Hard to take too much away from a game against really awful opponents in terrible conditions, but a good win nonetheless.
On the positive side, we were prepared and didn’t get ambushed and Shibasaki looked really slick and justified Madge’s decision. More importantly, Walsh improved massively… he showed calmness, composure and willingness to die with the ball instead of force a play which he hasn’t shown in the past few weeks. It led to no stupid errors and then when he finally got some space he had a beautiful tap on for a try.
We still have some very obvious weaknesses which were on show tonight, including Arthars refusing to contest the high ball, a continued total inability to recover short dropouts and a complete lack of support play on line breaks (I think this is the biggest reason to bring Mam back into the fold). That late Avarillo try was frustrating too.
Plenty to like, but still some things to work on.
Side note: Jordan Riki looks like a Greek god and yet runs with all the ferocity and power of an 8 year old girl. He must be very close to being dropped.
