Quote getdownmonkeyman="getdownmonkeyman"I'd agree that the coaching staff would be disappointed with the scoreline, but certainly not the performance. The U18's matched them physically, where they came undone, was capitalising on mistakes, which AIS did do whilst not making that many themselves (we also dropped the ball in our own twenty a couple of times too).
The key difference in my eyes was the decision making. Nine times out of ten what they did came off, especially close to the line, this was one are that disappointed me a little, we rushed ther playmaker/kicker near the line and invariably it would lead to a score. I will contradict myself though, by saying some of our goal line defence was excellent.
As stated in Walter's match report, AIS certainly benefitted for having a few games under their belt, where the U18s timing was a little off, which probably resulted in some of the dropped ball.
Overall, an enjoyable game where the scoreline did not truly reflect the competitiveness of the game.
Special mention to Jordan Burke for two exceptional one-on-one takles after the AIS (7 and 15) had gone through the line.'"
I would say that is a pretty fair assessment of the match... The forwards more than held their own.. infact you could argue we looked bigger and stronger in places.... as you say, some exceptional 1 on 1 stops from Burke when they went clean through.
90% of the first half was spent in and around the wire quarter of the pitch.. and there was some exceptional goal-line defence at times.... the aussies had a proper scrum half though who knew how to execute plays close to the line... so they were going to score quite a few with that much possession.
wire youngsters looked very rusty compared to the aussies.. which was probably reflected in the amount of dropped ball and mistakes... which cost plenty of points on the night.
