I think Matai was in Kiwi International dreamland during the week, coz he single-handedly cost us that game. He needs a swift kick up the ass by our coaching staff to get him into gear. He was at fault for 3 of their tries: 1. Tigers second try - Matai, after failing to get to back to marker, decides instead of giving away a penalty, he will let the guy simply stroll through and make a break. 2. Tigers third try - Matai rushes out of the line to try and clobber Hodgson, leaves a hole in the line, and they make a break down the sideline, after poor defence by Robbo too. Tigers score 2 tackles later. 3. Tigers last try - Matai makes the bonehead of all decisions by trying to pass the ball 5 metres out with 3 Tigers guys on him. If we had more centres depth, I would demand he be given a spell in Premier League, because his defence is NOT up to 1st Grade standard, and he still makes stupid mistakes.
Defensively you may be right but in attack Matai put in a huge effort, making big metres with every carry. I'd be intereested to see his game stats.
He is very green and has a high mistake rate. His potential is very good. I will be very interested to see if there is any post match comment as at least three times he King Hit (not high fortunately) players long after they had delivered the ball.
Not a happy game for Matai. To be fair to him his efforts for the previous month have been one of the highlights of the season so far. This particularly applied to his defensive efforts, especially against our try line. He is a surprise packet and imo deserves some latitude.
Matai doesnt seem to take bad news well. When he was dropped last year his games in PL were bordering on him being dropped there for the first 2 weeks. Must be a confidence/mental attitude thing. Hopefully he will have gotten over his dissapointment and be back to the great footy he was playing earlier in 2006, not his 2005 form.
yeah he is kind of over achieving lately, i guess while he hada big week it wasnt ideal preporation for this game for us.
