I'll be in the minority here, but I didn't expect much attack-wise considering we have new halves and new combinations on the edges. Nor do I think it's fair to get into our attack when you have to base your attack on your defense and positioning.
But that defense (which does not excuse our halves) and interchanges are my real disappointment.
Team – 40 missed tackles, 26 ineffective.
Capewell – 28 made, 8 missed, 3 ineffective.
Metcalf – 19 made, 6 missed, 2 ineffective.
CHT – 22 made, 4 missed, 2 ineffective.
Marata – 21 made, 3 missed, 4 ineffective.
Everyone else was just averagely bad—missing at least 2 and making 1 or 2 ineffective.
On the inverse, the best defenders we had:
Egan – 49 made, 2 missed, 2 ineffective.
Barney – 37 made, 0 missed, 2 ineffective.
Halismia – 10 made, 0 missed, 0 ineffective.
When it came to interchanges...
Why did we only use 7 and not the full 8? Why carry Halismia and Vaimauga if you're only gonna interchange them at the end? Halismia for 26 mins and Vaimauga for 14 mins (although, for context, the Raiders had a very similar interchange to us). Personally, I see more out of Halismia over Capes or Marata, and I'd carry Healey in if you're only going to play Vaimauga for 14 mins, ffs.
If you're going to play Barney at lock, you could have used the interchange to keep one of our captains on the field for the whole game. But instead, we had 25 mins without either captain on the field, which is when they scored 3 out of their 5 tries against us.
