Here we go!!!
Freddy needs to go. Why would you pick gutho if you’re not going to play him
Valentine Holmes was wonderful in the first two games, but an absolute waste in the third game.
I hope he doesn’t play next year.
I think he needs to be there, he can be so amazing - but god damn his defence can be abysmal. It’s funny because his covering defence is elite tier, almost best in the comp. The number of times he makes a last ditch tackle or cleans up a kick that was almost certain to be a try is insane, but when he’s set and in the defensive line he can be a turnstyle.
He made 33 tackles over the series which basically makes him the worst defender of the entire team (excluding interchange players and Taulagi who somehow got away with almost zero tackles - presumably the blues just never ran at him).
My boy Ruben managed 120 tackles. Wow.
Really damning though Holmes had 14 missed tackles. He somehow managed the least completed tackles and the most missed tackles. Ruben missed 6 tackles.
We lost Game 3 on defence, and he was the worst defender. I stand my hope that he doesn’t come back next year.
Good lord, those are horrendous stats.
Who would replace him though? Unfortunately our centre stocks aren’t overly high.
Hopefully Queensland take the free lesson for next year.
Yeh good point. Glad we got toweled up in a dead rubber and not a live game.
Slater royally fucked up the bench rotation this game. Tino only had 28 mins up until about the 65th minute when he returned with us 14 points down.
Fifita, our most dangerous forward and one of the biggest weapons in the team, only had 22 mins up until he came back on with about 8 to go.
Carrigan was missing for most of the game defining minutes, only got 57 thanks to a late stint when it was over.
Slater needs to fix that. Players like cotter and nanai getting 80 while those other players ride the bench is a joke.
Harry Grant needs a rocket up his arse. He was dreadful apart from an attacking flourish here and there. Munster got almost no ball, same with Hammer.
Oh well, as you say hopefully it’s a lesson learned. We really need to improve after only barely scraping a series win that in all reality we shouldn’t have after that game 1 miracle.