highwire wrote:I thought for the first 35 minutes our defence looked pretty watertight. I can't remember any team being handed 3 back to back sets on our line and us being capable of holding them at bay over the last couple of years. This may be pure coincidence but Briers came on and a few minutes later Monaghan came off just before half time. After 5 minutes of the second half I was thinking to myself that there were a few more gaps around the middle of the park on both sides. Lots of numbers in the tackle but each team were making a lot more half breaks.
One thing that was evident was the number of mistakes made when Monaghan came off, Again it could be purely coincidence and the fatigue factor was kicking in similar to the defence in the second half. In the first half we just looked tighter as a group, playing football with a low error count and scoring a couple of scrappy short range tries but very effective.
In the first half I could only remember one error, There was plenty of loose ball but always somebody there to drop on it or scoop up and carry on. In the second half we looked to play more expansive and as a result we scored a couple of well worked tries but we also gave away a fair bit of possesion and leaked a few. Fatigue may have kicked in due to the constant stream of penalties we gave away. It would be interesting to compare first half and second half completion rates.
This post maybe seen as a dig at our style of play when Briers is on the pitch and to be honest yes that might be in the back of my mind but I make no apologies for that.
One thing no-one can argue with is that Monas has a better defence than Briers. He works harder, has a better technique and is stronger. What the lad now needs to do is couple that with a bit more attacking awareness, kicking and short breaks. Although his kicking wasn't great, his short passes and confidence attacking the line resembled his first few games over here. In terms of defence yes much better and I look forward to Westwood adding to that.
