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'Laughable': Moses Mbye shrugs off talk of unrest at Dragons

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

St George Illawarra utility Moses Mbye has laughed off suggestions of player unrest at the Dragons and says uncertainty about Anthony Griffin’s coaching future is only natural given the side’s poor recent form.

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The Dragons entered the State of Origin period a genuine chance of playing finals football but finished it with decisive losses to fellow finals aspirants Brisbane and the Sydney Roosters.

The club’s board met on Tuesday and Griffin’s future was on the agenda, but Mbye said extra scrutiny was to be expected in the lead-up to the finals.

“It’s that time of the year where if you’re not performing very well, you’re going to be under the pump,” he said.

“The last couple of weeks we haven’t been playing good footy.

“The pressure comes back on us as a playing group and as a club. Obviously, there are headlines that you don’t really want to be reading. But that’s just the reality of what it is.”

Griffin is known as something of a hard taskmaster but Mbye dismissed reports the playing group was unhappy with his coaching style.

“It’s a bit laughable to be honest,” he said.

Mbye said the only way to ease pressure on the coach would be to improve on-field, starting with Friday’s match against Manly.

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If the Dragons lose they will be two wins and points differential out of the top eight with only six games in hand to close the gap.

“It doesn’t really matter what I say,” he said.

“I’m not going to stand here and throw fuel on the fire or tell everyone why (Griffin) is so good or why he’s bad.

“We’re going to be judged on how we turn up on Friday night.”

Mbye was at a loss to explain the Dragons’ recent form.

“I’m not quite sure what’s been missing,” he said.

“It’s something that we’ve been looking at during the week.

“There are a lot of variables in rugby league: teams change, fatigue, injuries.

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“You just need to prepare as best you can and for us that starts now.”

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Flankly 53 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
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