For all the talk of Matautia, to his credit, he found the space to create 3 try scoring opportunities. He didn’t convert them, but he did the hard bit and found the bits of the field where we had more than them.

As I’ve said already, if he was on orders to play short and tight, then he can’t be held to account for following those instructions. And probably will play 6 again this week if Drinkwater is unavailable.

But, if he wasn’t told to play short, and the plan was to bash the middle, create space on the edge and use the speed of the backs, it’s 3 from 3 spoiled chances. He cannot possibly be picked. At all. Not just at 6. You can’t miss 100% of the opportunities that you get at this level. Even a very raw Riley Dean would have converted at least one, that I’m confident of. Pick Thewlis at 1 and let Dufty have a roaming roll at 6, at least he has pace to get himself into good positions.

If he gets picked this week, I will take that as Matautia followed the plan, until 78 minutes anyway.

I dont mean this as a dig at you as I get your point. But if he's blown 3 from 3 chances because he thinks his boss didn't want him to pass, he should be no where near the 13, 17 or club. If he can really play 3, 12, 13 and 6 he should be smart enough to now when to overrule the game plan when the tryline is begging

Defending the indefensible. Powell basically saying Mata’utia could play as poor as he wants and he’ll still pick him. Are they the standards we’re setting now? How does that motivate Mata’utia to improve knowing he’ll be picked regardless. Time to leave Daryl.

I like the thought of Dufty at 6. He could be electrifying but I'm not sure he can kick?

It’s certainly worth a go. He has got a good pass on him (despite what Phil Clarke says) and him, Williams and Thewlis (fb) having their hands on the ball for a large percentage of the time would certainly give us some zip/fear factor.

I now have this mental picture of Rishi Sunak plotting to pin food prices, gas & electric costs, mortgage rates and people crossing the channel in small boats all on DP.

Quite right, but how many times do you see players take the chance but get it wrong, and the walkie talkie goes flying, then they get called out for playing dumb in the post match interview. I don’t think it’s inconceivable that he’s been told to play safe and let Williams take the chances. But, you’re right, that doesn’t absolve a player of fault. As I say, if he plays, it’s absolute madness.

How can DP say anything else in public? I have expressed my view on PM any number of times and Sunday just confirmed my view. However the failure on Sunday was collective. A more inept, panic ridden, dumb display I have not seen since starting to watch in (19)73.

well he could give him the Riley Dean treatment, who despite being s young half back who needs to be given the chance to make mistakes gets dragged off and called out whenever he does.

Has he actually finished a match that he's started in?

In the post match interview he calls out Vaughan for not looking before playing the ball. He says Dufty “started playing” towards the end of the game. He’s previously dropped Dufty, Dean and Thewlis sighting their failures in public for the reasons why they were dropped.

Matautia is a part of the leadership group, he’s a senior member of this team. There can’t be one rule for one, and one for another. You’re creating your own problems at that point.

Either call nobody out publicly, or call them all. He messed up three chance, clearly. That’s not opinion, that’s fact.

Think back to that game that Dean got dropped for, the Wigan one. He scored our only try, a solo effort. We get hammered. He gets publicly dropped for kicking the ball down the throat of the full back. We lost by 30 points! No halfback in the world kicks badly enough to be solely responsible for conceding 30 points.