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Could be 70-10 to the Warriors at this rate.

Oh boy.

As Manly did, Warriors are fired up and every player is energised. Off to a flyer and we have our work cut out for us. Hard without possession I just hope we start making smarter choices.

Edit. Take a bow Munster an extremely timely 40/20 bravo, and Olam capitalises! Hats off to Loiero for the offload

Sims' defence on the line was pathetic there - I know he didn't have much of a preseason (did anybody?!), but has Sims brought anything to us at all?

Can't see us overturning the intensity and momentum of the Warriors in this one, not with our questionable forward stocks.

What has happened to our in-play kicking game?!? Grant and Hughes have been atrocious!

Nelson is either playing for a big contract elsewhere.... Or dare I say he's playing out of his skin because he's committed here long term?

Either way, he is a generational player I'll say it now. With direction and discipline he is a world beater

Either way, we could do with 2 or 3 Nelsons!

Left the two starting front rowers on too long and got punished for it.

Nelson is a mad man but when he’s on he really saves us. Also points out how average everyone else is.

A more polished attack would unbelievably see us with a half time lead - if only we'd managed more than 2 games this year with the same halves pairing...

We do seem very close to putting it all together though - a better kicking game, one or two more forwards bending the line, and some consistency with our lineup would just about do it. Defence seems very hot and cold, very patchy at times, but again, that could just be lack of consistency with combinations out there.

I agree the lack of continuity with our halves and also full back has been an issue. The fact NZ scored a man down on our edges just shows something isn't clicking with communication.

Katoa out for the next few weeks will hurt, I also think his combo with Hughes needs significant improvement so that is not going to help

We need another big aggressive forward like NAS.

With him on the field we are just much better, our other forwards just don’t really offer that aggression and grit that all the other top teams packs have.

That long ball from Meany to X was heart in mouth type stuff, centimeter perfect.

nacho wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:13 pm Katoa out for the next few weeks will hurt, I also think his combo with Hughes needs significant improvement so that is not going to help

Katoa should normally only miss a game after failing a HIA with a Category 1 concussion (mandatory 11-day rest), but as we have a Bye next week he shouldn't actually miss any games.

Hughes kicking is super average. We really lack & miss having that organising halfback with a good on field kicking game.

We didn’t notice it much with cam smith still in the team cause smith made up for it with his superb smart kicking, but we really do lack it from our halfback.

Glad we got the win in the end though it helped us with warriors losing some key players during the game.

Now this performance is something to be proud of.

I'll acknowledge that NZ are out on their feet, but in the arm wrestle of the game they had more troops available.

Nelson filling in for Katoa is a better outcome than had Katoa played the full game. Nelson doesn't need to touch the ball and NZ are in all sorts just covering him.

Meany has played fantastic with ball play, line breaks, conversions and of course a try or two.

Munster has had a much more active involvement, perhaps making up for Hughes slump in form. Everything he's touched has turned to gold.

Grant has played his season best in the 2nd half with a lot more runs and allowed us to steam roll down the field on occasion.

Warriors were really courageous. Thought we did really well to dig in and not make any serious errors. Good comeback.