Re: Reality check : Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:36 pm
Mugwump wrote:
Your "go forward" is a function of your handling - not your forward power. It was exactly the same in the Grand Final. You made plenty of yards - but very few through the channel 10m either side of the centre spot.
Guys like Farrell and Bateman are very adept at scything through gaps on the edge of the defence. But when the opposition pattern is sound and it comes down purely to brute force traction (such as clearing your own line in heavy conditions against physical packs) neither is going anywhere.
This is why I don't see Farrell as a genuine GB second row. There are no holes in the Australian edge defence. And he's not big enough to worry them through the middle.
It's precisely the same problem we had when Millward decided he didn't need big props, opting instead to go for mobility.
Guys like Farrell and Bateman are very adept at scything through gaps on the edge of the defence. But when the opposition pattern is sound and it comes down purely to brute force traction (such as clearing your own line in heavy conditions against physical packs) neither is going anywhere.
This is why I don't see Farrell as a genuine GB second row. There are no holes in the Australian edge defence. And he's not big enough to worry them through the middle.
It's precisely the same problem we had when Millward decided he didn't need big props, opting instead to go for mobility.
Just to play devils advocate you could say that Souths didn't fall for the scoot from dummy half and just defended the "massive" Saints pack with ease. As such Saints didn't have the passing game to get on the outside.