Pat Bateman wrote:Thought Mason and Atoni were poor for us, they made eff all metres, and only did 15 minute stints. Whitbread is brilliant and Pitt’s is great too. Sam Eseh and Eddie Battye must be thinking what have they done wrong to be replaced by Atoni and Mason.
We lack loads of confidence in the opposition 20. Run the same swing play to the wing which is so predictable. We play hot potato with Lino doing off the cuff stuff, which is clearly ineffective. Is it just me but we also seem clueless at actually building pressure for repeat. Defensive mis reads on our attacking shapes or the defence getting numbers wrong on both sides of the ruck are the way most teams score, yet we seem adamant to rush these plays, which leads to us looking clunky, slow and predictable. Our Rugby IQ on attack at the moment Is league 1 standard. I don’t expect us to be Brisbane broncos, but clearly the difference between both teams was the number 9 position in the spine. McShane is very good with an excellent rugby IQ, Hood offers nothing going forward, and Kay simply doesn’t have that IQ, so is very predictable with his darting runs. That’s my thoughts anyway.
Have to agree about Battye.
Although others should in theory be better than him, apart from Whitbread, he has been our best "prop" this season and he does at least have an offload game.
He must have walked under a ladder or something not to get picked last week.
Pitts was superb and Langi certainly had his best game for us.
