RugbyRebels

I have been struggling to understand what the plan has been for years and I am not sure to be honest if the team do at times either.

For many years the Aussies had the hex on us nipping the win at the end . This was not their first team , and that is the biggest smack , they showed more fight than many of our players.
A lot of credit has to go to the Aussie players, they never quit, and their subs looked a better option than the starters.

As to Pivac , ship has weighed anchor and is off into the sunset . Many of the candidates look good , but as many said at the time taking over from Gatland and Edwards was always going to be a hard reality , but Gatland returning on his own would be an unrealistic option, there are core issues that need addressing.
I do like the option of Wayne Smith and a couple of others also parachuted in to work as a group, keeping Gethin and Jinky.

My caveat is , we have changed coaches in a knee jerk , and it hasn't gone well but maybe there are some good ones that someone could correct me.

Cuthbert had good regional form last season and a good game against England. But zero game time this season on the back of that should have meant no squad selection for him (not his fault, just a comparison between him and other available wingers). McNichol would have been a better option from capped players and Giles, Conbeer, O'Brien would have been better uncapped options.

But Cuthbert was just the most obvious personnel mistake. There have been poor team choices and poor substitution timings.

The slow second half failure of Georgia and the catastrophic collapse against Australia are hard to understand. The fragility is very worrying. We seem to fall to bits when we go down a player. Our defense should not be so brittle.

Dai Young and the boys managed to put a smile back on my face. He admitted they got lucky, but I'll take it. I expect the WRU to make a move next week. Any delay will just make us weaker.

Son of Mathonwy wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:20 pm Cuthbert had good regional form last season and a good game against England. But zero game time this season on the back of that should have meant no squad selection for him (not his fault, just a comparison between him and other available wingers). McNichol would have been a better option from capped players and Giles, Conbeer, O'Brien would have been better uncapped options.

The odds were stacked against Cuthbert. For him to work as a selection two things must happen:

1 Cuthbert makes a mazey, tackle breaking run.

and

2 Support is on Cuthbert's shoulder when he is finally brought to ground.

Even when Cuthbert delivered 1, the rest of the team failed to deliver 2. The usual result is Cuthbert hanging onto the ball on the ground and being penalised.

I did think it was worth an experiment with him, it has not worked. I admit I did not foresee how bad the lack of game time problems would be with a number of players.

In the past we won games owing to mental strength and team spirit. Now we lose games for those reasons. There is an overall lack of discipline and organisation. We also look as if we are not as fit as we should be. It is difficult to avoid concluding this is a management issue.

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