Some brief thoughts on the game while I sit around at the station:
Wenty actually played alright in the first 20 and last 20 minutes. These periods corresponded with the times that Alvaro and Lasalo were on and we weren't simply getting hammered up the middle.
Joseph Paulo has a shocker. Don't fret Poups, I am not going to scapegoat him for the loss but he did not play a game that warranted a first grade recall. Easily had 3 or 4 errors to his name and it was all round pretty disappointing given the quality effort he had last week.
Cody Nelson had a real go. Not a flash player by any yard stick but plugged away in attack and defence all game.
Matterson had one of his worst defensive efforts today, getting brushed off twice but was otherwise pretty good I think. Still a bit hesitant to fully pull the trigger when he runs to the line but he got through quite a bit of support work, threw some very good balls out to his left (Folau bombing a certain try from one) and was really sound with his attacking kicks. Bombs dropped short of the goal line and grubbers either had to be taken spectacularly by a forward or otherwise found the in goals. Still a work in progress but he is stringing together more consistent efforts.
French was very good versus the kick. On point all game and did his share of return work. Not sure if Wenty have figured out decent attacking structures for him though. Both Henry and Matterson seemed to prefer to play at the line instead of using him throughout the game. Produced a nice try assist at the end when he jumped out of dummy half and worked across the goal line.
Outside backs didn't have too much input positively on the game. Folau bombed a try and also had a very silly double movement attempt. Crooks and Faraimo looked pretty brittle together on the right. Crooks had some nice runs out wide while Faraimo did some grunt work up the middle but on the whole that edge got carved up pretty badly. Goodall was probably the best of the backs having a good balance between ruck work and metres on the edge. Also came up with two near perfect kicks that produced repeat sets. Both he and Folau had a bad miss on the goal line when they were scrambling after a Gardner line break.
Oh and the refs continue to be abysmal at all grades. What else is new...
