: Sun Jul 05, 2009 4:39 pm
Let's be blunt.
Today was no different than several previosu occasions this season, where the team has let in one try, and then been as comprehensively unable to even attempt to defend as they would be if someone nailed their feet to the floor.
At half-time I said to my mate that I just prayed we wouldn't come out and have yet another 'walkabout' spell - where, let us stress, we concede points at alarming rates like one a minute or more - but walkabout we went.
Let's be more blunt. We had fat men repeatedly going 50, 60 or even 80 yards. Our "defence" wide out in that spell was truly atrocious, but it was same old, same old.
And the defence out wide in that spell was shockingm, but the defence in teh middle and on the line wasn't much better, with no defensive line, and people walking in for tries ANYWHERE on the field, didn't matter left, right, middle - you just KNEW they were going to score, and they did.
Walkabout over, we resumed where we had left off. Which was pretty much the same standard as Cas. Some decent tries, some good defence, some pish-poor unforced errors. A mixed bag. Nowhere near the standard that we needed to be.
Defensively our back 4 was shambolic today. It wasn't much better attack-wise either. Menzies was not a factor for one and even he dropped balls under no pressure.
Contributory factors to defeat:
Traditional walkabout spell - 50%
Giving the ball up in unforced situations and in ludicrous areas of the field - 15%
Tadulala taken out yet Cas "try" alloweed - at a critical stage - 10%
Disallowed try for non-existent forward pass, especially given Cas scored 2 tries from outrageously forward passes, 5%
Blowing a try by passing inside when all was needed was to draw the man and hand to Tadulala, 5%
Deacon's goal-kicking - 5%
Apparent either poor conditioning or just lack of willingness to work- in the first half we were in the Cas quarter on attack yet with NOBODY making any runs, the entire line static, on repeated occasions. Once Halley retrieved the situation by a solo try but the team looked fooked. Cas picked up on that. And we looked like we were still fooked when we came out for the second half, by the time we got our legs back we were facing a mountain to climb. 10%
The fact is that we need to change the personnel in this team because, as a whole, they consistently show that they are not capable,
over a season of consistently trying, applying themselves, or working off their balls when they need to. Sometimes they do, but too often, too many don't.
We should therefore take the opportunity for the rest of this dead-rubber season to play and blood as many of the young lads as is humanly possible, and hope that they in this way come on sufficiently that we can get rid of some of the players who have,
over the season taken as a whole so far clearly shown that they are not worth a starting spot as they are to often not up to the job.
Yet again (and I get sick of repeating this- we have served up what is ultimately a marketing disaster for the long-suffering, dwindling and increasingly disillusioned home fans. Yet again we have been beaten at home by a team that we could and should have put away.
If I was Mac I really would start dropping people in large numbers.
. We can't just play well in patches, we need to do it for 80 minutes. Another thing is, Deacon may be improving his attacking again but he missed some tackles my grandmother would have made. Scruton played well aswell, but neither Newton or Godwin -the latter having a decent excuse- added anything to our game and lpayed poorly.
