Early on, I think. a lot of the Roosters players thought it was in the bag as well. Then the got shell shocked in the first 20 minutes and struggled to recover.
The way we played last night, we may as well just pick forwards in the 6 and 7. Between Yeo and Edwards we are not missing anything .
All in all this game showed just how far ahead of the competition we continue to be. We lay a great foundation through the forwards, suffocate teams with our defense, then perfectly execute simple plays (Turuvaâs three trys), or perform a moment of individual brilliance (Edwards), all the while our back 5 run the ball back for an average of near 50 metres a set, giving our forwards the rest needed to pulverize in defense.
We make the hard look simple, and premiership contenders look weak.
A champion team will run rings around a team of champions any day.
I think the final score flattered the chooks. We dominated the game in attack & defence, stifling the roosters pretty well all game. Havenât seen the stats, but their average metres for their sets must have been very low - most sets they were struggling to make 30m & their long kicking was very short. The only time they seemed to get over halfway was from a penalty - I donât think we got much credit from the ref for our dominant defence.
As we have seen one of our weaknesses is still getting possession from the short dropouts .
despite the win and having the time to reflect a little, and i agree with a consensus view the score flattered the Roosters.
That being said i feel we left many points out there with our attack a bit at odds if you could imagine Cleary was out there.
Just like to see our attack options were a little more structured and the execution was more effective.
Canât disagree with that, SBF. I think that the same could be said about our game against Parra. From memory, the âexpertsâ on the Ch9 Sunday Footy Show last week opined that Parra were unlucky and deserved to win that game. Funny. I seem to remember us bombing 3 or 4 tries and being all over them like a rash. Mind you, during the same show they did their assessment of the game Penrith vs Brisbane. All I heard was Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane. You could be forgiven for not being sure who Brisbane played. I was so disgusted that I turned the TV off. Screw them.
With regards scores flattering the opposition, yes absolutely correct.
As Ivan has shown over the last 4 or so years, you donât need to rack up cricket scores early in the season, much better to pace yourself to perform in the finals.
The NRL is a marathon not a sprint. I am happy to see others rack up cricket scores in the early rounds, only to burn out mid to late season.
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