players and I genuinely anticipate a much stronger and faster showing against Catalan. Whether that’ll be enough we will have to wait and see.