An exciting finish saved the game as a spectacle somewhat, but up til then that was one of the worst games I've ever seen. Awful performance from us in pretty much every regard.
Defensive system was very poor against an extremely average Cardiff attack, the players clearly don't know where to be, Halaholo cut straight through for his try on first phase ball (?) running a simple outside to in line.
Attack was rudderless, first try only came after 29 painful phases of one out runners struggling to break the gainline, again lads blatantly didn't know what to do at times. Cardiff had a 96% tackle success rate, because we did very little to make things difficult for them. They were able to chop down our ball carriers with low tackles very easily. Backs only created one clean break, which was due to a rubbish read from Cuthbert.
Set piece was pretty good, 100% success at lineout and scrum. We're still very bad at kickoffs though.
We won a few turnovers at the breakdown but didn't protect our own ball well enough.
Whereas the coaches have to take the blame for the lack of structure in attack and defence, the players have to shoulder the responsibility for the atrocious discipline. Muldoon's yellow and McKeon's the penalties were incredibly infuriating.
Skill levels were poor, conditions were a lot worse than they appeared on TV but I was still disappointed with the handling on show.
Positives, hmm. Delahunt, Carey, Farrell, and Ili all brought a good impact from the bench. Heffernan was immense, but had to work with some very dodgy ball. Dillane showed signs of being back to his abrasive best.
Being realistic, I don't think we're going to qualify for Europe this year, I'd be happy with a clear improvement in our structures and development of individual players.
