Its not just size, although that's important. We have a rotation of props who don't bend the line with the ball and are not exactly aggressive in defence. Only Lisone shows any ability to barrel through the defence, and he is a bit of a flat track bully - looks awesome against a tiring defence going backwards but otherwise easily stopped. Compare our yardage to Wigan, Sts etc and its really poor, even when we had pretty much all of our props fit, and we don't even get quick PTBs to make up for it. A lot of our problems stem from our lack of threat right up the middle.

In other words we are in a complete shambles. Two years waiting for academy players? It’s a big step up from academy to first grade football . Majority don’t make the grade.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... y-the-ball Some interesting analysis here, particularly the clip at the bottom where they discuss the Leeds defence.

https://www.skysports.com/rugby-league/ ... y-the-ball Some interesting analysis here, particularly the clip at the bottom where they discuss the Leeds defence.

Nothing we dont already know unfortunately.

Looks great when it comes off, looks amateurish when it doesnt.

Almost dead last in all the metrics that count according to Sky before Catalans

completion rate - 75.7% - 12th
territory - 44.8% - 12th
errors - 107 - 12th
possesion - 49.3% - 9th

Looking at those stats I am surprised Smith is still in a job. I just hope he is not allowed to sign any players. He has already done enough damage. Another wasted season.

Those stats really are awful, and go a long way to explaining our generally dire performances.

After Sts we'll likely be 6-6, with Cas, Hull, Leigh and London to follow. In terms of results the Leigh match is the one that matters, as Cas, Hull and London are awful teams. Games against them should be looked at the same way as bye rounds in the NRL. Beating them means very little. We haven't beaten anyone apart from those three since March 8th - also Leigh. If we win the next four games we'll look OK on paper with 10 wins and 6 losses, but after that its really hard to see our next win unless we improve dramatically.

That's why we have to start turning in better performances. Otherwise we'll have a mid-season bounce playing easybeats followed by inevitable decline as we get turned over by teams that do the basics, let alone the likes of Wigan. We're getting towards halfway through the season and we're getting worse, not better.

I keep hoping Smith will turn things around, but unless he fixes the basics we've no chance. Like him or not, you can't argue with Wilkin's comments about our defence.

Those are four different stats but it's all about errors and penalties one way or another.

One way or another it’s abject failure.

I agree with what you are saying Exeter, unless we can start to hold on to the ball more, we will continue to be bottom ranked in most if not all of those areas. This is my biggest frustration, why do we continue to play a brand of rugby that we are not capable of executing successfully? Some of the errors are simple player should catch it / not drop it, but some are most definitely because of how we approach the game culturally and philosophically. It needs to change.

We play gimmicky rugby. We reject the conventional wisdom that actually wins trophies for short-cuts and gimmicks. We'll sneak a good result here and there, but there's zero foundation to actually build on and start competing at the top in the long-term. We require too much luck to sustain ourselves.