Have just watched the first half back on the full match replay. I'm not recognising most of the negatives that have been bandied around on here (aside from the defence - which was, as you might expect with a bit of a rag-tag group, a bit "every man for himself"). Maybe the second half, when I watch it later, will explain some of the downers people came away with but it would have to be a dreadful second half to cancel out some pretty golden positives I've seen so far...
Okay, so firstly, not at all worried that Gray and Chisholm were the two standout not-good-enoughs. They just won't play in games that matter unless we have an absolutely dire injury outbreak. Considering they were playing, I felt almost everyone around them really held their hands up. I'll work my way through the rest of the team...
Els and Litterick - dominance in the scrum, lovely to see. Seems we're building some really nice depth in the props now and Bomb's coaching seems to be blessing us with a handful of props who can all do the bread and butter that the Quins packs of the past so often neglected. Litterick has come out of nowhere, who is he? I like the look of him. Els' best half of rugby I've seen - scrummaged well and absolutely chucked himself around in the loose and made some good tackles.
Hammond - maturing as quickly as Tizard did, Tiz was just let loose first. Had my doubts about Hammond but he's proving me wrong game after game and I'm loving it. Seems to have the all round game, great to see.
CSW - looks like he could be worth the wait. Or should I say worth his weight - he's big isn't he! Made some very powerful carries, got through the contact and offloaded a couple of times giving us that go-forward. Really liked the look of what he can bring to our attack in terms of grunt work. Worked hard in defence too. I'm expecting some of the criticism will become clear to me when I watch the second half but I'd expect his fitness to need work. He didn't look "slow" at all in the first half - he had a really good hit out.
Jurevicius - I'll keep this short and sweet. He's now pushing Lawday and Chis for the 6 shirt. What a quality young player he already is.
WEv - quality, looks completely unaffected by his injury. It's like he hasn't been away at all. Starts on the weekend if he feels up to it, because by that showing he's up to speed.
Taulani - probably the highlight for me. FINALLY he's using his physique, picking lines, CRASHING through weak shoulders. Controlled well at the base of the scrum too this time. Worked hard in defence. Didn't do anything stupid. I think we all knew he had promise but this half of rugby was what I was worried I might never see. Now I've seen it, I'm a very happy boy. Guy's a monster. When Dommers is back, Taulani needs to be given the 20 shirt whenever fit - off the bench in the last 20/30, playing like that, he'll do damage. And when Dommers is away, I now trust him to look after the 8 shirt.
Stafford - haven't seen the mare yet (aside from the intercept pass he threw in their 22). Had a very solid first half - moved us around really well. Box kicking a bit hit and miss. I think the issue I have with him is he doesn't fill me with excitement. I'm not sitting there wondering what he might do next to inject some pace, but he definitely didn't slow us down. Gjaltema is ahead of him for me though.
Chisholm - he's not a 10 and he's not good enough to play in Prem or Champions Cup unless the injuries start really stacking up. Nick David looked like he'll be okay. Did Oscar Beard fill in at 15 when David went off? Looked like it. Maybe we've been looking at him at 15 in training. If so, the plan might be to see if he and Louis can fill in at 15 if David does need to jump though more return-to-play hoops than his injury appeared to suggest.
Cleaves - have been waiting for him to be given the chance and had no doubt this is what he would do. He's got that magic. I can really see him pushing his way into the starting team now, especially if Louis needs to spend a bit of time at 15. If not, I suspect we'll see him in the 23 shirt quite a bit now for the rest of the season. The sky's the limit it seems.
Anyanwu - another highlight, another unsurprising classy display from a youngster who seems ready to fulfil his potential. Looks like he provides what we need from our centres: hard lines, stays on his feet, offloads out of the tackle, gets us going forward. Puts his considerable weight into tackles and it really feels like he's got an old head on his shoulders already. He's got more of a challenge getting onto the team sheet for Prem and Champs Cup, but feels like he's only an injury to a front-line centre away from being in the mix. I will debate anyone who wants to argue that we don't have the best stable of centres in the league.
Bradley - reinforces my point. Came on, ripped into it. Was just an absolute handful when he got his hands on the ball and read things beautifully in defence a couple of times. Was my first proper look at him, but I like what I see so far - really promising.
Beard, Hyde, David all put in good displays in that first half. Shame David had to come off but he backed up that he is Green's direct competitor for the 15 shirt. Took his high balls, ran well, made his tackles. I like how tough he is - punches well above his weight - and can't wait to see him get a run of games while Green is out. Beard impresses me more each time he plays. I'm just not sure where he fits in the team yet - feels like he could easily become a jack-of-all-trades utility back, but I actually don't mind that the way he just seems to muck in and do his bit wherever you put the guy. Hyde looked strong and I think it's interesting we've played him on the wing a couple of times on the trot. Feels like we haven't had a bigger winger for a while and he might give us a bit of that. He looks promising too.
I realise this is just the first half and my sense is it maybe became a bit stop-start in the second half (which I will watch later) but I genuinely came away from that 40 mins of rugby beaming. The squad is brimming full of talent outside of the current 30-odd players we're used to seeing - I'm even more hopeful than I was about the coming years...
