Embra vs Connacht Sun 25/10

[dolf_lundgren]

I would agree it’s not as black and white as no one has improved. Almost all have to a degree, Dean and Johnstone have improved a lot too.

What I would add is that our handling generally isn’t great, so often we look laboured because the ball has to be taken at a standstill, Leinster are the ultimate but their passing is always crips and bringing runners onto the ball. So that is one respect where we could have done much better.

Agree n the attacking patterns, too often we seem to be waiting for one of the back 3 to do something special, I really like the look of Taylor though, no idea why he doesn’t start more games, he seems our most complete centre in terms of skill set

[bignose]

I think we have seen individuals improve under hodge. VdW place kicking has greatly improved, VDM and Kinghorn defensively have improved, taylor has come through well. Unfortunately it is the combined that is still not there with a lack of cohesive attacking strategy

I suspect that Paterson has been involved in kicking skills, but place kicking is not really the main part of an attack coach's remit anyway.

Defence is certainly a different coach and set-up.

Over the past five seasons or so, when has Edinburgh's attack structure ever looked like anything other than "chuck it across the park and hope that something happens"?

[The Feral Goat]

I think we have seen individuals improve under hodge. VdW place kicking has greatly improved, VDM and Kinghorn defensively have improved, taylor has come through well. Unfortunately it is the combined that is still not there with a lack of cohesive attacking strategy

I suspect that Paterson has been involved in kicking skills, but place kicking is not really the main part of an attack coach's remit anyway.

Defence is certainly a different coach and set-up.

Over the past five seasons or so, when has Edinburgh's attack structure ever looked like anything other than "chuck it across the park and hope that something happens"?

Fair point he is attack coach rather than backs coach.

[doedin]

We do have some set moves in our play book! The disallowed Sau try was a good move and well executed, not a penalty for me. However the thing that really TonySpreadbury me off is the lack of set preplanned moves for when we get a penalty in the oppo 22. Instead of everyone knowing what to do and executing it we seem to be headless chickens and end up making a directionless kick behind which would normally appear as a surprise to our wingers! However more generally we just seem to be too keen to move ball laterally without engaging the defences and ending up with 2 defenders on our winger. We have also developed a bad habit of sitting too deep in attack and leave defences with time to make up space and drift out wide to cover. Part of this is because VdW sits too deep and also our poor ball handling skills. We really need a 10 who can sit flatter, make defences commit and stop them drifting wide too early. Lets sign Fin!

[robdinsdale]

We do have some set moves in our play book! The disallowed Sau try was a good move and well executed, not a penalty for me. However the thing that really TonySpreadbury me off is the lack of set preplanned moves for when we get a penalty in the oppo 22. Instead of everyone knowing what to do and executing it we seem to be headless chickens and end up making a directionless kick behind which would normally appear as a surprise to our wingers! However more generally we just seem to be too keen to move ball laterally without engaging the defences and ending up with 2 defenders on our winger. We have also developed a bad habit of sitting too deep in attack and leave defences with time to make up space and drift out wide to cover. Part of this is because VdW sits too deep and also our poor ball handling skills. We really need a 10 who can sit flatter, make defences commit and stop them drifting wide too early. Lets sign Fin!

We've been scoring nice tries off first phase ball and set plays for the last couple of seasons.

That issue with penalty advantage has been infuriating me for as well. At least we try an aimless kick now - we used to just carry on trucking it up through the forwards for a couple of minutes.