I know the question was not asked of me, but please allow me to proffer my opinion.
I think Pou touched on it earlier - we are very disciplined side, and while it is nice to see in many ways, I think we should consider pushing the envelope more, and particularly when we start to give up fast play-the-balls, and start to have momentum wrestled away from us.
I think the coaching staff should tell the team that it is better to give away a 6-again, and slow the play, than to play by the rules, and give up 60 metres per set, where we are effectively on the back foot.
I am also of the belief that our defenders need to pay with more aggression; not in the sense that they need to look to smash merkins on every tackle, but in the sense that we need to get in the attacker's face, and meet them at, or before, the advantage line; I have noticed that we employ what I like to term a "reactive defence", whereby we move up 2 or 3 metres, and then wait for the attackers to come to us.
Granted, this style of defence is probably a safer way to defend (you are likely to have fewer gaps in the line, the line is more likely to remain straight, etc.) - however, I am of the belief that good teams attack with their defence; even when the good teams are starved of the ball, they can try to wrestle momentum back, by moving up aggressively, and forcing the attacking team to make split-second decisions under pressure.
Currently, our "reactive defence" allows our opposition to determine how the game is played, and I believe we need to change that.
I think our attack is generally fine, unless we are behind on the scoreboard by three, or more, tries.
Another tactic that I think should be explored is to encourage our edge forwards to complete tackles one-on-one, and to have the trailing defenders push out wider, to try to shut down attacking raids.
Currently, I believe that we employ the group/gang tackle tactic too frequently out wide, and combined with our "reactive defence", it can lead to situations where our defenders are on the back foot, running to shut a play down, and there is an overlap created.
I recall a tactic used to try to mitigate the damage that Sonny-Bill Williams could cause in his early days - the "umbrella defence" - whereby you would have one lead tackler try to stop SBW, and one defender on either side of the central defender, ready to stop a player from receiving an offload; if SBW did not pop the ball free, then the umbrella would close in on SBW, and effectively cut his time to make plays significantly.
I believe we have a solid enough roster to compete; we just need to be more proactive, and intelligent, in how we play.
Fire away!
