High pace, low errors for a large part of the match and I loved the very few stoppages thing. Edge defence was a showcase in structured response... nobody panicked and created an obvious opportunity for the opposition to exploit for a try (except that one time with O'Neill... but he had to be worst on park anyway). And the scramble defence was impressive too.. particularly the communication from recovering defenders and the trust in each guy to cover his man.
Mind you, it wasn't all good. There was some dirty play in there too. The incident that jumps out the most was that McGuire should've probably been sent to the bin... pretty clearly went for the head of a helpless opposition player (who perhaps only coincidentally was the best player on the park by a big margin at the time).
NSW played well, QLD played to their structures in defence ok but dropped off so many tackles (Napa, Smith & MorganNotLock in the middle particularly, and the edges just in general). QLD got crunched in their sets too as the game wore on. Forcing Oates to take the inital kick return was a great move - he's the least dangerous returner, and it takes him out of play for the next hit up .. and he's the best suited for that hit up. Gagai and Boyd ended up having to take a bunch of those runs instead.
Gould's commentary annoys the crap out of me though. "Why didn't he kick the short drop out to Oates?" - mate, that's a thought any casual fan could have... you're supposed to be an expert, how about instead of merely posing the simple question you try answering it? Like, 'Oates would be the better target - because he's bigger - but Smith is a left footed kicker so kicking it to the right hand side = better chance of a well weighted kick - which it was, just unlucky not to recover it... gotta get the kick right before any other concern...'
Mind you, it wasn't all good. There was some dirty play in there too. The incident that jumps out the most was that McGuire should've probably been sent to the bin... pretty clearly went for the head of a helpless opposition player (who perhaps only coincidentally was the best player on the park by a big margin at the time).
NSW played well, QLD played to their structures in defence ok but dropped off so many tackles (Napa, Smith & MorganNotLock in the middle particularly, and the edges just in general). QLD got crunched in their sets too as the game wore on. Forcing Oates to take the inital kick return was a great move - he's the least dangerous returner, and it takes him out of play for the next hit up .. and he's the best suited for that hit up. Gagai and Boyd ended up having to take a bunch of those runs instead.
Gould's commentary annoys the crap out of me though. "Why didn't he kick the short drop out to Oates?" - mate, that's a thought any casual fan could have... you're supposed to be an expert, how about instead of merely posing the simple question you try answering it? Like, 'Oates would be the better target - because he's bigger - but Smith is a left footed kicker so kicking it to the right hand side = better chance of a well weighted kick - which it was, just unlucky not to recover it... gotta get the kick right before any other concern...'
