Ok, I know it's nit-picking when we are top of the league, but our right-side defence continues to leak poor tries.

Three tries scored down that channel on Saturday, two down to poor marking / not taking the man with the ball.

We have heard a few times that Fonua "needs to work on" his defence . Jack Logan lost his place for less than that but Fonua continues to be flat footed whilst players go past him.
Fonua is a fine winger, but I don't think he tackles well enough to play centre. It was certainly what held him back at Melbourne Storm as he struggled to get to his man.

Widnes targeted us out wide in the away fixture and they aren't stupid enough not to do the same in the match on Friday. I think I would start the team with Pryce at 6 to give us that bit of coolness at pivot, and put Tuimavave at right centre.

We have had some exciting games, but personally I am fed up of the opposition coming back at us in the middle of each match. This will find us out soon if it isn't fixed.

I've said this before structured teams at any level attack right to left making more work for teams right side D, we are making a few bad decisions helping the momentum swing for the opposing teams, we are playing some good sides though & still getting the results, I would worry when we don't win.

Agree, right centre is the hardest place to defend on a pitch for me.

Our problem is coming as we aren't getting our numbers right so we always leave the overlap on that side but it is stronger when we play Michaels there, but you don't pick wingers on their defence. With Fonua his problem is he does turn in a lot so even one place out onto the wing wont help him, needs to keep himself square to the play

Square hips & move forward. We are back pedalling a lot out wide, while we have improved so much in attack, we do need to tighten up in D. Something I'm sure the boys will be working on.

hadley coming on tightened up the right side on saturday

Incredible,beating every team we come across(except Leeds)but still not enough for some.
Only perfect displays will suffice for some it seems.

I thought the same.

Funnily enough, first thing that me and a mate said about when he came into the stadium and sat down. Very noticeable.

1 try was outside the winger. And the structure was all wrong on another. Saw Fonua miss 1 genuine tackle and that was from a scrum and didn't cost us anything
Fonua started as wing and went to centre. It didn't hold him back. Harris n chambers were prefered centres
If you're genuinely suggesting moving Fonua from that centre position you probably need to re watch the last 4 games. Even on Saturday in a disjointed team performance
1 of our top tacklers
A try
FIVE off loads - some outrageous with 3 n 4 men on
Won 2 pens I think although could of got bout 10!!
Think the changing of the combos ie carlos in that defensive position from. It's nothing too major tho. Most teams attack predominantly to that side as well. Plus carlos is a left sided player. He's said as much himself. Look at most his contributions last few weeks and it's mostly right to left

It's fair enough to keep asking the question IMO as if we want to challenge for silverware later in the season we can't afford to have any weaknesses. That said, I agree with others who have said Fonua isn't the sole reason for our issues and, IMO, moving him to the wing isn't going to solve the problem. I thought he got caught flat footed for Saints second try, but I can't see why he was at fault for the first and fourth.

Fonua is offering so much going forward at right centre, he's becoming more influential week on week and is adding a new dimension for us as a right edge attacker, that he should retain his role whilst the coaching team work to fine tune and correct our defensive issues on that side.

I did note 2 things on Saturday though:

1) Our right edge seems to defend better when it has to, i.e. the game is in the balance, than it does when we are 2 or 3 scores ahead. I've noticed this all season. Is this down to some mental / focus thing or is it down to small in game adjustments that are being made?

2) I thought Carlos put in a great defensive stint in the second half, covering cut backs inside the centre and second row. Any lazy defence would have been exposed but Carlos kept to his task. Pryce has been guilty of some lazy defence (on occasion) this season IMO, so that was a good sign for me.

A championship team shouldn't have weaknesses like that

Too right , it is NOT enough for me, and I am happy to say so.

Switch Yeaman to Right Centre?

It's taken him 12 years to learn to pass left, don't confuse the lad now....

Yeamo has admitted he cant play right side

great point, I think we switched off after running in 2 simple tries and your flair players like Fonua & Naughton are more prone to this

At least we can rule out Leon being the problem now as some were suggesting a few weeks back

I can guarantee you that the coaching team will be analysing our shortcomings in more detail than is being done on here.

Just because you're winning doesn't mean you can't improve.

I started off thinking it was mainly Fonua's fault but have been coming to the conclusion it is usually not that simple.

Saints second try, we just didn't have enough people there to counter Saint's attackers, in fact it wasn't even close.

Who would be responsible on the field for organising that?

RH side defence, LH side attack, speed of PTB, amount of penalties we give away, etc etc, ...
we could go on and on micro analysing.....
But surely, if that same team is at the top of the league then isn't that all that matters ?? ALL things considered that team are better than all the rest, and thats where we are now.

Where Radds believes we need improvement, I trust he and his coaching staff will carry on sorting it out and improving us.

You talk sense pal, we are in a good position right now eh.

It certainly needs improvement if we're going to have any chance of beating the NRL champions in the WCC

We should always be striving towards perfection, and we do seem to have shipped in a lot of sloppy tries down that right channel. I'm not too sure what the solution is, probably a mixture of poor reads by individuals and the defence getting sucked into the middle - plenty to improve on.

You don't win anything from peaking in May/June, as long as these things are ironed out by mid-August and we continue to gradually improve, happy days.

Where is the harm in discussing things like this when the team and coaching staff will certainly be aware of it and working to correct it? As long as the discussion is free of ranting and/or insults I really don't see the problem.

A forum can't be just happy-clapping any more than it can just be doom-mongering. Neither is healthy.

Dodgy is an understatement ! You can see teams targeting that side constantly.

Kevin Brown will be all over this area of the pitch so we'd better be getting it right on Friday.