Cheers CIMAN, consider yourself hired as my go-to scrum guru. I have felt over the last two weeks that too many are getting on the back of the player they see suffering and not understanding what's happening on the "blindside", be you watching from one side of the pitch or like Tommy frae Comber & I, on TV.CIMANFOREVER wrote:Firstly a comment about Lowry. The way he runs, his accelaration through the gap, his dummy/ sidestep and how he passes reminds me of one D. Humphries in his pomp. A long way for him to go, but just my opinion on initial viewings.BaggyTrousers wrote:Something of a negative selection I feel, my guess is that with Old Dan Cole, who's the antithesis of a merry old soul, they didn't want to start against him with an inexperienced prop. However I tell you this, for the second week in succession I am referring this to my scrum guru CIMAN, for to my eyes there were at least as many problems on the other side, just as last week when TOT was getting the rounds of the kitchen from Wee Den Buckley but people here seemed only to see Belham stuffing Warwick.Dave wrote:It was so much better with EOS and Moore. Warwick has nowhere near enough power for a LH.Lurgan Lad wrote:Interesting to see what they do with Lowry now, if his future is as a 10 he needs to be getting experience there. Now sure why we started with Warwick rather than O'Sullivan, don't see Warwick as a better scrummager.
I await the decision of the oracle.
Warwick comes and goes during the season, finished the season very well last season having looked duff for months. But LOOK ..... it's not Big Licence's fault that Callum hated FOLK so much that he got his agent to talk to Worcester before Bryn had a chance to talk about a new contract, hated the guts of that weasel, Prof Twitchen, the worst coach ever to pull on an Ulster trackie. I mean FFFS Anscombe could drink his weight in booze on a daily basis but at least he had some idea about rugby. FOLK Even the useless STA would not see FOLK in his way as a coach. I'll say nothing about the liar Gibbes.
Ref the Praps, where to start. Bateman and Cole are two very good props and that was a hoary old Tiggers Frontvrow. Its there best unit in an average team. Their bench frow is nowhere to that standard. Bateman had Kane on toast. Bateman has been around for donkeys and is a very good technical scrummager. He dominated against Saints the previous week as well. From what I saw, it was straight pressure and technique forcing Kane to drop or wheel repeatedly. He collapsed at least twice in a straight drive, as did Warwick. Now, in Kanes defence, a couple of the pens looked like a combination of his collapse and Cole getting a drive in on Rory. Cole had an easy ride from AW- When Cole drove straight Warwick buckled. Cole could do what he wanted, and was able to angle in on Rory putting extra pressure on 2 & 3. Some say illegally, I say fair do's. Ref was never gonna penalise Tiggers against a scrum in so much trouble. I dont think its a lock or back row issue either. We had a lions lock, a very solid scrummager in AOC, two very good international back rows and a good 8 locking that scrum. Its purely down to the fact Tiggers had two better starting props. AW is not at this standard and this has been shown repeatedly. Hes bench break glass at best. Kane is 22-23 and as you saw against Connacht, is ahead of TOT in pure scrummaging, but he was wrecked last night by an experienced technical scrummager. I wouldnt throw the baby out yet as I believe, like TOT he'll improve. Hes inconsistent and still learning. Next season will be his key season imo. Cole, although everyone takes the pi$h, is a multiple England and Lions TH. Not very dynamic but can hold up a scrum against the best, and miles ahead of AW so is anyone surprised Tiggers pinpointed our current scrum as their one point of advantage?
A word of caution- the Tiggers frow bench was weak, so when tiring Cole and Bateman were hauled ashore we should be careful conflating the steadying scrum. EOS is the future and looks as good a prospect as TOT at tight.
Moore, like Herbst, can lock a scrum. But like Herbst and RAY has ongoing fitness and weight issues to sort. If hes professional hes an asset. If all were fit and firing our tight heads would've been Moore and Herbst imo. At loose, until EOS and ANOTHER are signed or come through we're goosed for this season. I agree with Baggy, no way would EOS start versus Cole, and we miss Black- our version of Cole at loose.ps we were lucky Tiggers didnt have Genge fit!
Both weeks has been a torrent of abuse at Warwick but yesterday I was struck on one replay by the sight of Warwick holding up his side and there was Ross Kane's bake on the ground almost under Big Licence's feet so our problems are more than just on the loosehead.
At least after a wait, it appears that we at least have a fat TH who can hold up a scrum, always a starting place in any scrum.
On another subject, I see Newcastle beat Toulon courtesy of a pen try for a high tackle to prevent the try. Hmmmmm some people get those, we don't. In that game had the Toulon player not gone high, the conversion was going to be right on the touchline, however, the pen try gave Newcastle a 1 point win. Costly