Defence

[Crushercleal]

Do you guys remember back in the '90s when our defence was so good that you barely even worried when we were defending on our line? I know we're not quite there yet, and it's still early days, but I'm beginning to get the same feeling this year. I was rarely worried when we were defending on our line against the Dogs. It was actually quite a strange feeling. I think we're only really susceptible against big, strong back rowers running wide of the ruck near our line (a la SBW although he was further out - not just saying this coz he scored, I've seen this in the past too) coz our backrowers/halves aren't very big, so it's hard to stop them right on the line when they have momentum. Full marks to Des and the coaching staff for getting our defence looking so good. It's a mindset, and we appear to have that.

 

[SilentBob]

Definitely a big turn around from those 50 point floggings that came around with every new moon, Des and his team have done well there.

 

[domdom]

i'm really happy with the way our defence looks as well. we're defending well on the line, and we do well to limit the opposition making meters.


fair point about big players charging at us from the ruck, though, if we had a weakness, that would be it.

suprised the dogs didnt try that one on a bit more.

 

[CliffyIsGod]

Most teams struggle against big fast wide running forwards when they are given a good ball.

 

[Crushercleal]

True Cliffy. I just know that Andrew Ryan has carved us up in the past when he has received short balls on our line. But we look like we can stop almost anything these days.

 

[fLIP]

Second phase plays are also a concern but the way things are panning out what I probably really mean is they are a bigger concern than anything else in our defense but not as bad in the bigger picture of everything being good... yeah.

Understand?

 

[Crushercleal]

Yeah, understood - I still think we can improve on wrapping up the opposition in the middle of the park and preventing offloads - that's the only time teams make yards on us (i guess that can be said of a lot of teams)

 

[DSM5]

Des had the answers against the dogs. The defense was fantastic. Always targetting their danger men in numbers. I think the SBW try came so soon after the break and we just didn't get our heads together quickly enough after half time. Our scrambling defense when they did offload was terrific.