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I bellieve that we have already blooded enough youngsters for one season. Some of those promotions have been forced........some not.
But unless it is a forced change through injury, I really don't think we should be blooding any more youngsters just for the sake of seeing how they might go compared to those already in the side.
And I really can't see what positives could come from trying to change Gower back into a hooker at this late stage of his career. With both Priddis and Aiton we have enough talent for that spot at this stage.
In the next few weeks we will have enough problems covering injuries and possible judiciary changes, without making positional changes to the regular players who are still fit on top of that.
Our main problems have been dropping the ball WAY too much, giving away penalties, soft tries from missed tackles, and a poor kicking game.
I think Gower's game today, both in leading the team around and in kicking was much better than in previous weeks, and I believe that he and Wallace worked much better together today.
I also believe that all the guys gave much more today in effort, enthusiasm, and playing for the full 80 minutes.
But what killed the game for us today......and I don't believe it was the injuries.......was them still dropping the ball at crucial times (on a dry field, with a dry ball no less), and some bad passes at crucial times, with the odd crucial missed tackles that led directly to tries.
These are team faults, not those of individual players. They have been taking turns to make these mistakes, it is not the domain of only one or two particular players.
I say at this stage they should only make changes that are absolutely necessary, (especially while there is so much injury), and concentrate most of their training efforts on practising the art of holding onto the ball.
They keep dropping the ball on so many sets (quite often in perfect field position for the opposition), and they will not will football games. Hang onto the ball, especially when in their own half of the field, and they will have much more opportunities to rack up the wins.
I hope that they will soon find that magical knack to holding onto the ball (practise makes perfect maybe), and then we can watch them start putting a few wins together. Even if they can't make the eight, I would simply be happy with them competing (while hanging onto the ball TIGHTLY) and sticking it to the opposition for the full 80 as they did today.
Fingers crossed. There is always hope.....not always for great results......but at least for 100% effort and commitment.
I know there are others who will probably disagree with me completely, and that's ok with me too.
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