I meant to write something about this a bit earlier however another glaring factor in our loss on Friday night was the lack of impact off the bench. At the ground the Cows certainly seemed fitter towards the back end of the game and we had a number of players hunched over constantly trying to get their 2nd wind.
A bench of Walker, Schuster, Keppie and Taupau based on 2021 form probably sounds ok however at least 3 of them are out of form and clearly not match fit. In the last 15 mins when Davey and Foran went off we really needed someone to make a quick fire 15 tackles to shore up the middle (I also thought Aloaia was benched prematurely twice when he seemed to be still hitting the line hard in attack and defence). I still believe that Paseka would add more punch in attack/defence then Taupau/ Keppie and either Ben T or Bullemore would have been more mobile and able to match up to a Cows team throwing the ball about. Our starting 13 matched the Cows but when we went to the bench it was noticeable the drop off in standard.
A bench of Walker, Schuster, Keppie and Taupau based on 2021 form probably sounds ok however at least 3 of them are out of form and clearly not match fit. In the last 15 mins when Davey and Foran went off we really needed someone to make a quick fire 15 tackles to shore up the middle (I also thought Aloaia was benched prematurely twice when he seemed to be still hitting the line hard in attack and defence). I still believe that Paseka would add more punch in attack/defence then Taupau/ Keppie and either Ben T or Bullemore would have been more mobile and able to match up to a Cows team throwing the ball about. Our starting 13 matched the Cows but when we went to the bench it was noticeable the drop off in standard.
