The defensive line is dynamic. The outside guys to react to what is in front of them. You cant jam if the inside guy doesnt do his(their) job. It means Pomm & stapo were sliding all night. Now we know Pomm is no super speedster & we know that Cooper & Morris are. Throw in Boyd running inside of Cooper & the slide defense cant cope. The halves needed to cut soward off & make him pass early or pass inside. This is the job of the halves. AS graham was on the other side, it leaves one guy.
Actually Reefy, whilst I agree there needs to be pressure on the opposition halves, I think you are unfairly placing that responsibility on Townsend when it should be the responsibility of players inside of him otherwise you are running the risk of Pom not following and then leaving a massive overlap or gapping hole for Boyd to hit at pace.
Pom's defence was atrocious last night and the blame can not be placed on Townsend. Most of the tries could have been prevented had Pommeroy actually tackled rather than shirt grab - and we know he can tackle and put on big hits.
The defence on that side definitely needs attention, but I think focusing solely on this as the problem from last night would be a really negative way to continue the season where we again focus on defending rather than winning - it's this mentality that lost us the game against Manly.
Our team has the ability to play pressuring football - we have the kicking game we've been missing, we have good go-forward, but we find ourselves playing out of our own end a whole lot. So some tactical changes need to be made:
Focus on Field Position
Discipline
We gave away some very soft penalties taking pressure off the Dragons when they should be fighting out of their own end. Our win against them in Round 2 came from great pressure without penalties - and so was the first 60 minutes of the Manly game. These are two of the top sides in the competition that we controlled where they had the ball - this is key. We don't let many long range tries in.
Handling
When we get behind, the players panic and start attempting to throw the miracle pass. Sometimes it will work, but the majority of times it won't. We need to play to the field position - coming out of our own end we should not try the miracle pass - but feel free when we are in their end as the penalty is minimal.
Now this isn't to get rid of offloads. If they can easily and safely get the ball away - then do it. But don't try the risky plays that rarely pull off.
I personally feel like the side started to believe their own hype. We were too much in the media drawing attention to ourselves whilst the Dragons sit back and concentrated on the game. I know we need publicity - but ultimately, we can't sacrifice our game for our name in the paper. We had four wins on the trot which was great and we were seeing some good football - but when you look at who we beat it isn't something to go off about!
