Toulon v Tigers - Challenge Cup Semi

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Personally I am surprised we haven't tried Scott & Taute the other way round.

[ABClub]

Personally I am surprised we haven't tried Scott & Taute the other way round.

Agreed. Whilst Scott has played 12 more throughout his career he is also very adept at 13. During his 2 seasons at Gloucester he was predominantly an outside centre and played very well there.

I've stated many times that Taute at 13 rather than 12 frustrates me though. He just doesn't have the pace for it anymore. It's a tough position for Taute himself, the defenders outside him and those inside him when he just doesn't have the pace to cover the outside arc.

Until Moroni arrives I'd be interested to see what Murimurivalu can offer from 13. It might be similar to Goneva at centre where you watch him on the edge of the sofa ball in hand, then from behind the sofa in defence. It's hardly like the defensive alignment in the outside backs can get much worse than it's looked recently.

[Tiglon]

We lost not because of the officials but because we were the second best team. Ford is a great player who had an off day, a defence coaches job is to train players to be in a position to make a tackle, if they then fail to make the tackle it is down to the player not the coach, same applies if the player is not in position and the tackle miss which we see is due to someone else trying to cover for the player not in the right place. Coach analysis will reveal all we on our T.V screens cannot fairly judge.
Positives I take are that had we played Castres (and won) this team would have had the opportunity to blend and performed better in Toulon where we have never previously won. Nadolo is gradually getting fitter and looks like a decent signing, our forwards are improving, I agree with some others that I do not understand why we persistently pick a lock at 6 but maybe when other players are available that may change. I do think that Steward is our future at 15 with Murimurivalu, Van Wyke, and eventually Moroni to improve our wing and centre choices. Porter and Potter are fast improving and will challenge for selection. Unlike some I have not given up on Olowofela and Harwick and I believe they need to be given the opportunity to show what they can do before 20/21 season commences. Our over all squad is developing greater depth and with fewer players expected to be away in international windows I do expect us to climb the table and finish above midway and be realistic challengers for top four by Easter.

I feel (I am probably wrong) that we would have been better having Nadolo at outside centre on Saturday, Toulon were scared of him but he never got the ball enough

Possibly, but there's less space and fewer outside shoulders to be found in the middle of the park. I don't think he would have got the ball much more at centre - it had usually been lost or kicked dead before it reached 13.

[Wayne Richardson Fan Club]

Having finally got round to watching the game, we were no way near as bad as some were saying we were, the officiating certainly was though...
Some signs of some attacking patterns, Reffell gets better by the minute.
The kicking from our multi cap internationals was poor at best, White is now very close to being my first choice 9, apart from when YBY plays less structured, I would be interested to see what it looks like with White starting, Ben off the bench.

[ancientmariner]

[quote=Tiglon post_id=753350 time=

George Ford played like Joe Ford. Let's say no more about it and hope he's back to normal next time out.........

Bit unfair to Joe I would say. Not the most exciting player, but his kicking out of hand and off the tee was pretty accurate.