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       #Post#: 17165--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: rdc
       Date: February 18, 2019, 4:41 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Quinston Churchill link ---
       >
       > Just managed to catch the extended highlights (didn’t want to
       comment without seeing some of it for myself).
       >
       > I think context is important. We’d effectively had a month off
       so I think there was almost certainly an element of rustiness.
       The defence didn’t look great, but reading through the thread,
       Worcester haven’t been given a great deal of credit. Some of
       their tries were very good (Adams’ in particular) and where as
       much to do with a good attack and quality offloading as they
       were with our defence.
       >
       > PG’s had our defence working really well up until now, so I’d
       back him to fix it pretty quickly. As others have said, this is
       effectively an ideal opportunity for him to b*llock the team in
       a situation where we still managed to pick up 5 points.
       >
       > One question - it looked like Dombrandt and Smith went off
       early 50 something minutes in. Is it coincidence that we got
       worse after they went off or not?
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       I’ve also only seen the extended highlights, but absolutely
       agree that Worcester scored some classy tries with 1st class
       offloading.
       We should have defended better, but, let’s give them some
       credit.   We will know much more next week.  I’m still feeling
       good.  Very few of us expected us to be realistically hoping to
       make top 4 this season
       #Post#: 17174--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: Quinston Churchill
       Date: February 18, 2019, 5:14 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       The next few weeks are huge for us.
       We can’t afford to be complacent, but we are definitely capable
       of picking up another bonus point win over Bristol. Bath at the
       Rec will be a tougher proposition, but if we’re going to start
       winning on the road, we need to be beating our immediate
       competition.
       #Post#: 17177--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: Safri-quin
       Date: February 18, 2019, 5:39 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: Quinston Churchill link ---
       >
       > The next few weeks are huge for us.
       >
       > We can’t afford to be complacent, but we are definitely
       capable of picking up another bonus point win over Bristol. Bath
       at the Rec will be a tougher proposition, but if we’re going to
       start winning on the road, we need to be beating our immediate
       competition.
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       At event last week, PG seemed to be focussing on winning all
       home games, and viewed picking up bonus points on the road, as
       acceptable at the moment.
       #Post#: 17179--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: TomBuckQuin
       Date: February 18, 2019, 5:53 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I was watching Gabs very closely in defence all game, as I too
       have been concerned, but I actually thought he was
       much-improved. Sure, maybe that's not saying much, but I thought
       if anything that Earle was worse than Gabs in defence yesterday
       - got absolutely skinned on a couple of occasions. He reminds me
       a bit of Ugo - his top-end, straight-line pace is great, but it
       takes him sooo long to get going. I don't know how much
       acceleration you can 'add' in training but it's one thing I feel
       he needs to work on. Don't get me wrong, he's still our best
       all-round winger - I'd just love to see him be able to fly off
       the mark. It let him down yesterday.
       Overall, though, I left The Stoop feeling a bit disappointed
       (not quite as intensely as Blucher) that it definitely felt like
       a step backwards defensively. It doesn't really matter how great
       Worcester's backs are supposed to be - we looked ropey from the
       off. However, we got away with it and I'm happy to chalk it up
       as a one-off rusty game after a long period without any serious
       competitive game time for most of those guys. Maybe letting them
       go off on holiday backfired slightly? Either way, I expect Gussy
       to give them a right kick up the derriere in training this week
       and hopefully we won't see that again...
       #Post#: 17184--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: Blucherquin
       Date: February 18, 2019, 6:23 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       It's that step back that got me so annoyed and worried.
       And because our group all said at half time that we can't let
       our foot off and that if we're turning into a good side we'll
       punish them now and not let them back on the scoreboard barring
       the odd penalty - then the deluge...
       Anyway can't wait for Saturday. Harder team to get a TBP against
       but here's hoping.
       #Post#: 17196--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: Quinky
       Date: February 18, 2019, 7:25 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Just watched the highlights. Some nice offloading play by
       Worcester. Have to say though - Gabs has got some serious
       acceleration.
       #Post#: 17199--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: Dittonquin
       Date: February 18, 2019, 7:44 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       --- Quote from: TomBuckQuin link ---
       >
       > I was watching Gabs very closely in defence all game, as I too
       have been concerned, but I actually thought he was
       much-improved. Sure, maybe that's not saying much, but I thought
       if anything that Earle was worse than Gabs in defence yesterday
       - got absolutely skinned on a couple of occasions. He reminds me
       a bit of Ugo - his top-end, straight-line pace is great, but it
       takes him sooo long to get going. I don't know how much
       acceleration you can 'add' in training but it's one thing I feel
       he needs to work on. Don't get me wrong, he's still our best
       all-round winger - I'd just love to see him be able to fly off
       the mark. It let him down yesterday.
       >
       > Overall, though, I left The Stoop feeling a bit disappointed
       (not quite as intensely as Blucher) that it definitely felt like
       a step backwards defensively. It doesn't really matter how great
       Worcester's backs are supposed to be - we looked ropey from the
       off. However, we got away with it and I'm happy to chalk it up
       as a one-off rusty game after a long period without any serious
       competitive game time for most of those guys. Maybe letting them
       go off on holiday backfired slightly? Either way, I expect Gussy
       to give them a right kick up the derriere in training this week
       and hopefully we won't see that again...
       >
       --- End Quote ---
       Agree with this, Tom. Nothing Gabs could do for the disallowed
       try in the first half as it was 2 on 1. The first Heem try Quins
       then didn't get the numbers right and again left him 2 on 1.
       Their 4th try I think was mainly caused by Boyce slipping off
       the tackle which then allowed them to break through. After that
       they had men over and Gabs was again stranded. I do think he
       doesn't fully commit to the tackle sometimes and that's a bit of
       a worry but hopefully that can be worked on.
       In contrast on the 5th try Earle didn't do enough to get back to
       Adams and was too easily handed off. There was a similar
       incident earlier in the second half where as you say Earle took
       ages to get up to full speed and only just got back to Adams.
       I had the same feeling of a really poor finish when leaving the
       ground but when watching things back I think Worcester just
       threw caution to the wind a lot in the second half and some
       risky offloads worked out for them on two of the tries when on
       other occasions the ball might have gone down. That was then
       compounded by Quins falling off a couple of key tackles.
       Hopefully the strong finish from Worcs means they'll be on it
       for next weekend.
       #Post#: 17217--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: never sleep
       Date: February 18, 2019, 9:56 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I think that you get this sort of thing when a team targets a
       losing bonus point instead of a win.
       Basically, their mindset was probably - don't care about defence
       or letting in tries.  Just concentrate on getting 4 tries.
       When Taps scored, I thought it looked a bit too easy.  But Worcs
       may have thought - let them score and then get the ball quickly
       down the other end.
       #Post#: 17257--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Terrible 2nd half defence against relegation fodder
       (better?)
   DIR By: raedarius
       Date: February 18, 2019, 4:05 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Two Worcester tries were while we were down to 14 men.  The
       first Worcester try was while we were on a warning that the next
       red zone infringement was going to be a card (IIRC), so I can
       understand that one.  I don't get why defenders don't keep
       running and try to drive the potential try scorer off the back
       of the pitch though.
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