u/DarthMaulRugby

Last rant on this, I promise. After taking some time to think on it, my honest opinion on last night's match is...what the actual f***? Usually, it's overplaying that costs us. Last night, we just...weren't playing at all. It's not just that the ball never went wide or we tried nothing off first phase. We barely contested the breakdown. Cardiff were killing us there and it allowed them the quick ball that turned us inside-out defensively. We launched almost no contestibles. Attack was just one-off runners. No attacking kicks for territory at all. Contrast that to Mulder and Lloyd who were having a field day. Our attitude was summed up by Zas picking up a loose ball and walking it into touch, giving them an attacking line-out. We just weren't interested. WTF, okes?! Rant over.

I think I'd rather have crawled over rusted nails than subjected myself to those 80 minutes. We've had so many chances to take the league by the scruff of the neck, but managed to botch them all. We are so reliant on Ruhan and Dan in the centres. We're so defensively frail without them. We lack imagination on attack and have no direction in that regard. We showed so much promise in those first 8 games and just fell apart. This is so frustrating.

I know, quite a random one guys, but what is with so many people who think Sacha's name is spelt 'Sasha' or 'Sascha'? I mean, it's constantly displayed, so we shouldn't be getting it wrong. Sorry, pedantic, I know, but it's real a pet peeve.

Our forwards, on paper at least, are superior to those of our mini-tour opponents. Ulster, for one, do not have a scrum. We need to keep it tight and bully them up front. Play 10-man rugby. Carry it up hard through the middle and then try and dissolve them under a barrage of high-balls. The role of the outside backs must be primarily a defensive one, so selection should be based on that. Maybe defend with the wingers up in the line to mitigate the wide threat and trust Damian to cover the extra space at the back. If we keep tight and make it a war of attrition, we will wear them down. Get loose, and they're in the game. We need to bear this in mind for team selection.
Thoughts?

Much better on all fronts. Much tighter, better decisions. Sacha is distributing some more and having a great game. Much better defensive set, especially out wide. I wonder if we would've delivered this performance if last week's dog show against Connacht didn't happen? Dobbo might've persisted with Damian at 14, Warrick at 15, and Ungerer as main replacement 9. I think we needed that loss to make the shake-up necessary and get the okes to stick to the game plan and not overplay.