A lot of interesting views about depth popping, most of which I agree with. Some about tactics, that I am not sure about.
Has joe built a belief, trust and desire to want to play and win. yes. and we have not had that consistently for a very very long time.
Is this a great team at this time. No, its a young team finding its way. Are we missing things. Yep. We need much more from our pack. We need fast recycle so we are not always playing first phase footy.
Do I like the defensive structure of giving up 30 to allow the numbering to come. Yes and no. yes in that it has limited the line breaks, no, in that it means we are always coming back out of our own 22. Would I like us to be more assertive. yes.
Tactically, its pretty clear. We want to play in their half. Hence the box kicking and clearing kicking. No 10 finds the length that gordon does, that is why gorden is there. If its wet we keep it tight and narrow, We can counter if its in their half.
So the key question is not the tactics, but the implementation. How do we stay in their half. We put them on their bums and contest the ball. We hit the line in motion not in pods. We need to recycle much faster.
That gives us the time and space we need to see the game we want and have seen glimpses of.
Italy, is by no means a foregone conclusion. It Will be tight unless we get away early.
