That was dire

Very poor, but at least we can beat 2nd/3rd string teams in better conditions. 

Aside from the scrum which seems to be seriously strong at the moment, and the line out with Gray throwing there was very very little to be happy about today and it felt like  a real ‘why bother’ afternoon.

The handling stunk. We chucked away at least 2 try scoring opportunities through rank handling. The less said about Baldwin’s line out the better. Kicking was bang average a lot of the time, even when we had the wind behind us. That we have pretty much no backs left was made glaringly obvious today. Chis just doesn’t seem up to it and Lasike can’t do everything on his own.

The strategy seemed muddled. With the wind behind us in the second half, surely it would make more sense to keep pressing the nots nots back towards the corners of their 22, don’t just aimlessly hoof high and handsome down the middle of the pitch so the back 3 have ages to set themselves. When we decided to run it there was no real plan, too many players catching the ball static and looking utterly surprised to be receiving it and making no ground whatsoever.

A word for JP and his touch judges too. An early Irish line out in the first half in front of block AH in the DHL stand was so squint that the jumper had to lean a significant distance towards his own try line to catch it. I know there’s a bit of leniency in such conditions but that was ridiculous. Haven’t seen a reply of the disallowed try bit at first glance it looked like one of those that would probably be given more often than not.

Irish probably won’t get an easier win or 5 points this season and that’s what hurts. We looked absolutely dopey today and devoid of any common sense for a large part of the game. Herron’s kick ended any chance we had of an improbable comeback, I’m not singling him out but that moment summed up the team’s performance today. We need some of the injured players back and fast. I hope there’s an investigation going on as to why we have so many injuries yet again.

JP did seem a bit one sided today. Ignored a double high tackle on Evans I think and other inconsistencies. We made mistakes at the crucial moments with knock ons and poor kicks. I’m not sure it was all Baldwin’s fault at the line out as some weren’t caught properly. I think it was a combination of Symons and Gray leaving the pitch. I also think we may have underestimated how good Irish actually are. I watched them beat Saints at Franklin’s Garden and they looked pretty handy .