Re: Starting Props : Sun Mar 24, 2024 1:26 pm
I don't think the OP is wrong at all. Oledzki and Holroyd aren't England regulars, and against Sts you can see why. I'm not suggesting we should get rid, but they need to play a lot better than Friday if we're to do anything against Sts or Wigan. Holroyd looked great at the start of last year but faded and now looks completely average. Oledzki looked good last week, but couldn't follow it up. Not sure there's anything wrong with pointing that out? If it was a one-off maybe, but far too often when it counts our pack gets pushed around and we win in spite of them not because of them.Our front row is just not damaging enough with the ball. Lisone can be in spells, but the rest are just too easy to stop or put down. The inability to dent the line in a serious way means slow PTBs, lack of field position (worse as its compounded by a defence that's seemingly happy to let opponents make huge yardage) and its one of the reasons we struggle to score from close in. There's no real threat of one of our forwards smashing their way over, so defences can get set and wait for the ball to be spread without committing too many tacklers into the ruck.
When you then add a back row with little or no physical presence with the ball, its no wonder we're struggling to score a lot of points.
I know he won't do it, but IMO Smith should move to get Ruan and TNW into the 17 as often as possible. Given the options we have I don't see where else the physicality we lack is going to come from. A complete change of mindset could work, but I doubt our forwards as a group have the sort of mongrel we need in them.