Sale Game Thread

[Tervueren]

Just came to the forum and had the pop up advert "We'll get rid of wasps for you".  I feel sad that my first thought was "no need, they are going to die out by the winter" (no pun intended).
I can think of lots of contributory reasons, new partnerships bedding in etc. But ultimately there is a lack of maturity and composure that with a Shaun Edwards type waiting in the dressing room I doubt any one would dare to let continue.
If each player does their job properly then improvements will result,  maybe not immediately but they are good enough individuals for it to happen. At the moment it is as if players have no faith in a system,  or no system, so they go off piste and headless and we have seen too much of that in the last 18 months. They stand around in a flap waiting for a whistle that is not coming and the other team keep playing, or go on one man offside missions. As for the comedy text about the technology in the new kit making in almost impossible to drop the ball (paraphrased) well...
Whether with Dai or without the coaching needs an upgrade because all the problems are recognised but no one seems to be able to sort it.
I don't belive we have worse players than Saints, and they were a basket case 2 years back, but they made changes (and brought through young players)  and now look, a pretty good team.
Not seen last night's match yet, only had radio, flying home to watch it now. I think it will be depressing.
IMO we have enough good players to be a lot better,  but first need to stop being a shambles.

[Hymenoptera]

Defence is being mentioned a lot here but although we shipped a lot of penalties last night we conceded one try away from home which came from an interception. That certainly doesn't mean the defence is perfect at all and there is a lot of scramble defence but I just felt like trying to find something positive to say!

Because we gave such a ridiculous amount of penalties away it actually stopped Sale from scoring more trys. Unfortunately I still saw a lot of holes in our defence. We should of had a couple of yellow cards, especially cruise who went straight into the side of the maul

Hang on...to be fair they didnt string anything together, the only time they made ground was due to a missed one on one tackle, I suggest you rewatch the game. Intercept aside, they produced nothing. Sale didn't win that game, we handed it to them, lets get that right.
Decision making and penalties lost us a winnable game...similar to Irish.
Im frustrated too, i'll take a loss with a performance and that wasn't a performance, but I won't try to read more into it than there is. A couple of sub par performance by players in key positions cost us. I think we really missed Gaskell last night.

[westwaleswasp]

Thanks BG for the scrum analysis.

[welsh wasp]

We need to be careful when we single out players for very negative comments. One person says the unnamed JTA was useless. Lo & behold, another says it was Harris who was at fault. They do have numbers on their back!
Re JTA, unlikely that he is too tall to be a prop. He survived very well in the Super League and has, I think, a couple of NZ caps.

[Chunky24]

It's more difficult for a tall TH since the controlled engage was introduced, it negates a lot of their previous advantage during the engage and allows the LH to almost be in the position under them from the start.

[WickedWasp]

Negatives for me were JTA at scrumtime and obviously the amount of penalties given away. The game at ruck time had descended into chaos thanks to some bizarre calls for both teams by the ref.
But I did think Sopps showed up better with some nice touches. Vailanu seems to be getting better as the weeks go on. I actually think for the most part we are showing some much better signs than last year. Defense is solid more frequently but still has the odd brain fart often after a silly turnover from maybe a spilled ball that's then spread wide. But think we defend in the tight a lot better and our set piece is more of a weapon.
Overall I just think penalties and some of the silly play shows how low on confidence or desperate the players are and forcing things. I dont think we are as worse off as last season. Be nice to have more impact from the bench but I think that might come with time if not just for some players returning from injury.

[BG]

I'm don't know if JTA is a poor scrummager but he's already said that he's planning on putting on more weight as he's realised the game is different to what he's been used to in NZ.

The offy says he's 6ft 4" and 19st 10.. I know this sounds ridiculous but I'd expect him to be heavier given his height and the position he plays.

There's probably a good reason why props aren't 6ft 4 though.

Interestingly, having checked JTA's bio, I've noticed there's no photo against Launcher's bio?

[Rifleman Harris]

...
Interestingly, having checked JTA's bio, I've noticed there's no photo against Launcher's bio?

Because as someone has pointed out a couple of times he is leaving?  Or maybe he was away with England when the photos were done?


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[BG]

...
Interestingly, having checked JTA's bio, I've noticed there's no photo against Launcher's bio?

Because as someone has pointed out a couple of times he is leaving?  Or maybe he was away with England when the photos were done?


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Ah.. it must be the latter as there isn't one for Minozzi either

[Rifleman Harris]

That would be my guess, but I'm sure the other interpretation is our there somewhere too!

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[Vespula Vulgaris]

I'm don't know if JTA is a poor scrummager but he's already said that he's planning on putting on more weight as he's realised the game is different to what he's been used to in NZ.

The offy says he's 6ft 4" and 19st 10.. I know this sounds ridiculous but I'd expect him to be heavier given his height and the position he plays.

There's probably a good reason why props aren't 6ft 4 though.

Interestingly, having checked JTA's bio, I've noticed there's no photo against Launcher's bio?

Sheridan was 6'4", admittedly LH not TH, but still very tall for a prop and he was pretty good.

[Rossm]

I'm don't know if JTA is a poor scrummager but he's already said that he's planning on putting on more weight as he's realised the game is different to what he's been used to in NZ.

The offy says he's 6ft 4" and 19st 10.. I know this sounds ridiculous but I'd expect him to be heavier given his height and the position he plays.

There's probably a good reason why props aren't 6ft 4 though.

Interestingly, having checked JTA's bio, I've noticed there's no photo against Launcher's bio?

Sheridan was 6'4", admittedly LH not TH, but still very tall for a prop and he was pretty good.

Actually, as an ex front row, I thought Sheridan was a paper tiger and flattered to deceive. Never thought anything of him.

[BG]

I was going to mention Andrew Sheridan (I'll never forget his destruction of the Oz frontrow) but as you say he was a loosehead.. the only other prop I can think of is Carl Hayman.. but back then, as someone else has pointed out, you could smash into your opposition and keep pushing to get momentum and then the ball was put in..

Note the commentary at 2 mins 45.. he mentions what the 2 opposites props are trying to do and how Sheridans height effects things. The problem for the Ozzie props was that Sheridan was a freak of nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tvsYSdEHQc

[AndyL]

Hi been lurking a while, used to post on the DW site but here seems more chilled out. After watching the game and now hearing of how Nathan Hughes performed today how many others feel we are missing a big ball carrier to suck up defenders and give us some go forward.

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[Neils]

Is that a wind up?