: Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:13 am
I think perhaps Robbie Paul is getting a bit of unfair treatment here. Part of the problem was perhaps that Alker had such an outstanding game at Hooker, and when the swap was made.... Robbie had a lot to live up to bearing in mind that everything positive was coming from around Alker.
When Robbie came on, he had a different set of props to play with. Stapleton and Cashmere had excellent games around Alker (not that the others didn't, but as far as effectiveness goes... they were the best on the park)... The game plan also changed. Alker was more often than not scooting from the play the ball... making a fast 10.... up quick with a play the ball from the tackle.... leaving Celtic on the back foot. They couldn't handle him. When Robbie came on the game changed. He was passing straight out from the play the ball... which is giving the defensive line a little more time to organise themselves... hence not looking as effective as the scooting run. But... you can't do those types of play that Alker was running for 80 mins... and as correctly stated... Robbie isn't as fast these days, so it has to be changed when he comes on. On the one occasion I noticed Robbie scoot... we looked as effective as when Alker was on the park, and we may have even scored from that set of 6. There will be games when scooting from the play the ball will not be effective... so I think it's a good thing that we have options around the ruck.