I think it's up to the coaches to work out how to get the best from French at stand off.
They have decided to play him there to get his hands on the ball more - however it's pointless if he's not using his main attacking threat while he has hands on the ball.
At times we look as though we have no structure or shape at all and i think even a top class 6 would would be made to look ordinary with the way the team shapes up.
Compare to Leigh, they play to make use of their strengths,7, 9, 8,, Charnley, hard running props (who had been discarded elsewhere) who make good ground from their line. They play to a structure, they run hard, get some momentum, Lam comes round late and Asiotai is a great ball playing prop who puts doubt in the mind of defenders and makes gaps. Dare i say it, Lam is looking like a far better coach than Matty at the moment.
If we had a similar approach with Smithies or Mago playing a ball playing role, and had French coming into the line like Lam, with Field, KPP, Nsemba out of the back we would have the advantage of far greater pace and options to straighten up or go out to the wing. But we just don't do it, we just seem to shunt the ball across the line and hope French plays a cut out, high risk line ball to the wing.
I really wonder what we do in training other than play up the middle, tire the opposition out and wait until they are knackered and get Field or French to scare them with pace and pass it to Miski on the wing when a defender is having a breather - which seems to be our tactic. And yes it does work alot of the time - but relies on us not playing one of the better teams who we can't tire out as easily, or being sloppy ourselves and not completing enough to tire them out.
I do feel we need an outside view looking in on the team at our attacking structure and giving some alternate opinions. It's not beyond a good coach to build a really good, repeatable attacking shape around Smith and French's pace and footwork in the halves.
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