Hello Rafa.

He cannot solely be blamed for many of the errors in defence down his side. The defence only operates when everyone does their job, Gardner himself hasn't missed a great deal of tackles. Last night actually having a centre may well have helped him rather than a walkabout Gilmour who seemed to be more interested in attacking up the middle.

At one point I wondered whether Gilmour had been shifted inside and Flannery put out wide, until Gilmour eventually got back into position.

A fair point well put.

I never said he should be.
But he's not a kid, by now he should have gained the experience needed to defend well, even when he doesnt have Gidley there.

So, does he stick on his man and let the centre run past him as Gilmour has gone walkabout, or does he come inside and allow the winger to go past him as happened last night?

Yes he makes mistakes defensively, however he's the easy target for blame as he's the last man. The amount of times he was left 2 or 3 on one was poor last night. Is it his fault that he doesn't pick the right man every time?

Gotta say i agree with this.

This season, Gardner has been a bit of a let down defensively, IMO. He seems to be making an awful lot of incorrect decisions that he wasn't making last season. He comes flying in, leaving his opposite wing man with no-one to beat. Needs sorting as soon as possible.

His flying dive nowhere near the Bradford Try was quality!...

They do have voices though, and if you have an overlap on one side, then you open your mouth and get players to slide across.

It's about reading the game.

I think you're missing my point.
I'm in no way blaming Ade soley for our loss last night. The whole team was a shambes, but we did see Ade's weaknesses exposed and that needs addressing, along with the weakenesses of the whole squad.

A serious question, ( I know they are usually few and far between)

Have other clubs looked at Saints defensive pattern and seen that they defend "narrow"

It would appear that they do leave room on the outside and invite opposition to have a go at them on the outside.

Merely an observation.

I think our defence has gone down this year, doesnt seem to have the same cohesion as last year. That said Gidley's defence is underrated and we missed him out wide

That and our penalty quota rising considerably are the two aspects of Slick Mick's leadership I was seriously worried about, and with good reason it would seem.

Agreed

I don't think you are blaming him solely for the loss, but whilst he does have weaknesses, as all players do, I think you're missing my point that it's not solely down to him that tries were scored down that side tonight. They were down to the defensive team down that side failing, whilst he is part of that team he is certainly not on his own.

All this point missing is too much!!!!

better that than the village one.

Jesus... 4 pages of utter garbage.

He was left exposed by a 2nd rower and a centre that weren't there. I'd like to see some of the people calling Ade on here go 1-on-3 and see how they do.

Well, I for one would be running as fast as my little legs could take me in the opposite direction!

(Mind you, that would kind of fit in with that bizarre backwards move we did at some point during the first half so maybe I wouldn't have looked too out of place on Friday.

)

Our defence isn't as good as it was under Daniel Anderson but apart from Ade wandering away from his spot sometimes this season and letting in the odd try as a result, I can't see how he was any more or less responsible than anyone else on the pitch for our naff defensive performance on Friday night.

Our defence, on the whole, under Potter has been excellent.

One dodgy display and suddenly we cannot catch, we cannot kick, we cannot tackle, we give too many penalties away and the players are all impotent with buck teeth and 4 eyes.

This thread is ridiculous and the amount of people jumping on some badly informed band wagon is fuggin' ridonkulous.

I second that!

Our goal line/scramble defence has been pretty much but not further in. That's been more haphazard (in matches other than on Friday I mean - Friday was just pretty dismal all round).

Our discipline generally has been noticeably poorer all season. That might not matter to you but it does to me because we give away pentalties and we make our job ten times harder than it needs to be and puts us at risk of losing more games. Damn shame really.

The idea that we were angels under Anderson is a fallacy, look at the number of penalties we gave away under his stewardship.

Poor Ade, he was working his rocks off Gilly must have hated that game, he looked uncomfy and must have been made up to hear the final hooter and just get home to bed, as would have longy and KC. Poor Ade.