phatguerilla wrote: Any thoughts on the game? Personally not too shocked/bothered that we lost, it was always going to be a big ask to go down there and win. The selection was a bit of an experiment, 'how would we handle things if sexton and our 7s are injured' and I think Joe will have learned a lot from it. Only thing I found surprising was the lack of a kicking game, maybe this was a double/triple bluff by joe but I don't think it made sense, and Henshaw shooting out of the line was horrible, again probably experimental or a particular requirement of being left short out wide with so many players in the ruck.
Thought it was the worst we’ve played in a long time. Decision making was poor, discipline was unusually poor, lots of individual errors, blunt in attack, defence as per usual extremely vulnerable out wide, not helped by some awful reads in midfield. Not sure whether to attribute our struggles to missing leadership, fatigue, or the immense intensity brought by the Australians.
The series is still up for grabs though. Bringing in Ringrose at 13 should hopefully help shore up our defence and we’ll hopefully see a bit more variety in attack, to counteract their aggressive defence.
Ultimately it’s just not possible to be at 100% every game. Australia were more up for it and won collisions all day, same as Scotland in 2017, Racing against Munster, us against Leinster, etc.
