Its not individuals though, its the team as a whole. There are some pretty fundamental things which are just poor, meaning we have no foundation. The lack of structure, which looked wonderful in 2022 as it freed players from the Agar shackles of dullness, is just ebbing confidence. This is the same as last year, as there is nothing to fall back on when the going gets tough. Everyone ends up looking for someone else for miracle plays, and the wrong players start making decisions, generally bad ones.
Add this to a pack lacking in punch both yardage and defence - which is where a lot of our problems start - and a stratospheric dumb error count, and it really is a hot steaming mess.
I cannot see how Smith shouldn't be judged really quite harshly now. We're about a third of the way through the season and look worse than at the start. We've also got a worse record after 9 games than last season, which included a win at Sts. The problem isn't new players learning each other's play, its the basic stuff that any team, even average ones, need to be able to do.
