Johno- ....thank god, if you are an English fan. The long and short of it, we have a back row problem. Haskell will be good in time, Easter has not got his game legs at the moment, and Lipman is so far down the depth chart at 7 it is no wonder we faded badly against the Italians this weekend. If you break it down we had a nascent star at 6 learning the international game, a journeyman first choice starter at 8 that is lacking match fitness, and a 4th choice starter at 7. It doesn't matter who the opposition is, the make up of that back row just doesn't cut it at this standard. We all know that forwards determine who wins games, and the backs determine the margin of victory.
On a positive note I have been very happy with Flood at 12 barring one or two bad kicking decisions, which is not that bad over two games. The sooner the Balsa-wood farce at 15 ends the better, not a bad bloke and not his fault he keeps getting picked, but he just can't hack it at this level. The back three need JSD and Lewsey...FACT.
This week Ireland looked crap in the first half, but dug deep and showed some good fight in the second half. At least someone is getting the halftime team talk right.
So it looks like the championship will be decided in the Wales v France match, which rather fortuitously is the final game of the tournament.
Sadly for me the highlight of this weekend was not played out on the pitches of Europe, but in the commentary box. It was a delight to listen to Brian Moore spitting venom in an apoplectic rage at England's lamentable second half display. He may have broken the commentators number one rule when he obviously over stepped the "unbiased" line, but he's English and he cares and could no longer contain his incredulity. Brian, I salute you...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment