9th March 2016
What a great powerful performance by the team. Our forwards dominated the Roosters pack as their team looked to be struggling in the heat after their recent WSC trip to England. So that now makes it 4 from 4 for Maguire for Round 1 wins. Off season preperation is certainly a string in his cap. Its a great start, but we still have a long way to go with 12 more wins to qualify for the finals.
Such a great game was soured by the injury crisis we suddenly find ourselves in. Reynolds fractured jaw 6 weeks, Sutton pec injury 16 weeks, Musgrove hand injury 12 weeks directly from the game. This is on top of Tom Burgess, Crichton, Gosiewski and Goolagong who are all out for length spells. And we had Inglis hobling, Clark and Cook concussed and Turner a shoulder twing.
Congratulations to our 4 debutants, Damian Cook, Hymel Hunt, Zane Musgrove and Cody Walker who became the 1114th to 1117th Rabbitohs to play First Grade since 1908.
Rugby Union forward convert Toby Rudolf looks to be a winner, with a great forward display with great stepping skills, ability to offload and pass. The try he setup for O'Donnell through was a gem.
U18s this week had a real battle on their hands at Brooky, it was a see-sawing affair that ended up in a draw and they remained undefeated and in second place on the table after 4 rounds.
It was interesting watching the changes this weekend and the effect they had. Firstly the bunker it made for a great TV experiance that removed the referee out of the spotlight with fans watching a 4 way split screen replay from 4 camera angles in realtime in unison. Secondly was the shot clock 30 sec for scrums and 35 seconds for drop outs, all looked like they went well, especially as the players tired later in the game. Finally the 8 interchanges. While only a slight adjustment, it was interesting to see players who were not fit enough keing caught out. But we also saw bigger men not hitting the line as hard later in the game. But it seemed to have a bigger effect on RG and U20s where some games blew out in the last 20 minutes.
Round 1 - Stat Attack
Statistically the Round 1 was a great performance. Completion rates were 90% this week. Errors dropped to 4 from 16 final game last year. We gave away 11 penalities compared to 9 for the final game last year. Souths Effective 1st tackle improved to a average level at 31.3m from 50.9m last year. Our missed tackles were improved to 24 missed tackles from 43 last year. Opposition offloads increased to 8 this week from 5 last year.
Looking at our left side defence - AGray-Goodwin-CWalker-Sutton (0-1-1-6) was decreased to 8 from 11 missed tackles last year. On the right side Johnston-HHunt-Reynolds-Carter (1-1-1-4) were decreased to 7 missed tackles from 11 last year.
Our go forward improved this week to 1494m. Grevsmuhl and Inglis made 10+m per hitup. With Sam Burgess, Carter, Sutton, Goodwin, Inglis and Hymel Hunt making more that 100+m in the match. Defensively Clark was our best in the tackling raking up 35 tackles. With Sam Burgess, Tyrrell, Kyle Turner, Clark and Aaron Gray not missing a tackle.