Quote: NickyKiss "I’m torn on this. It’s something I’ve been sat thinking about at times this season and all roads lead back to thinking how we close that gap to Saints. Yes their line speed is unbelievable and I wonder if we can try and replicate that but I keep coming back to the same point- we will need beat them at that game when we play them. To play a game of us meeting fire with fire and flying off the line, we’ll have to accept it’s likely to be decided through the middle of the field and we’ll be using an awful lot of energy in doing that. Are we good enough to beat them through the middle? Not a chance IMO.
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I agree trying to 100% replicate what they do isn't the answer, but we need to look at how we up our intensity at key times and positions on the field and find teh right balance. Especially against Saints you need to stop them coming out of their half as easily in the first 3-4 carries.
A good kicking game (it's been better this season but still more improvement needed) exploiting our pace and increased offloading in attack which we seem to be doing will be a huge improvement on last years rugby. We need to put more doubt into a quick line speeds defence and make it harder for them to rush and close the ball players down.