Its a marathon and not a sprint and all that and we probably had a 1/3rd of our salary cap sat in the stands but but when are going to become more expansive in our attack?

We were told we had ball playing forward who seem reluctant to offload which is partly down to our lack of support play. We have pace to burn out wide but seem to favour the drop off pass back into the ruck.

We are embarrassingly easy to read at the minute in our attack and its not helping with our poor discipline but at times last year we played some great expansive rugby which the lads seemed to enjoy. Why are we so reluctant to do so this year?

It's going to be either a master stroke in delayed tactics by Gentle and suddenly open up at somepoint in the season or we are in for another long frustrating season.

IN FOR ANOTHER LONG SEASON OF MEDIOCRATY IM AFRAID......

Or outside backs get very litle oppurtunity, unless it's taking a ball from acting half.
The game plan seems to be the consistent thing over the last 6 years. Always back through the ruck area.
It's not great to watch & crowds won't increase until either:

(i) The team is consistent & winning
Or
(ii) We play exciting rugby

Neither is happening at the moment.

We need to play a more expansive game, regardless of who is on the pitch.

Not going to happen without changing players, same old stagers playing the same old game I am afraid.

I was never as convinced as most by our squad this season but on the whole we've been worse than I expected. We offer nothing more in the opposition 20 than we have since 2008. No dummy runners, no options, poor last tackle plays. For me these are easy things to resolve and would make us a whole lot better.

We had enough posession and field position to win comfortably last night but came away with nothing again

Anyone who listened to Gentle's after match interview last night will know that he's of the same opinion. He stated a number of times that we just didn't throw enough at them, particularly in the first half. Seems like the overly conservative play last night wasn't part of the game plan.

In which case you have to wonder where the problem is. He did mention that they were still working on coming up with a game plan that 'everyone was comfortable with' - which leads me to believe that some players simple aren't capable of playing the way he wants them to.

Whatever the root cause he needs to come up with a solution fast.

FFS...we've played just 7 games.

Last night with 6, yes 6 first choice players missing you could easily say we were 'robbed' of coming away with 2 points against the leaugue leaders.

Get a grip everyone.

Our attempts at spreading the ball wide always stop when the ball gets to our second rowers as both Westerman and Galea (who was very good last night) first instinct when they get the ball seem to angle their runs back in field.

Plus our timing for the McDonnell out of the back behind the second rower is way off right now and the passing doesn't take place close enough to the line its all too sideways and easy to read.

Robbed ? when was this as i thought the officials got all the major calls correct with the exception of maybe the dropout ?

Correct we need to move our play towards the defensive line and start giving the opposition some decisions to make.

I think people are misinterpreting what the poster said. His definition of "robbed" I think was the fact that we had lost players to illness, injuries etc. On that basis I would agree with him. FWIW I believe the officials had a decent game, although the old guy calling a forward pass from 60 yards away (but not able to see one under his nose) was rather strange. Best team on the day won, so no complaints from me.

We seem to be playing with one of the flattest attacking lines I've seen in 30+ years of watching. There's often only a few yards difference in the depth of the PTB and the deepest man. The line looks cramped up and the receiver is having to check his run and slow down. We've also given a lot of unnecessary forward passes in midfield this year, for the same reason. That can become a vicious circle: slow PTB, receivers overrunning the ball and having to slow down, beaten in the collision, poor body position, and so a slow PTB. Last year O'Meley, Moa and Manu could break this by giving us some (at times undeserved) go-forward. At the moment Briscoe and Lineham look like the only players capable o changing this.