I reckon Pearce is quicker than GI over long distances regardless of injury. GIs speed is greatly exaggerated because he's so spectacular in full flight. Mitch on the other hand has an excellent sprinters technique.
Even so, the notion that you "win that game" had you scored and made it 8-6 with a conversion to come at the 30 minute mark is quite ridiculous.
Yes , as ridiculous as
If the ball does not bounce off the post into path of Rooster , Souths would have won
or
If the referee would have called a knock on on Pearce , Souths would have won
or
If the referee would have been consistent and NOT sinbinned Auva , we would have won.
Pearce dropped the ball COLD . The Roosters , also were penalised near the line for trying to slow down the play the ball . Consistency would have had a Rooster player sinbinned as well.
Anyway , Roosters got all the rub of the green and just held off Souths at the end. I like the way some Roosters fan dismiss the last 15 minutes as Roosters easing off and conveniently ignore the huge advantage from the sin bin.
Souths lost , however at the end , it was a SWEET loss with plenty of promise for the next game.Bring it on , hope it is next week.