Taine should stay. I don’t feel like he got out played by his oppo.
RTS was rusty and died with the ball too many times. That edge isn’t cohesive yet. Metcalf cut back in half the time and the other RTS killed the play. What we didnt see was those guys taking the defence apart. They weren’t moving together.
Lussick isn’t the answer to any question. Put CHT there, push Walker to the middles and run 3 halves. We need the extra ball player with CNK out and Metcalf not up to speed.
Laban in for Ford. That allows time to blood the rookie and give Ford a message. Also allows you to make the reverse swap after a few games with the pressure off.
Im obviously not a fan of Metcalf other than he is an adequate back up player. I have watched him fairly closely as you have done for Reese Walsh. If anyone is expecting anything much more than what we saw tonight then it's going to be a long season for you. You will get the odd highlight reel play. That try he scored was a great try. But you can't ignore the rest of his game because those highlights are going to be few and far between and don't make up for the remaining chunk of play. You have RTS and Montoya outside him who looked sharp in the first trial with a half who has been out of the game for a season. What you saw last night is exactly what you saw last season with Pompey and Montoya and everyone was jumping on Pompey as the weak link. You only had to look at their body language to realise they were completely frustrated The reality is you have a guy with some speed who wants to be a half but has a very limited passing game and limited decision making. The trials he was caught on the 5th a few times or out of position when it mattered. Last night not aware enough for an RTS offload, caught on the last a few times (passing to AFB for the last tackle kick wtf?) and completely missing in that second half. If you talk about heart,
Reece Walsh at least wants to be involved with the game on the line and have ball in hand trying something, creating something. Go back and watch the last 20 minutes. He is completely static on most plays. I actually think he looks lost and the team either don't trust him or he doesn't want to be involved when the going gets tough. I would even say that the team either can't rely on him, don't trust him, possibly don't like playing with him or even could be all of the above - watch the last 20 with those things in mind. I don't think I'm wrong.
SJ was playing for a long period there with a rookie FB who I thought was actually pretty good, just needs to work more on those link plays (CNK took a while to get them too), a back up 9 and a 6 who was missing - and he still kept us in the game.
So, IMO, expect more of the same. Highlight plays every so often. We will beat weaker teams but RTS and Montoya are unlikely to look good on that edge and unlikely to get much good quality, quick ball that puts them in space to take advantage of RTS skills. And, as I said preseason, you will have posters asking if RTS was worth bringing back and why he doesn't look that good at centre. You actually don't have to look far for the answer.
I expect largely the same team to be named next week with the exception of injuries. But I'm expecting the left edge to look pretty much the same and us to be competitive if we have 3/4 of our spine playing. We are better with TMM or dare I say it CHT at 6. They aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination and will make errors too, but they would take us to 3.5/4 spine players and unlock that left edge.
That's all I've got to say about that.
(Is the hang up the phone the new mic drop?)
