James Parsons

But man, when he's got the seven on his back, I reckon that's when he's at his absolute best.

Big red flag for me in the Blues is 77% defence.

They're the leading defence in the comp.

Now, the Highlanders pounced, and Adam Lennox, well, full credit.

I've done this at MPC for a while.

He's a very smart footballer and plays on instinct really well, and he got rewarded.

But I think the discipline caught the Blues out, but then their errors, the Highlanders just made them pay for any error.

um they they managed to score from yeah and their exits led to that yeah terrible um so key areas that the blues when they win like those the defense is high the discipline's good and they get out of their half that just wasn't that wasn't there for most of the night though

You know, like even though the scoreboard was ticking along, it just, I don't know, maybe it's because I'm far too invested in the Blues and I watch it too intently, but I never felt, I was like, man, it's just, there wasn't a flow.

And the only thing, and I asked Bern after the game, and the only thing I didn't sort of put it down to is there was a lot of change the last two weeks.

But conceding 80 points, best defence in the comp, like...

Maybe it is the chopping and changing of the squads for the last two weeks, and then once they get more settled, they're going to find their mojo a little bit.

But there's definitely, there'd be some concern.

I know Craig McGrath certainly won't be happy with those metrics, and we'll be expecting a lot better.

But I also do like how the Highlanders were ruthless.

I know they had their issues and the Blues scored their tries.

But, man, any mistake they pounced on and made them pay.

And they're only four points outside the six.

Like, you get this sense.

Everyone's like, oh, this season's done.