Dont think we should take this as indicative of their effort levels overall or a sign of an ingrained issue in the team cause there we're plenty of times these guys were putting in the big effort plays and generally were going toe to toe for the most part.
It does however highlight the margins when your playing champion teams of how switched on you have to be to take the few oppertunities these teams give. Not an excuse for them but both Pompey and AKP had taken hit ups at the start of the set and did look gassed, and im pretty sure they werent expecting TM to run it on the last.....however the urgency they showed in that instance to react to that was poor and will stand out like dogs ball in their vid analysis.
But yeah just failing to ice the few oppertunities when they presented themselves - Ali needlessly offside - CHT in the first half holding for a split 2nd too long when we had numbers.....probably the difference (altho i still say how Sutton spotted a Ford finger tip on that ball is beyond me, and if he had sent that upstairs as a try the bunker wouldve awarded it cause of no clear evidence.....then we'd be having a very different conversation).
As Webby said we are so close to being a contender but we're still learning what it means to be a heavyweight,
I was wondering whether the two slighted outside backs had been involved in the earlier play, cheers.
I don't think it is even a thing that more physical fitness will be the answer to either (hey you can always have more) but these Warriors players are fit physically, but I think we are talking about mental conditioning primarily, the kind that takes seasons of winning hard games to forge.
That was a hard game though, the momentum swings were killer (mentally).
To me, the biggest problem was that we looked defeated before kick off. We looked panicked, that
CHT comment you made was a thing that was pissing me off a little about him and Te Maire (not singling them out, the whole team) they looked like they were uptight, overwrought.
We became clunky, were getting swamped, when really, if we set ourselves deeper on those plays, and as you say let the ball go, we would have looked like our best efforts this year.
But promising signs, we looked better as the boys confidence grew. And I hope like fook they remember that come the return match.
We need hard games like this particularly on the run home for that mental honing.
A quick check of the Ladder looks really good, we have Penrith, Broncos, Souths, Knights, Manly.
Not a Titan nor Dragons cake walk in sight.
