I'll say it again ... if Eric didn;t play last night it would have been far uglier.
If our forwards put in the effort in attack he does we would have won by 20 points.
There are issues down that wing, but I honestly believe that they are stemming even further inside Ben.
It seems that a two pass shift from mid field gives the opposition an automatic overlap. Finch and whoever defends next to him, sometimes Wagon, sometimes Tim, sometimes Cayless, at times Hindy, are way too far apart.
I read somewhere on another thread someone bagging Grothe for being infield on the kick try.
If he had stayed on his wing - the gap between him and Smith would seriously have been 20 metres? Could he really be expected to do that?
And yes he dropped one high ball under a contested bomb - anyone can do that and it didn't lead to a try.
But at least he wasn't dropping cold possession early in tackles like some of his mates.
Eric is essential to this team. Maybe if that defensive line needs tweaking (which it does) he could be moved to the bench and come on for impact, but without his go forward we are seriously stuffed. Personally I think whoever you stick outside those infield defenders will struggle. Ben Smith does and most of us agree that he is one of the best tacklers in the game.
