Tuiloma was guilty of failing to track back and defend for the second goal. I think we need to cut Bill some slack......how can you expect a 19 yo to play like "the godfather" on the back of a season playing regional age group football in France.
I have to disagree with you on this. Its international football and while the point you make about friendlies and testing players has merit, players still need to do their jobs and lets not make excuses for them. There are days we will get outclassed and today was one of them. Being outclassed and giving a good account vs being outclassed and not turning up are two different things. We were certainly the latter. They are a good side I agree but we just offered nothing. There was a vocal group that cried 'but Tuiloma plays DM for OM and that's his true position so we should play him there and that will fix our problems'. It got louder even more so after Payne played in that spot at Mt Smart. Now I didn't expect a performance like the godfather but he got sucked out of position all day and actually looked like he was well out of his depth. If anything, he showed that he is most definitely not a DM because he had no positional awareness for the role. If that's the one he plays at club level then you default to that and as he has been playing there, I expected a modicum of understanding. It makes me ask if he gets tested at all as a DM in the comp he plays at or if in fact (and I think is more likely the case) he is just not a DM at all. He was not playing there in NZ and I can see why. All he needed to do was live in front of the back two in that hole, screen them and if anyone came into that zone on the ball, track them or if any runners came through, track them and then hand off. Turn the ball carriers away, harry them 5 yards up and then hand over and back off but DO NOT leave that hole. He just did nothing resembling that and as I made a particular point of watching him, he just roamed like grazing cattle looking for the next piece of grass. You can argue that he plays regional football but whats Doyle come from? He was exposed but not as badly at Tuiloma.
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As Sackofspuds said, Either people weren't doing their job or tactically we got it wrong. It could well be that Hudson got Tuiloma tactically wrong and his performance was the product of coaching but considering he plays there for club, I am not so sure. Hudson for all his noise he made in his conferences, showed that he did not do his research or watch hours of football because I think the players he put on the park were the ones that excite him and are attacking. That's all well and good but I think he figured out his best attacking 11 and said 'fuck it' without regard to some other facets of the game that needed attention and subsequently got exposed. Where else has McGlinchey ever played so deep? Not even in Ricki days did he sit that deep and certainly has not for club. That might be harsh but there was not one player in front of the back 4 that offered any defensive steel at all. Chris James ran his bollocks off but in so much as you can mow down everything, you need others to help out and I think he ran himself off the park. In fact I think the team may have worked better had James sat deeper and McGlinchey sat higher but then what do I know.
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This game really highlighted the ugly sister that we can't hide anymore in that internationally, the cupboard is very much bare for DMs and ones that will screen the back 2 and mop up, sit in the hole. James is a ball playing DM but he was higher and running his ass off this morning. I guess now that Payne has been exposed and Tuiloma too, maybe Dan Keat will get a look. Not sure he is the answer but he is one that's yet to get a real shot at it. Regardless whether he is successful or not, it highlights a gapping jumbo sized hole in our team where we just keep hoping we still had an 'Ivan' (whom at 38 is our best DM and thats embarrassing). Michael Eagar is 'too slow' but I wonder if he would be that woeful. Would Butler have been that bad? Those are valid questions.
