Whatever your personal opinion is on Rog, and I know he decides the nation, but he is a great and very interesting analyst of the game.RobbieRockBoy wrote: ↑February 12th, 2021, 10:53 am RoG on Lowe and defence
"It is undeniable that James Lowe was the central figure for the George North and Louis Rees-Zammit scores. The winger kicked beautifully and added a positive dimension to Ireland’s attack but his defensive decision-making in those instances need further scrutiny and explaining.
The first one, from George North at 13-6, is a straight-up case of looking for a phantom attacker (Halfpenny) who is so much less of a threat at that moment. There is only one live threat in that moment, it’s George North, you hit him stone dead, get him down on the ground. End of story. Why push off onto the ‘ghost’ outside? The threat is North. Hit the threat.
If his miscalculation for the Zammit-Rees try wasn’t worse, it was just as concerning. In layman’s terms, if you’re the second last defender, then you should be lining up the second last attacker. There was no threat inside, Ireland had numbers, but again Lowe shot up and in on North, forcing Hugo Keenan in one and facilitating a stroll in for Rees-Zammit, although kudos for a serious pair of wheels on Tadhg Furlong in his effort to get across.
Let’s be fair and apply context here. We are talking about fractions of seconds. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. But scanning in front of you, watching where the ball is and numbering off is a critical part of Test defending. If it’s a five-on-three for the attack, of course Lowe would have had to do something spectacular.
But Ireland were lined well, it was five-v-five (in fact probably six v five in Ireland’s favour), hence you number off against the man opposite you. Lowe hit in a channel, which has essentially created a problem when there was no try on
If his miscalculation for the Zammit-Rees try wasn’t worse, it was just as concerning. In layman’s terms, if you’re the second last defender, then you should be lining up the second last attacker. There was no threat inside, Ireland had numbers, but again Lowe shot up and in on North, forcing Hugo Keenan in one and facilitating a stroll in for Rees-Zammit, although kudos for a serious pair of wheels on Tadhg Furlong in his effort to get across.
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Hopefully at some stage he returns to our island to impart his knowledge on Irish rugby.