Thought all the forwards were absolutely great. Oghre’s control at the maul is getting really impressive. Alo and West dominant at the scrum. The stand out for me though is Shields. Does so much “stuff”. Stooke - prem signing of the season?
Agree with all that. I did think when we could put out West and Alo, that we'd be a handful at scrum time and Stooke is not only a great signing - he's taking responsibility and leading as well. Up front we are, with the Sarries TH, pretty much there. Just need game time.
In the backs - we're too often looking like we met in the car park....But then there's the first hour at LI last week....Pass....
The officiating was a little bizarre today - but, we did get a good officiating of the breakdown, maul and scrum.....the bits I usually complain about. We didn't adapt to the breakdown officiating as quickly as we might have - but improved all the time. We deserved the win, on the balance of play and if Dan is having a 'mare, we need to accept that earlier! The game management was poor. Spink and Bassett were excellent regardless and I think the experiment with the full back should end. Jacob is a better choice and provides a third 5/8th....Charlie was too anon, not sure it's a good combination with Jimmy at 12, but last week......they played really well together.
Too many brainless 5% passes, when going to ground and recycling is fine. We could have had that game, much more in the bag with a bit more game/play management. Still don't understand why we went for the lineouts even when they swapped props - we had to come away with points at the end of the first half. And if it's really not going to hand, it's better to keep possession than play for a miracle.