Scarlets v Ospreys New Year's Day at 5.15pm

After the match Booth disclosed he had only 26 available who he took to PYS. So it was the 23 plus 3 others. All the others were out through Covid or injury. I would be surprised if both Ashley and Cross would have made the squad if Rhys had been available

@m.summers4 Hi and welcome to the Forum.

IIRC we lost Lake's first lineout which was literally just after he came on but I think the whole cadence was off for that throw. When we get it right, we can be threatening from the lineout, but as you say, we can often also cough it up and get it wrong which costs us possession and momentum.

Our driving maul from the line out has certainly regressed this season. We cough the ball up far too much.

@daves disco I wouldn't say that we have stagnated as such. Injuries and Covid have hit the squad particularly hard in the past few months.

If you actually compare the 2 match day 23s, the Scarlets had by far the stronger squad on paper but we took it to them and we really should have won that game. The 2 interceptions were really costly and we lost that game rather than the Scarlets beating us.

I have been saying for ages now that we get beaten out wide all too easily by defending narrowly and jamming in and that creates gaps out wide and that is what the likes of the Scarlets exploited yesterday.

They sucked us in far too easily.

Its happening almost every game so something needs fixing by someone who knows how to fix it

I agree Jake we should avoid any form of personal insult and be free to debate the strengths and weakness of any player as we see them. Very interesting after match presser from Booth on you tube

You are right Jake. I don't think anybody doubts the resolve and effort of the players. The key point though surely you must accept is that the new owners have ambitious aims and to achieve those aims effort is not enough if you don't have the appropriate ability or you no longer have the ability you once did. We only improve season on season by replacing players who are not up to the job or who are in decline. That is what pro sport the world over is all about. I do think though that insufficient ability or no longer up to it are better terms to use than garbage. Feelings run high after derby losses particularly unneccessary ones and fans the world over are going to be critical.

Our bench outside the front row were weak but cannot have your scum half keeping on sending out no look long passes when going through a few more phases on their line would have given us a two score cushion. Those two interceptions were a 10-14 point swing.

You can add half backs to outside backs Paul in terms of priority for strengthening.

Evans is a total liability. The number of tackles he misses and errors he makes is unforgivable.

@TaI did he miss a lot of tackles and make a lot of errors?

@Jake Bullet He bombed two tries but fortunately Webb bailed him out

Second half performance was trash. No discipline, no foothold, terrible decision making for the interceptions, terrible lack of composure under pressure. Allowed the ref to manufacture a result against a very poor Turk side.

Dan Evans is flat out garbage, waddling around making massive mistakes. Webb melted away when his legs went. Peers and Cross were garbage.

Cant see enough improvement in terms of intelligence and composure.

I don't think we were unlucky Jake we were the authors of our own downfall. The game was there for the taking even for a massively weakened squad but two stupid and unneccessary long pass interceptions from Webb and Collins really turned the momentum.

The really interesting aspect was that Webb showed that nowadays he is a 50 minute player at best. Does lots of very good things still but when he is fatigued he makes mistakes. The fact Booth kept him on for 80 tells you what Booth think s of Aubrey.

I thought Josh Thomas showed in patches he is a decent player but fell away a bit with no relief on the bench. Outside of Zebre and the Dargons we won't face a weaker side this year so a big opportunity for an away win was missed.

Just listened to Booth's presser. Clearly pissed off but said tean changed four times on Thursday and the 26 players they brought to the game were the only ones available be it for Covid or injury reasons.

@Fiddler I just watched it as well and Booth was clearly annoyed at the mistakes we made in the game. It can't have been easy changing the side four times in 4 hours and Will Griffiths going from 6 to lock, back to 6 and finally back to lock again and having just the 26 available players was also a huge downside.

There is talk in the News thread about us looking for a defence coach and for me, that cannot come soon enough as we continually defend too narrowly and also end up getting outflanked after a few phases. As you mentioned in the News thread, the lack of pace at 15 yesterday was a major flaw in our game plan but sadly. that was all that we had available.