Tasman v Northland
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@Nath-Jac yeah and the injury ward this season seems unprecedented, we have been without half a dozen starters pretty much all year and upto 9 at other times...I expect maybe gameplans havent been suitably adjusted to allow for the rookie players whose experience/ability isnt upto expectations.
Losing half a team of your best players would kill any team at this level, bar probably Ta$man.
Thats not to say I still think we should have been better, but losing erodes confidence...
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@taniwharugby agree, all sides have injuries. I don’t think we have had injuries in the midfield. So yes while we have more than our share this year, we have not been up to standard even allowing for this.
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The problem is that not only is it a long injury list but it is of our best players. Of our main players, probably only Jack Debreczeni is the only one who hasn't missed a game or gone off early with injury.
Olsen, Goodhue, Robinson, Matich, Jacobson, Nock, Ranger, Hyland, Gregory, Tua are probably all 1st choice starters. Then add in Matiu who didn't start as first string but has probably been our best player and it makes for sorry reading. 2/3 of our first choice starting XV have missed most of the season.
I would be hesitant to blame the coaches too much. I think the forwards have mostly performed well, set piece has been very good considering the injury list. The backs have been poor but I would put most of that down to the midfield. They offer nothing in attack and regularly out of position or falling off tackles in defence. We have relied too much on individual play from guys like Hyland and Gregory and even then, if we had a decent midfield we would probably have more space for them too. The coaches need to take some responsibility for persisting with Johnson and Hohaia instead of moving Gregory back into midfield.
On the Brightside - a lot of players have been blooded creating depth for next season.
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@Chiefy07 said in Ta$man v Northland:
Jack Debreczeni
The irony there is he seemed to be made of glass in Super rugby haha!
Yeah I mentioned the players we are missing above being a factor, and maybe the expectation has been the newbies will be able to execute plans they had when they were anticipating our 'best' players would have been available.
I think the coaches need to take some of the heat, they provide the gameplans, conditioning (coaching group) culture etc...seems there is a bit wrong at present.
