USARugger
John Thornett (49)
Rebuilding isn't an excuse for making basic mistakes like our players regularly do, under pressure or not.
It's a good argument if we were failing because of losing structure on 4th/5th phase, or set moves not coming off, etc - but we're regularly dropping the ball dead on 2nd/3rd phase, seem to have little structure beyond 1st most of the time, but somehow are managing 1st phase strike moves that break the line.
That screams coaching issues to me, or our players just aren't good enough to handle anything other than the set piece moves that they seem to be very drilled on.
It's not an excuse for the poor tackling form we've seen either. Defensive structural issues, sure (and we've got plenty of those) - but players tackling with hands and attacking the head of the defender shouldn't have anything to do with what phase of building towards the finals a team is in. It's a basic skill set that nearly every Super Rugby player should already have down long before they're in the squad.
It's either the coaching or our players just aren't up to it because they either A) never will be or B) are being debuted with far too little experience in any type of competition that actually prepares them for Super.
For me the losses aren't important, it's why we're losing and everything that's happening between that whistles that concerns me.
Pro 12 has some of the most mediocre professional teams on the planet running around in it, I would never want to use that as a measuring stick for our ability.
It's a good argument if we were failing because of losing structure on 4th/5th phase, or set moves not coming off, etc - but we're regularly dropping the ball dead on 2nd/3rd phase, seem to have little structure beyond 1st most of the time, but somehow are managing 1st phase strike moves that break the line.
That screams coaching issues to me, or our players just aren't good enough to handle anything other than the set piece moves that they seem to be very drilled on.
It's not an excuse for the poor tackling form we've seen either. Defensive structural issues, sure (and we've got plenty of those) - but players tackling with hands and attacking the head of the defender shouldn't have anything to do with what phase of building towards the finals a team is in. It's a basic skill set that nearly every Super Rugby player should already have down long before they're in the squad.
It's either the coaching or our players just aren't up to it because they either A) never will be or B) are being debuted with far too little experience in any type of competition that actually prepares them for Super.
For me the losses aren't important, it's why we're losing and everything that's happening between that whistles that concerns me.
Pro 12 has some of the most mediocre professional teams on the planet running around in it, I would never want to use that as a measuring stick for our ability.
