Analytics in rugby is in the stone age compared to the NFL. In the NFL in-game analysis alone is so sharp that a missed tackle would be blood in the water. They train their players on fine details, like opposition eye-line, feet position, hip position, tendencies, etc. If rugby had the intellectual capacity of American football, even at primary school level, the likes of Damian and Steph would have been found out before ever coming close to making the pros. Rugby punditry and journalism have the collective IQ of a three-hundred-year-old stale fart trapped in a jar.
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I heard the commentators going on about how many tackles he made…but they were all process phase tackles. What they don’t mention is he missed 5….three in the lead up to the near try that Kitshoff saved.
He was a constant presence at the breakdown they say. But he accomplished nothing. At least 5 times he was over the ball and bottled out. He has no instinct for fetching.
But what about his ball carrying…wasn’t that great. Nope 5 toothless carries for 13 metres hardly changed a thing.
Added to his 3 penalties conceded, the golden boy in practical terms had another disastrous outing. We can’t go into the WC with two flanks, Dud and Kolisi, neither of which is a factor at the breakdown. Posters wonder why Bargie dominated possession in the second half, look no further than our toothless breakdown performance.