Unfortunately Jake has to double down on tackling when Fainu comes on, as Fanui is lazy as in D.
That was certainly the case last night. Fainu was lazy when he was on and for those 30 or so minutes, Jake had to be just about everywhere in the middle to cover for it.
Last night we fell into the trap of trying to play catch up football, in the second half especially. And when teams do that, they forget about the platform in the middle set by the props and lock and are always trying to throw the ball wide hoping for a miracle play. Jake last night was as guilty as anyone of trying to get the ball wide on early tackles. This year, to me, he's been a lot better when he runs first, passes second.
It seems that his defence will always be there, but he should remember that even though he's playing lock, essentially he's the 3rd starting prop. He does have the ball skills, but he's a prop, not the older style lock-5/8 like a Nik Kosef or Glenn Stewart were. If he's going to pass the ball I'd rather he'd do it with an offload that takes 2 or 3 defenders out of the play rather than passing it before he gets to the line.
There is one thing I think we are missing right now. Jake tends to telegraph that he is going to pass when he's running to the line, and many times the defenders will already be heading out to where they think the ball is going to go. The closer to the middle of the field, Jake will take the hit up, but out a bit wider and his first thought is to pass. With Tom in the side, they usually use that to our advantage with Tom running straight back on the inside where the defenders would have been rather than the ball going out wide. We're missing that right now because as good as he has been filling in, Brendan Elliot is not anywhere near the same class as Turbo as a support runner. And there is also the same combination with DCE that he has with his brother, but he's not there to support run right now either.
Without either Turbo or DCE there as support runners, when he's got the ball out wider I would like to see Jake develop a dummy and just run the ball rather than always looking to pass it out wide. Like I said, he tends to telegraph that he's going to pass so the defenders leave him alone knowing that he will pass. Throw a dummy here or there and he's going to catch them out.
