The thrust was better for a period in the second half when they stopped the short passes
Round Five: Waratahs vs Chiefs Friday 7:30 pm
- Thread starter Hawko
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A mutterer
Chilla Wilson (44)
Might be time to move away from the current game plan? It's clearly not working this year.
KOB1987
Rod McCall (65)
It needs some tinkering but we aren't too far off the pace, as always execution is our main downfall. The Rebels showed last night that they aren't easybeats, and our other losses are to the top 3 teams in the competition. I use the For & Against to rank the teams rather than the competition points - it tends to be a reasonably good predictor of the final rankings and a great predictor of the actual results of playoff games. By this measure the Tahs are actually ranked 7th, and the best of the 'negatives' with -11, with a game to play today of course,
Drew
Bob Davidson (42)
What do you think we did differently in that period? I haven’t watched the replay yet, but It seemed Pietsch and Marky Mark (Nawaqanitawase) went looking for the ball a bit more in the second half. I personally don't mind the short passes between the forwards at the line. It makes the defense shift their focus and gives us someone there for the clean out and hopefully quick ball. We just seemed to lack a solid ball runner in the forwards like Gleason, Bell or Vailanu/Latu who can bend the line and put us on the front foot off of that (hopefully) quick ball.
It was tuck the ball and get over/through the ad line, it worked, we then got down the to the goal and tried our short passing and dropped the ball (Lambert I think)
In theory it can work, but when pigs are blowing after 3 or four phases as the structure breaks down it is recipe for a knock on more often than some dynamic break out
Drew
Bob Davidson (42)
I get that. I think Lamberts drop was off a break in broken play. Which isn’t really the situation I see it useful, unless he was expecting the ball and running onto it at a million miles an hour. It would’ve been better to dummy to lambert and swing it to Walton, Perese, etc with space, time and a retreating defence. It also failed when they tried an inside ball and the clean out wasn’t present. I think early in the phase count with stagnant ball/set defence if the prop pops a short pass to a fellow pig, with another outside him, you have a runner and clean out to establish forward movement of the ball. Later in the phase count you’d hope we aren’t having to revert to the same tactic as we should have momentum and a less set defensive line to attack.
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The Ghost of Raelene
Andrew Slack (58)
I really don’t think they are far off with a game plan. There is a clear stumbling block between the Forwards 9-10 Backline.
I’d be confident saying if Ryan Lonergan put his distributor skills into this Tahs team they would look different.
There are other issues like Perese not being as impactful as last year as well but they aren’t getting clean opportunities
I’d be confident saying if Ryan Lonergan put his distributor skills into this Tahs team they would look different.
There are other issues like Perese not being as impactful as last year as well but they aren’t getting clean opportunities
Drew
Bob Davidson (42)
Agree. You could say the same if Carter Gordon was at 10, at the Rebels he’s attacking the line a lot more than our 10s have, seems a bigger threat with ball in hand. Perese (and Walton this week) have looked off the pace, which is understandable coming off injuries. Our 10s have been shoveling the ball on too much, which doesn’t engage the defense and lets it slide out to nullify the threat of players like Perese.
A mutterer
Chilla Wilson (44)
the rebels have been underestimated by a couple of teams now.
the teams that are winning are playing more off the 10 of late, including internationally. we definitely are not.
the poor pass catch, along with the predictable out the back, arent gonna win us matches. the d this weekend will, if our attack is less poor
Tahs "width" is a crash ball inside or outside the 10