There's an old trick that goes something like this:
"A Grandfather is out with his Grandson one day, when he decides to play a game. 'I bet you $2 I can jump higher than this house' he proclaims. His Grandson, obviously baffled by the idea of his Grandfather accomplishing such a superhuman feat, gladly accepts. The Grandfather bends his tired and arthritic knees, summons all the might left in is old and disheveled body, and leaps mere millimeters into the air. The son beams brightly. 'I knew you couldn't do it! You owe me two dollars!'. The Grandfather cracks a grin, and shakes his head. 'No, you owe me two dollars. The house didn't jump at all!'"
It saddens me to think that Mansour and Idris will never be able to perform this trick.
I am being a tad facetious, but I think it demonstrates an increasing point of concern with our backs: Soward's kicking game is neutralised with the backline we're fielding, with the exception of Simmons, and that is one of his best attributes. Nabuli needs to be considered.
We also ran almost 200m further than they did, but failed to score points - we must be the only team that tires itself out in attack. Ivan needs to look at sacrificing meters in exchange for points. I don't think that Mansour and Idris are playing the role that backs should ideally be playing. And though some of those meters can be attributed to line breaks, that only shows that we lack the pace to capitalise on broken play.
As for the rest:
Whare was brilliant as always.
Wallace and Soward played well as individuals, but our backline itself doesn't look sharp or organised enough.
Moylan played well, apart from the obvious f**k-up-deluxe.
Kingston really needs to go. Segeyaro (despite his errors) and Peachy look so much more electric, and we cannot carry all three of them (and I'd really rather have them both on the field at the same time as little as possible).
If Taylor is even the slightest bit injured, I would like to see Robinson next week given Cleary has confidence enough in him to place him as 18th man. It's time.
By now I had expected us to gel, but we still look unstable and it's increasingly disheartening as the weeks roll by. When you fail to score points, you take the psychological battle out of the game, and that's something I think we're struggling to acknowledge.
