Interesting trial ahead. Win/loss of these things never mean too much to me.
More interested in what sort of attacking shapes their using, defensive structure, line speed on D, who combines well with who....that sort of thing.
With the constant changing of players, subbing in almost entirely different line ups at times its usually hard to get any sort of flow with these matches. Up until last years trial i was always frustrated as it seemed to look like it was the first time some of our guys had ever met each other. I know u dont ever hit your straps from the start but pre last year used to always wonder "what the hell have these guys been doing pre season".....too many sand dunes and gym not enough team work.
Last years one i remember thinking we looked far more organised than in the past and my main takeaways Te Maire and Metcalf combined pretty well in the halves and we looked pretty crisp on our shifts with some nice movement off the ball. Was also evident from the previous season (with Brownie) where our edge defence was getting exposed time and again that we werent employing the up and in but holding and allowing insides time to recover. So despite the scorelines and the stop start nature of these games theres always little insights to be gained.
More interested in what sort of attacking shapes their using, defensive structure, line speed on D, who combines well with who....that sort of thing.
With the constant changing of players, subbing in almost entirely different line ups at times its usually hard to get any sort of flow with these matches. Up until last years trial i was always frustrated as it seemed to look like it was the first time some of our guys had ever met each other. I know u dont ever hit your straps from the start but pre last year used to always wonder "what the hell have these guys been doing pre season".....too many sand dunes and gym not enough team work.
Last years one i remember thinking we looked far more organised than in the past and my main takeaways Te Maire and Metcalf combined pretty well in the halves and we looked pretty crisp on our shifts with some nice movement off the ball. Was also evident from the previous season (with Brownie) where our edge defence was getting exposed time and again that we werent employing the up and in but holding and allowing insides time to recover. So despite the scorelines and the stop start nature of these games theres always little insights to be gained.
