Banquo wrote:Digby wrote:Difficult to say Bath threw this away when Glaws too did so much to not take the win. But I was reasonably happy with Fotuali'i in this game, other than his kicking, his kicking was a mix of the wrong decision and poorly executed. Kahn wasn't alone in kicking away decent ball mind, Priestland and Jospeh both kicked away good ball too.
The penalties Bath gave away at the scrum, and their missed lineouts were massive in such a close game.
The handling isn't good enough in Bath's team given they're looking to move the ball, and way, way off allowing them to attack in a 2-4-2, they just give away the ball before they ever get to such point, the could really use Auterac and especially Thomas back, and they need a 12 who isn't Clark as he's either got bad hands or no confidence to use them (I've not seen much of him, but with the poor handling game I can see why Gats wanted him). Mercer I really like but he's still finding his feet, does one good thing, and then makes one mistake in doing something which worked for him at junior level but just gets you sat down in the seniors. Burns coming back and taking ownership of the 10 shirt would likely move the team forward a little quicker, he's both more of a running threat and more likely to take the ball to the line, Priestland looks okay, but it's just a bit deep and in not taking the ball up he's offering nothing himself nor bringing inside runners into the game, and it's a bad call not to use runners like Garvey, Faletau and Banahan as inside runners, it's even a job you could give Clark if you started with Banahan at 12 in some plays and would hide Clark's handling more.
So apart from 9's poor kicking, and his slowness to the breakdown- which I maintain was there- and Priestland standing too deep and acting as a variable pivot, the half backs were 'ok'? Seems a low bar to me.
I think they were okay when running the ball, not maybe overall as then I would include the kicking in the final analysis.
When running the ball I think Priestland is a little deep, but there are compounding problems with some iffy handling in the pack especially tight five and at 12 even if the 10 is a little deep and tends to simply go wide a touch early. I'd still swap in Burns, but then I simply think Burns a better attacking 10.
Some of the Bath play the ball was a little slow, but I don't know I'd put that all on Foutali'i, more Glaws pushed a little more a playing silly buggers than did Bath (at least that was my impression) and in that respect i'd want to look more at the clearout/presentation work of Bath. Maybe Foutali'i was a little slow, it wouldn't surprise me if you'd spotted a trend I hadn't, mostly they weren't able to string enough phases together to highlight that concern enough to me at least.
And even with their poor phase play and kicking the ball away I still think they'd have won with a better setpiece, though once you start playing IF there's always Glaws could have done less daft stuff. But just based on the game in question had Bath stretched themselves to winning lineouts and scrums, playing the ball from scrums they'd won instead of doing nothing, and not being flummoxed by the slow feet of Heinz they'd have won at a canter.
One thing which again struck me is how often the ball was spun down the line, and so often I wonder what's the point. There was a near beautiful spin put on one pass by Twelvetrees and it was only let down by being absurdly forward. Why the players can't simply fling the ball down the line as one sees more of in league I don't know, there's of course a time for a spin pass, just not maybe every pass.
Overall I was (based on one viewing) happy enough with Foutali'i, especially when the likely alternative of Cook doesn't suggest to me much increase in the speed of phase play, whereas on Priestland if he's to continue needs a better plan alongside Max Clark or the return of Tapuai and yes he could usefully look to challenge the line more. What they do about the tight five I don't know, other than pray the players like Auterac and Thomas can avoid injury.
