By RugbyMarvel
#43306
De Jager penalties today have included kicking the ball in the ruck, taking man in air at lineout, a high tackle and now offside from a knock on. Think there was another earlier too.

Has he lost his head? Does he want to be here?
By RugbyMarvel
#43309
StalyShark wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:08 pm
Luke not looking good under high balls.
Yep sadly since he’s been tested it’s highlighted the issue again, great shame as his other play is generally all very good. Not quite a Freddie Steward at the back
By ejndavid95
#43311
RugbyMarvel wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:08 pm
De Jager penalties today have included kicking the ball in the ruck, taking man in air at lineout, a high tackle and now offside from a knock on. Think there was another earlier too.

Has he lost his head? Does he want to be here?
He's also been dropping more ball than he's held for the last 3 weeks
By Olyy
#43312
Sam James at 10 is a surprise

Edit: Comms were wrong, he's in the centres
Last edited by Olyy on Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
By StalyShark
#43319
Penaud highlighting our lack of speed again. Lots of effort but speed and ability to create space severely lacking.
By Jalyn Mills
#43320
Sloppy, stupid, ill-disciplined at times... but I think that was the one of the better efforts we have had this season. Going to France and taking them on. Frustrated as we could (should?) have won it, but I enjoyed it.

Just gutted my trip out there was cancelled - as right now it'd be vin rouge o'clock.
By Surbiton_Shark
#43321
Losing BP a positive. Though they weren’t great so seems a win went begging

Usual issues on our side which we just seem incapable of changing - player wise and coaching wise

Amazing that roebuck scored and I think the next time i noticed him was around 76 mins. Van Rensburg was good and of course Luke James
By Streatham Shark
#43323
Oh well, could've been worse, but it's getting pretty dispiriting watching us be the architects of our own downfall week after week. Maybe some sort of mind-coaching on not doing stupid stuff that U16 players know not to do might optimise our performance.
By RugbyMarvel
#43324
Well, another game where we haven’t scored in the second half… clearly a mental issue and perhaps even something to do with fitness? Or a lack of use of the bench…

Negatives fairly obvious - Cliff had a absolute shocker and don’t think he’s got the physical attributes to play at this level now, it’s verging on painful watching him on any pitch that isn’t waterlogged.

De Jager just making stupid mistakes and compounding them with more stupid mistakes. His ball retention is poor and I’m not seeing any big carries / turnovers.

Can’t understand why we didn’t bring on Reed / Warr / S James earlier… started to look tired and slow by 60th minute.

Positives, Luke James great with ball in hand (sadly shaky under high ball)

The twins were good again, they are everywhere. Think it’s time for JLDP to move to 6 permanently.

Rodd is quality. Once he bulks up a little more and gets more experienced, he will be world class. Left out too long and he was shattered by the time he came to face Slimani.

Ashman is dynamic in the loose. Definitely should be our starting Hooker going forward.

The Currys carried well, didn’t get much luck at breakdown though…
By 45jumper
#43325
Thought it was a good effort all things told. Didn't have our first or second choice SH/FH and we were well in the game from the first to last minute.
The obsession with RDP at 13 is just odd now. He makes consistently poor defensive reads, a top team just doesn't have players like those. Lood is a real issue. He gives so many penalties away and makes absolutely no impact in the loose. What's happened to him?! I'm similarly concerned about Sam James. There was a high ball chase where he nearly broke into a sprint, was half-heartedly stopped by a Clermont player and he just made no effort to either go through or past him. The ball carrier than ran past like he wasn't even there. No intensity whatsoever.
Anyway, I think Roebuck and Hammersley made some good defensive reads, with the former showing great pace for his try. Luke James was superb ball in hand but really poor under the high ball.
The game hinged on that harsh call on Curry moving on the floor. If we're at home that doesn't get given IMO. That was our chance to get a try and possibly win the game.
By Streatham Shark
#43327
Under the high ball I think players protecting Luke james might be part of the problem, that last knock on his jump was impeded by three of his team mates.

Axe giving props to Luke and Wilkinson, which is good.
By Clutch
#43328
West’s position untenable. Every game something goes drastically wrong with the pack. Lineout good but maul terrible, looks like we are going to turn it over all the time and scrum became a huge issue again. We got away with it big style.

Backs looked as ok as can be considering the personnel. Pleased to see Roebuck looking good. He or Reed have to play every game. If we set up with Byron and Hammersley I think it’s start to seriously start questioning Sanderson. He’s reverting back to what he criticised Deacon and Dimes for. Playing folk out of position. Baffling use of bench as well. Leaving two players still out there isn’t really acceptable when you lose a game.

Call on Ben really harsh. Technically correct but it had zero impact. Especially hard to take when ref had shown them loads of empathy. But you make our own luck.
User avatar
By poyntonshark
#43329
The maul has gone back to bend over and push. Clermont got around the outside of it, mostly legally, and nullified our threat.
By 45jumper
#43330
I think Sanderson was spot on in his post match. We've had a lot of disruption and today, the team did feel like it's coming together. Get a convincing win next week (which we absolutely should), and I think we qualify, don't we?
By Streatham Shark
#43331
45jumper wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:41 pm
I think Sanderson was spot on in his post match. We've had a lot of disruption and today, the team did feel like it's coming together. Get a convincing win next week (which we absolutely should), and I think we qualify, don't we?
I think it's heavily dependent on other results. Do the top eight go through or just the top four?
By RugbyMarvel
#43333
A four point win takes us to 11 points, out of reach of Glasgow, Montpellier, Ospreys, Bath and Northampton.

We need to go full bore in terms of selection.

I’d like to see (assuming they’re fit)

Rodd
Ashman
Schonert
JP Du Preez
De Jager
JL Du Preez
Tom Curry
Dan Du Preez
Quirke
AJ
McGuigan
Van Rensburg
Luke James
Roebuck
Hammersley

Taylor
McIntyre
Oosthuizen
Ross
Ben Curry
Warr
S James
Reed
By RugbyMarvel
#43334
If we lose we would need

Glasgow to lose to La Rochelle
Montpellier to lose to Exeter
Bath to lose to Leinster

I think you’ll see a big showing from Montpellier next week after the drubbing they received from Leinster.

Leinster will tear Bath to shreds.

Glasgow vs La Rochelle is hard to call, purely because of how the French perform away. Glasgow will want to put in a good display after Exeter dominated them in the second 40
By RugbyMarvel
#43338
Clutch wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 8:05 pm
Still think centre is L JAmes best position but I’m loathed to keep moving him around.
Agreed, think he could be a very good 13. Don’t think he fits the mould of a pacey counter attacking 15 (a la Tyrone Green), a play making 15 (Le Roux / Furbank / Malins) or a bomb defused (Steward / Brown).

He’s got a lovely stop and go, he’s intelligence and he’s reasonably physical. At 13 we could hopefully get the ball in his hands more, with Manu or RVJR inside of him?
By Elgar
#43377
I thought the scoreline flattered us in that Clermont seemed to me to butcher 2 or 3 golden opportunities on their right touchline. Raka seemed determined to me not to score more than the one that Penaud set him up for – thought he could have had a hat-trick. In fairness to Hammersley, I couldn’t quite tell whether Raka was having an off day (by his very high standards) or whether Hammersley did a very good job of shutting him down.

RDP looked lost in D again at times but arguably it was an improvement on the Bristol game so I think there’s mileage in him keeping the 13 shirt for now.


Upsides imho:-

Ashman looks like an absolute baller to me now and should start even if everyone is available. He could have had a brace in the first 25 mins if a couple of passes to him had been more accurate (Ross) and better timed (Luke).

Roebuck looked sharper (and quicker! – unless O’Connor is deceptively slow that is as Roebuck convincingly won the foot race with him for his try ) in attack than I can remember him being since his run out v Glaws about 13 months ago (think we scored in the final minutes to take the win at an empty Kingsholm). Didn’t look out of place to me in defence which is impressive away at Clermont.

Luke James wobbled under the high ball but looked better than ever going forward. Also seemed more confident in his kicking ability. Really not sure whether I think he’s a better centre or 15 but I do think that he has to be in the team at the moment (would be surprised if any of our backs apart from Raffi have a better defenders beaten per game average than him this season); think I prefer him at 15 but perhaps mainly because we’ve few other options there and do we have options at centre.

Wilko – Catalysed our positive start and I’d have no issue with him starting at 10 again for us next weekend based on that performance.

And – if I understand the new competition (quite likely not though) – we’re pretty likely to qualify for the knock outs now having gotten 3 points overall from our games with Clermont. This wasn’t a given pre-tournament.
By LJK
#43379
I was also pleased that a valuable point was gained, as I truthfully didn't expect it to be as close as it was. Indeed given that yet again our intensity disappeared in the 2nd half, think we were fortunate that Clermont managed to butcher at least 3 tries that looked likely, 2 on the right and 1 on the left wing. Despite the lack of attacking skills Sale's defence in the middle was awesome again, even in the dreary 2nd half, but the edges looked very vulnerable.
Maybe Hammersley did pressurise Raka and Penaud, but he is no winger. What he is, is a secure pair of hands at FB and that is where he should play, and move Luke James to the Centre where he is best, as his security under the high ball is not as good, but he has more speed and better steps.
What on earth has happened to Lood...a shadow of the world class player we know he was? That pick up from the knock on ball for the penalty was just crazy as he had time to think about what he was doing, not just an instinctive reaction. If that was a decision due to fatigue why wasn't he replaced by JPDP as he was never used.?To me all Lood is offering currently is a sure aiming point in the line out, and JPDP does that just as well.
Hope we can get a good win v Ospreys and finish as high up the group as possible so we don't get the very best opposition for the round of 16.
Elgar liked this
By ageinghoody
#43396
Re Lood, I fear it's more evidence that he's homesick, but still struggling with the decision whether to stay or go.

Frankly, I'm rather surprised that he hasn't already chosen to go home, as he's clearly badly missing his family. On the other hand, with the possibility of easier travel in the not too distant future, perhaps it seems premature to surrender the higher earning potential compared with SA .
By Surbiton_Shark
#43397
One really nice element of surprise was the pace that Roebuck showed for his try - never seen him run like that - and to be frank after he scored his try I barely noticed him again. - mainly as we seem to prefer playing for territory and have such a defensive mindset it overrides all attacking play - some of our kicks when we were between the half-way line and the oppo 22 were quite frankly mind boggling - presume confidence plays a lot in this.

Easier to hoof it and hope for an oppo mistake than keep the ball alive. Luke J seems to be a sole one man band.

I still think at half-time we should have dragged Cliff off and Hammers and just taken them on by running it - they didn't look a good outfit. We seem to overcomplicate things so much. Take Quins - standard setup play - give it to their big SA centre. On the contrary we prefer to use Rohan as a decoy a lot or literally not at all as we'll kick box kick. It's not so much co-incidence that we don't score much on the second half as we just rely on our forwards and they funnily enough get tired! Would have really liked to see Wilkinson do more runs - his one show/go was fantastic and to have someone like Reed on the wing to pass to. That game was there for the taking - it really irks we didn't change anything and came out with a loss but not scoring any points again.............

It's bad enough we have problems with key injuries etc., but let's at least use what we have - we do have kids with pace, we do have Rohan - play some ball in hand rugby please! Luke is just setting a lone example
By Carlos
#43404
RugbyMarvel wrote:
Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:08 pm
De Jager penalties today have included kicking the ball in the ruck, taking man in air at lineout, a high tackle and now offside from a knock on. Think there was another earlier too.

Has he lost his head? Does he want to be here?
The one in the lineout - taking the man out - isn't always the jumper, he may have been expecting to be lifted a bit higher, it looks bad and it's a penalty, but it's a penalty against the group really, not just the guy in the air with no real control how high he ends up.
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