How did people find the new bench instructions?
My minute instructions weren't too far off what I asked but Ben Matulino playing 62 minutes on the Wing meant my starters going way longer than I'd hoped. Does the sub strategy box (ie. Second Half Push) delay a reserve coming on even if you ask for a 45 min stint
@tajhay?
@tajhay, the post match analysis tells me my right edge D was horrendous & Vinnie Anderson was the main culprit but he was listed at left Centre.
@Barzak & his

were too good on the day, even with a double sin bin
Ben Matulino's 62 minutes:
Short answer — yes, "Save for Second Half" does hold your bench back, even when
you've set specific minute targets for them.
Here's what happened in your game. You had Matulino on the bench (position 14) set
to replace your prop at position 8 (
Suaia Matagi), with a target of 50 minutes game
time. Your interchange plan was Save for Second Half.
But at the 18th minute,
Marcelo Montoya went down with a shoulder injury and had to
leave the field. That's only 18 minutes in — and because Save for Second Half was
suppressing your bench rotations in the first half, the reshuffle that followed put
Matulino into a gap-filling role rather than his intended prop rotation. He ended up
playing 62 minutes from that point, well past the 50 you set.
Your other starters copped extra minutes too because of this:
-
Evarn Tuimavave played 60 minutes (prop)
-
Suaia Matagi played 69 minutes (prop)
-
Sebastine Ikahihifo played 42 minutes at lock
-
Syd Eru played 46 minutes at hooker
With Save for Second Half, the sim deliberately keeps your bench on ice in the first
half — subs don't start until around the 30th minute, and even then the chance of a
sub happening is low (about 15% per opportunity vs 30% on Balanced). Your props are
expected to push through 32-minute stints in the first half instead of the usual
25. The idea is your bench comes on fresh after halftime and makes a bigger impact —
but the trade-off is that one early injury can throw the whole rotation out, which
is exactly what happened here.
The minute targets you set (50 mins, 30 mins, 45 mins, 40 mins) are guides, not hard
limits. They tell the game "try to sub this player off around this many minutes"
but injuries, the interchange plan timing, and the flow of the game all influence
when subs actually happen.
If you want tighter control over your bench minutes, Balanced is the safer option.
Save for Second Half is high-risk/high-reward — when it works your bench comes on
fresh and dominates the last 30 minutes, but one early injury like
Montoya's can
blow up your whole plan.
---
Vinnie Anderson and the right edge defence:
Good catch — this was actually a bug in the post-match analysis. The coach review
had the second-rowers (positions 11 and 12) swapped between the left and right
edges. So when it said your "right edge defence was horrendous" it was actually
talking about your left edge — where
Vinnie Anderson (Left Centre, #4) plays.
Vinnie at Left Centre lines up alongside your Five-eighth (#6), Left Second-row
(#11), and Left Wing (#5). The analysis was looking at the right edge players (#7
Halfback, #12 Right Second-row, #3 Right Centre, #2 Right Wing) but labelling them
as the left edge and vice versa.
This has been fixed. Going forward, the coach review will correctly identify which
edge was targeted and who was responsible. Apologies for the confusion — Vinnie may
well have had a rough day in defence, but the analysis was pointing at the wrong
edge.