Douglas Black wrote:
That right side defence was awful last year too under Price. Charnley, Mamo, Austin, Hughes...
Last year we conceded 354 points over 21 games, around 17 per game. This year we’re at 593 over 24, almost 25 per game.
In the first 10 rounds we conceded 218, so it’s got worse since we made the ‘necessary’ changes of removing Charnley, the 14 games since is around 27 per game. I’m not suggesting for a second that Charnley is a defensive cornerstone, but 10 games back to back with the same centre, the same second row (baring injury/suspension) helps to build cohesion, since he was removed the merry go round has been at full speed.
The merits of mid season changes in players is either a) immediate improvement on what you have, to deliver better results (Dufty falls into this category, got us the win against Toulouse) or b) to start the gelling process to hit the ground running for the following season (Sandow, ordinary in 2015, but 2016 him, Currie, Atkins and Penny started like a house on fire).
For the vast majority of signings, the have been in and out. Even Makaele has come out to work on other combinations (But picked J Clark who is on the way out and won’t be a part of any combinations) Surely we should use the next few rounds to get combinations and cohesion building in order to get off to the best start of 2023?
