Said it last night, Fisher has to go. Schmidt, Cron are doing a great job. But the defensive system is just ridiculous, if a team has enough go forward they just walk through us because we are willingly going backwards. No modern team defends like we do.
I agree with you.
However I am also willing to play devils advocate here as Fisher is obviously a very experienced coach with a very good reputation in Australian rugby. So I think it’s worth trying to understand his staunch position.
Firstly while I know that the pattern gives up easy yards so it apparently cedes physical dominance - that is part of the point, right. Bend, but don’t break. My impression is that on our line we have been pretty good. Even last night both their first and last tries have contentious parts to them. Rush defence tends to give up more missed tackles. Is our defence system in of itself the issue or is it the bigger problem that both the first half of last week and the second half of this week that, in attack, we handed back too much ball too easily to the opposition so we had to defend far too much.
Also, I think the defence really relies on very good decision making by your outside backs. Unfortunately at the moment Sua’ali’i is getting lost and this also seems to be transferring a lot of pressure to Ikitau. Are we getting exposed because a couple of the players are getting their roles wrong?
Like I said, I actually agree with your criticism and, sadly, if Fisher isn’t prepared to adapt maybe he does need to go. But just trying to consider what the counter points are.
