Vermin v/s Dragqueens - SPOILER ALERT

[TheLoneRooster]

lots of players with numbers over 17 on their back running around for both teams
issac luke is a handful and the vermin seem to be finishing better than the illasocks

[TheLoneRooster]

big break down the left by the small red v ends without a try due to some desperate toofless defence

[TheLoneRooster]

Crowd of 27,221 just reported.
4 mins to go
26-22 vermin lead and smashing the steelers in defense

[TheLoneRooster]

vermin concede a penalty
less than 2 to go
merge on attack

[TheLoneRooster]

gladstone small scores a great try in the corner !!!
LOL

[TheLoneRooster]

GREAT WORK by Brett Morris to score the try that levels the scores at 26 all
Kick to come to win the game

[TheLoneRooster]

The biting milkman just misses the conversion from the absolute sideline and the game ends in a draw.

[TheLoneRooster]

Final impressions ...
* the Roosters will need to be on their game to beat the vermin in Round 1
* dave taylor said the game didn't mean much
* asotasi said there's a lot of stuff they've got to work on defensively
* based on that effort, I don't think the dragqueens will be as dominant in the regular season

That's it from me on this game, over and out.

[Guest]

I will sell my soul to beat Souths.

[Guest]

Apart from a few standouts, Souths were very average as were the Dragons.

Sandow had a SHOCKING game. I can't believe his tackling hasn't been adressed in the off-season. Kicking game was meh.

Sutton was on and off.

Burgess was a gun, came out with fire, yet still got through some work.

Asotasi was strong.

Wesser looked very rusty.

Their defence was terrible.

We'll have a decent shot if our forwards can at least limit their forward pack's impact to a minimum.

Edit: Taylor was MIA

[supermario]

I will sell my soul to beat Souths.

I'll buy it.................$5 !!!!

[Guest]

I will sell my soul to beat Souths.

Ebay link please?

[elo]

As long as Souffs forwards don't get a roll on early we will smack their arses with our spoons - Carney and Pearce will rip shreds around the ruck late in each half, their forwards are all very big and they have no clean up man.

[Guest]

Apart from a few standouts, Souths were very average as were the Dragons.

Sandow had a SHOCKING game. I can't believe his tackling hasn't been adressed in the off-season. Kicking game was meh.

Sutton was on and off.

Burgess was a gun, came out with fire, yet still got through some work.

Asotasi was strong.

Wesser looked very rusty.

Their defence was terrible.

We'll have a decent shot if our forwards can at least limit their forward pack's impact to a minimum.

Edit: Taylor was MIA

my thoughts about souths this year were simply confirmed. Everyone is talking them up big time and at times ive felt like the only one with this view: I actually think they have just produced one of the dumbest recruitment drives in the history of the game. Their backline bar talanoa was and is extremely average and was so last year, their halves are young, erratic and inconsistent yet they go out in the offseason and buy effectively 4 big name frontrowers on big bucks and sprinkle them around the forward pack and hope it will work. So not only is their backline extremely average but their forward pack is extremely unbalanced. Where is their workhorse or 80min backrower?? Their forward pack although big, strong, aggressive and powerful I believe is not mobile enough and doesnt have the workrate in it to cut it. To beat the bunnies all that needs to be done is this: match them or at least curve their first 20mins impact in the forwards by playing it down their end/keeping the ball as by that stage the early sting of their big boys will have subdued and the game can settle down where speed and skill can be used to penetrate their line. I beleive that we need to see carney and mini patrolling the edges and middle of the field looming up in support to try and use speed and skill to do-in souths. Im not saying that we are better or they are an easy beat but i think that their side is extremely unbalanced, slow and one-dimensional which gives us and everyone else a real chance. Dave Taylor did stuff all last night and played essentially as a winger yet at around the 15 minute mark there were pictures of him hunched over spewing all over the turf. That is testament to having 3 props in your backrow.

[supermario]

my thoughts about souths this year were simply confirmed. Everyone is talking them up big time and at times ive felt like the only one with this view: I actually think they have just produced one of the dumbest recruitment drives in the history of the game. Their backline bar talanoa was and is extremely average and was so last year, their halves are young, erratic and inconsistent yet they go out in the offseason and buy effectively 4 big name frontrowers on big bucks and sprinkle them around the forward pack and hope it will work. So not only is their backline extremely average but their forward pack is extremely unbalanced. Where is their workhorse or 80min backrower?? Their forward pack although big, strong, aggressive and powerful I believe is not mobile enough and doesnt have the workrate in it to cut it. To beat the bunnies all that needs to be done is this: match them or at least curve their first 20mins impact in the forwards by playing it down their end/keeping the ball as by that stage the early sting of their big boys will have subdued and the game can settle down where speed and skill can be used to penetrate their line. I beleive that we need to see carney and mini patrolling the edges and middle of the field looming up in support to try and use speed and skill to do-in souths. Im not saying that we are better or they are an easy beat but i think that their side is extremely unbalanced, slow and one-dimensional which gives us and everyone else a real chance. Dave Taylor did stuff all last night and played essentially as a winger yet at around the 15 minute mark there were pictures of him hunched over spewing all over the turf. That is testament to having 3 props in your backrow.

So you would say you cound employ the tactics of 2002 and use the early kick, forcing their big men to turn and run and put the hitup pressure on their backs.

I guess you could kick away from wesser, into open space, force dominant tackles to nulify Luke and by the time the forwards are back, it will be their 4th or 5th tackle, pressure on the kick, retain the ball in good position.