A few very quick reflections on that game.
We looked very flat. Maloney and Cleary were definitely down on energy. I don’t know if that rubbed off onto the rest of the team, but everyone else looked pretty flat too. Our line speed wasn’t as good as it had been the rest of the season and our defence was nothing like it has been previously, and no one was pushing up in support.
What was particularly telling was that on quite a few occasions Cleary or Maloney threw a pass and there was no one running onto it and it bounced on the ground with everyone looking at it. That’s what happened when Peachey had the ball stripped - and by the time he got the ball a defender was in his face.
We are lucky that Peachey only played a few minutes in Origin and wasn’t down on energy. We weren’t looking like scoring any points late in the second half until he sparked things for us.
Tamou had a very good game for mine, we lifted in the forwards when he came on. Merrin was good too, except for his error. I thought Chricton was strong after the Raiders try.
CHN looks like he is carrying a leg injury. When he got the ball in space in the lead up to the Whare try, his gait wasn’t normal and he couldn’t reach a very high top speed.
Kikau is a huge loss. I hope it is only a minor injury and he misses only a few weeks. He seems to have had a problem with one of his knees all year (up until a few weeks ago it was always strapped). Missing him over the Origin period is particularly bad for us. You’d have to think he will also miss playing for Fiji in the Pacific Test, and will be devasted about that. He came back a much better player from the World Cup, so it is a real shame he probably won’t get to play for Fiji.
Our short kicking game is still very bad. Maloney seems to be the only one who can realisbly earn us a repeat set.
Perenara was the usual lottery in terms of decisions. I thought after he binned Ellis there was definitely going to get a binning of a Raiders player in the second half to even it up but it never happened.
