Pulling apart the first half of the Sharks debacle

Coming off the Dragons win, a 9 day turnaround and a flicker of hope that we're in still the running for finals, you'd have hoped we came up with a strong effort against the Sharks.

We didn't.

26-0 down at half time. Game was over

It was bad. Error riddled & poor discipline. I actually watched back the first half again this morning looking to pinpoint the bad moments & events (and the guilty parties). Used a lot of paper. The ones in bold & italics were (what I thought) key issues that led to tries (they are underlined):

• 2nd min: Robson high shot - penalty that got them out of their end
• 3rd min: Derby attempted intercept leads to 6 again - to be fair not really an error
• 4th min: short grubber for Trindall try
• 8th min: Nanai dropped ball deep into attack
• 9th min: Sharks shortside raid - Purdue & Burns rushed up an took no-one
• 10th min: Edwards forward pass on last
• 11th min: Hess gives away 6 again on last with extra leg pull
• 12th min: Cotter knock on midfield
• 13th min: Offside 6 again, Cotter & Nanai give away penalty, Sharks take 2
• 15th min: Derby escort penalty. Penalty to Sharks in Redzone
• 16th min: Fonua-Blake try. Splits Dearden & Bateman close to line
• 21st min: Sharks shortside raid - Purdue came in and took no-one
• 24th min: Laybutt knock on when we had best attacking look in 1st half. Likely bombed try
• 26th min: Burns incorrect play the ball. Hand over ball 30 m from our line
• 29th min: Bateman penalty for stripping, when we finally had some field position
• 30th min: Drinkwater slips/falls over and fails to stop Mulitalo (try). Laybutt a statue creating overlap
• 34th min: Sharks get 6 again after a grubber into a sea of legs - to be fair not really an error
• 36th min: Sharks spread and Mulitalo over for 2nd. Derby came in on Talakai and didn't stop offload
• 37th min. Drinkwater drops bomb
• 38th min: Robson dummy half pass to no-one. Ball regathered and set continues. Messy but not a big deal

Thing that strikes me here is how many people stuffed up at one point in the half: Robson, Hess, Edwards, Cotter, Nanai, Bateman, Burns, Purdue, Laybutt, Derby, Drinkwater (granted the last 2 are frequent flyers when it comes to errors). And this has been the pattern all year - shitloads of errors across the 17

And most of these errors are coming from experienced players - only Purdue, Laybutt & Derby (though I'm totally out of patience on Derby) can possibly play the young & green card. 

Pretty much are all coach killing errors. I'm sure Todd isn't saying, "let's give away some cheap 6 agains" or "Burnsy - throw in a shitty play the ball". 

That said, what is Todd saying & doing? Our centres still seem all at sea in defence, and our edge defence is still a weakness. Our attack seems clunky rather than slick. The Todd mantra seems to be finish your sets and kick to corners. Sounds a nice simple plan perhaps, but we're not executing it. This week or this season (apart from maybe the Penrith away game)

There were actually some good moments of play. Burns catching a bomb in attack 15m out. Bitungane looking strong and lifting the side when he came on. Deaden & Drinkwater running a cool wrap around that almost led to a try. Neame pulling on a series of heavy shots trying to force a Sharks error & lift the side. Drinkwater making a bomb close to sideline an out on the full by making sure he was in touch. Slim pickings.

*sigh*