I just read that Nathan Davis played in the centres for Wentworthville today. I heard he recently left the Titans but didn't here he returned home to us. Does anybody know whether he signed with Parra or with Wenty? I thought Davis played well with Titans last year and showed he can play first grade. I don't know of the reason he suddenly left Titans but I happy he is playing for us and he may be a better pick up then George Jennings and Auva'a. Welcome home Nathan.
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Yep hes on the same level as the other 2 thats fo shiz. How is he at Hooker? me thinks its a Wenty signing though.
What, re: hooker. He played in the centres?
i know he's a centre, i'm being saracstic as that is the position we need at the moment.
Ok mate, well we need a new right centre as Taka's defence is terrible.
Defensively Taka has been poor for some time. Late last year he was developing a bad habit of not sliding in defence and jamming in, running out of the line and trying to put a big hit on. But unfortunately when he jammed in and ran out of the line (putting huge pressure on the guys inside and outside him) he would miss 3 out of every 4 attempts. Of the three rounds this year his defensive reads has been poor and has got worse each round. I totally accept centre is the hardest defensive position in the game, but he is not learning from his mistakes in defence. In short he needs to stop jamming in and running out of the line and move up and slide, not up and jam in. All he needs to do is watch Jennings as Jennings is the best defensive centre in the game. Last year French was our weak link in defence but Taka now has that tag. In attack Taka is very good, but we can't continue to carry a guy that continually has poor defensive reads, particularly when we have Auva'a, George Jennings and now Nathan Davis playing second grade.
You watched a different game to me as his defensive reads are poor. But for our good scramble defence he would have let in a heap of tries. He is starting to remind me of Eric Jr running out of the line and missing his man. Its pretty simple move up and slide out, not sprint up causing a staggered defensive line and jam in causing a massive overlap (101 defence). What he is doing is high risk and even the best defensive centre (Jennings) in the game rarely does what Taka does and runs out of the line and jams in. If Jennings doesn't do it neither should Taka. Its not hard just slide to his right when the opposite have a set backline play. SLIDE, SLIDE and SLIDE.
Big outside backs like Takairangi always jam - that is how their coaches want them to defend. If they wanted a centre to play sliding defence they would pick someone with better lateral movement.
There is nothing wrong with jamming in as long as he makes that tackle and shuts the ball play down. Taka's strike rate for shutting the ball down when he jams in is around 30%, where as it needs to be around 90%. If he is too slow to slide like most centres then replace him with someone that can.
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