How does Ayshford escape criticism? He played well in the finals last season, but hasn`t had one good game this season. He`s far too slow to be a centre, he seems to run the ball ok when moved into the second row, but his arm grabbing defence is a big concern wherever he plays.
Not a bad bench player as he is versatile, but a very ordinary starting player i`m afraid.
He`s not alone, the whole backline 1-5 is very very ordinary without Tuquiri and Lawrence.
The good news is that the forwards showed they can hurt the Dragons by playing agressively. Woods was good, Fifita a massive improvement he `s too big strong & fast for most defenders when he decides to run straight and hard, Dwyer very good and for mine Heighington was the best player on the field. Murdoch-Masila very good and a nice little cameo from young Matt Groat.
The Dragons genuinely fear Benji, if we had some genuine speed out wide he would have created 3 or 4 more tries today, second best player on the field behind Heighington.