I love both players, but a change had to be made. It helps Madge that we have Anderson to come in, and the fact Mariner wants to play center, and who knows might keep it if he has a blinder. We saw last year that Karapani and Mariner took the positions from Arthars and Cobbo.
On the topic of defense, it wasn't JUST Mam and Shiba;
We leaked tries in the space of 20 minutes from in between Mam, 2nd row and Shiba. It was made worse, considering JGos defense in all games so far this year have been atrocious, he leaked a try as well. Then when he went off HIA, Tawha went into 2R and was out of place and leaked another try.
It was a defensive collapse from 4 players. Mam, Shiba, Tawha and JGos. The bleeding stopped when Xavier was put in there to stop Kelma punching holes. Which is why he is there this week, Madge will probably bring Piakura in 2R later in the game to spell X.
Shiba wasn't dropped because of defense alone, it was effort with the ball too.
Past 2 games;
Shiba Missed tackles: 2 and 5
Mam Missed tackles: 3 and 4
Shiba Run Metres: 93 and 80... he averaged 155 last year.
Mam Run Metres: 90 and 82
Mam is a much smaller body and is punching out more run metres than an Origin / International centre. I expect Mam to miss a few tackles, like most halves do time to time, I don't expect Shiba to.
I havent gone back to watch a full replay, but my general thoughts on the tries from the highlights
1st try Tuilagi - Gos taking the completely wrong man (Paulo who was basically having a bludge) and leaving a massive hole to run through.
2nd try Ryley - horribly unlucky... Reece was in the previous tackle but showed effort to get across and protect the kick. Pezet kicks through Haas ends up fumbling about 10m from where he is and Reece overruns... no one really at fault, but Iongi did get a halfbreak outside Reyno creating the quick ptb for the Pezet kick
3rd try Tuilagi - This looks like a collapse of the defensive system. Tawha is adopting a sliding defence and providing inside pressure, but Ezra onwards are standing there as if they wanted to jam, but they never rushed up and Ezra ends up on top of Tawha not really doing anything in the tackle. I think we are usually a "push from the inside" team based on Piakura's efforts last year... whereby edge covers the inside decoy and then has to sprint to apply the inside pressure on the half and not allow him to get outside. I think Tawha has done his job because he catches up to Pezet, but Ezra didnt trust it and bites in leaving a monster hole outside him and an overlap no matter which pass Pezet goes with. Ezra is grasping at air and Shiba has to cop a missed tackles... I'm blaming Ezra on that one
4th try Iongi - quick ptb with no markers starts the rot on this one. Xavier pushing from the inside to cover Moses, wasnt pushing all that hard, but Moses had a hard running edge that has to be respected. Ezra bites on the decoy as Iongi gets it out the back. He's automatically outside Ezra and running at a retreating Shiba and Karp creating the space behind to run through. This looks like a breakdown of the defence again. X pushing from the inside, Shiba and Karp sliding, Ezra sort of jamming. I'd say Ezra needed to check and slide on the backrower OR Shiba and Karp had to jam on Iongi and force Moses into a long ball. I think they probably had enough bodies there to stop it but no communication. X needed inside pressure help from the markers (looked like Paix was there, but not really pushing on Moses), so without that X can't push on the decoy and allow Ezra to slide. Ezra grabs nothing (feel he should've done better on Iongi but he doesnt check and release) and Shiba ends up copping the missed tackle. Feel it's a group effort on that one, probably more about the quick ptb and then just poor communication.
5th try Iongi - Moses targets the outside shoulder of Tawha... Ezra bites and ends up on top of Tawha again. A 3v2 overlap is created and Moses couldve gone short or long... tbh he probably picked the wrong pass because the 20 is over given Ezra bites and leaves his outside shoulder open. Shiba tries the check and release, but it's more like just a release because of how much ground he has to cover. Ezra grabs thin air again and Shiba cops the missed tackle. I'd say that's on Ezra... he keeps biting and coming in on Tawha's man. The edge check and releasing is a staple of Teo's defence based on last year... Ezra needs to get on the same page ASAP.
53rd minute? An absolute BS call that leads to a penalty goal. The left edge actually slide correctly and cover the sweep. Iongi goes for a panic kick behind and it is somehow called a knock on against Ezra. Thinking about it how is this call anything other than a knock on from Iongi? Ezra either tackles him whilst it is still in his hands before the drop (loose carry knock on) or Iongi drops it forward because he's kicking it, so knock on when it touches Ezra?? I dont think we challenged it because who the **** can trust the bunker, but that was clearly wrong
6th try Russell - other side this time, but Reyno's edge shuts down the sweep. Pezet stops and goes for the kick in behind. Fox basically shoulder charges the kick chase and just completely blocks them from covering the kick... he was basically playing NFL. That one is an error against the bunker, but I'm guessing the comms were claiming "shoulder to shoulder!!!" and the bunker who definitely cant hear them went along with it. Froma defence point of view I'd want to see more inside pressure on Pezet so he isnt allowed to stand there and line up a kick. Edge has shut them down, that's where the inside should be cleaning it up. Riki is basically standing there looking at him and the middles have been caught up in collisions at the ruck. I'm guessing Riki didnt trust himself to shut it down 1v1, but he couldve stopped that try after Pezet stops
Also prior to Reece's try before this ... the ref calls a six again after a 50m linebreak... professional fouls are ****ing dead!!
7th try Pezet - lucky try but Pezet sees Reece out of position and goes the kick. Riki gets hands to it but cant clean up, Pezet goes down in a collision but somehow is first to his feet before any other cover comes to clean up the kick. I'm putting this one on Reece... Riki couldve cleaned it up, but the fact Pezet can go to ground in a collision, get back up and still beat Reece to the ball is poor effort.
