It sounds like you want Robson kept but for what? He hasnt set up any tries, he's let IN tries and 99% of his errors has resulted in tries for the opposition. That is an absolutely poor performance review but an accurate one.
Robson has played OK in the last game and the game 2 weeks ago but do we want OK? No, cos Lolohea can do OK, Lino can do OK etc.. we need more than OK.
Defensive efforts and passing is Robsons strength so far. I say 'defensive efforts' to credit him for trying and that's what everyone see as the good in him, he's trying. However he's still the target for opposition attack which is the case with most halves but he's getting hit hard and he just looks silly in the end (e.g. Darius Boyds try). His other strength is his passing NOT organising just plain old passing and that's shocking cos that's a given for any half but it's the ONLY other credit I can give him.
Lolohea can do what Robson has done and more. I have no doubt and it's easy for me to say this cos when I look at what Robsons done, it's really not much to topple. Robson lets in tries so Tuis just gotta let in none. Robson drops the ball from PIVOT POSITION, Tuis can't drop the ball from pivot etc etc..
When Anthony Milford went into the halves people open their mouths way too soon and now look.
Tuis time. Why Robson?
I'm not a massive Robson fan. I'll put up my hand and say I was happy with the signing, however. I'm prepared to give guys 3-4-5 rounds to adjust to a new side and environment, and after a pretty poor start I thought he was starting to get a lot better.
Let's make no bones about it, Robson has partly been dropped because of SJ's poor form. The signing was made for Robson to compliment SJ, to do the solid things well while Shaun played off the cuff, took it to the line and did things he does regularly for the Kiwis. I won't defend the fact that Robson has been skinned on his outside shoulder a couple of times and dropped some pill. But he has set up tries (two v Knights)
What did you expect from Robson? OK from one of your halves is absolutely fine if the other one is doing his job, and so is the pack. But he's surrounded by under-performers, so he wears the responsibility by being dropped.
Tui is a precociously talented player. But while he can do a lot of things Robson can't, he can't (yet) play direct, he can't really direct play and take pressure off SJ - things that Robson was signed for and things TL has done in the past.
If you want to use the Milford analogy, do you think Milford would be where he is today in our side? In our structure? With our coach and not his? I have no doubt Tui could go to the Broncos and become a star halve, next to Hunt who is solid as hell. He's not there.
I believe an inexperienced Tui, with a well below par SJ next to him, is not a good fit at the moment. We're already not playing direct. We're already unstructured. We're already going across field. Tui might be good for 1-2 of those freakish tries he scored v the Cows last year, but I don't see how his style and Shaun's will mesh at all at the moment. In a side that was performing like our 2011 one, no problem.
