Controlling possession and having the little guys continually darting around the ruck at the big guys isn't a bad tactic when they're a man down. And the fact is, it worked a treat in the second half.
I think that without Andrew John's on the field, suddenly telling the guys to throw it around just because the other team were down a player could have come unstuck big time.
Plus the boys seemed to cotton on to the Dogs lacking a bit around the ruck, Kidley in particular ran from dummy half with great effect late in the game. I think they pushed it for what it was worth and did well with the little guys.
On Sonny Bill, no way he went out to hit Johns like that. I can't imagine the idea of roughing Johns up a bit about wasn't talked about, because all teams seem to target the big players in the opposition. Sonny's first game at EAS, against Johns in the first game, he was always going to be strong like that and it's a shame we didn't get to see more of him IMO. I haven't seen the tackle though, so I won't comment on whether the sendoff was deserved. But it doesn't look good, unless he was falling into it - guy knocked unconscious, stretchered off and taken to hospital with concussion. At the very least I can't imagine he was hit anywhere other than the head, so that's a start.
So yeah, from what I saw it was a good effort from a weakened team against weakened opposition. Neither side was destroyed by the missing players, so it remained a fair enough contest. It's always hard to judge a game though where points are scored quick and without response because it means momentum played a big part and the circumstances were perhaps a bit skewed. Made it exciting though.
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