End of season thoughts

Tim Opolis wrote: I must admit I'm quite surprised by some of the criticism of Pivac. Lets at least wait until December shall we and give the guy and the region a chance? Say after 2 years and there's no significant progress then fair enough, fill your boots.

%100 agree with you mate.seems as if a lot of people have written pivacs obitery notes already.like you say,lets give pivac a full season or so,and see where we are then.

[QUOTE=kcreg] [QUOTE=Tim Opolis] I must admit I'm quite surprised by some of the criticism of Pivac.

Unfortunately we seem to have several delusional fans that believe a history of winning Welsh cups makes us world beaters, we are what we are, a small club with a big name borne from beating a few touring teams decades ago, its about time the fans started to appreciate the fact that we even have a Region, and a great stadium, in the area at all.
What has been achieved in keeping the Scarlets even sitting at the top table of European rugby is a great testament to all those that have run the club both previously and at present. To continue to bemoan the ambition of the club whilst we survive at top level against the odds beggars belief.
Personally I believe the criticism of Pivac is ridiculous after less than a year in charge, what he has done is bring a whole new level of professionalism to the day to day management of the playing squad, it hasn't gone down well with some players that felt a training involved sitting in Costa for half of it eating cakes but it will clearly pay dividends with the fitness levels of the squad, he has introduced a far more open communication policy it seems with Crys16 and is always willing to give up his own time to chat to fans quite openly, we do have a period of transition while he rebuilds the squad to fit with his ideals but don't forget whilst complaining about the players we have lost or released that we have retained some very talented players this season on extended deals and have a true Scarlet professional returning next season to join the coaching team after cutting his teeth in the Premiership.
Plenty to be positive about for me.

Eastern outpost wrote: I'd be interested to learn how the additional income has come through from the new European competition. We heard what was anticipated. How has that turned out in reality? How do the projections alter for future years in the light of the current season? Or, is any reduced income (if that's what it's been this season) a this year thing and future years will be back up in line with expectations?

It's quite possible that Pivac is happy with what he's got.

Tim Opolis wrote: Gate12 wrote: I don't think anyone doesn't appreciate how fortunate we are as an area to have what we do, the main thing that people are pointing out is the targets/ambitions don't seem to be matching up with the actions and highlighting areas where we may come up short next season, and those areas aren't always linked with budgets.   There's been some excellent challenging posts on this thread so sweeping generalisations don't really add a great deal.   Also in fairness to the last few coaches they've all been very open with crys, they just didn't go on the p1ss with supporters that's all. So is this one of the excellent challenging posts? Surprised that you would post something like this Neil. Personal attacks are not usually your stamp.

Edited by Gate12 - 20 May 2015 at 9:40pm

157cb wrote: Micro Duck wrote: It's quite possible that Pivac is happy with what he's got. He needed an 8. He's signed 2 of them. He's lost a lock - he's signed a lock. Along with the emergence of Rawlins, and Kelly back to fitness, he may be happy with that.   I,ve heard Kelly may have to retire because of his arm injury ,if true ? we must bring in a quality second row especially now we are in Champions Cup

Gate12 wrote: Eastern outpost wrote: I'd be interested to learn how the additional income has come through from the new European competition. We heard what was anticipated. How has that turned out in reality? How do the projections alter for future years in the light of the current season? Or, is any reduced income (if that's what it's been this season) a this year thing and future years will be back up in line with expectations?   Good questions, now where do we get the answers.......

RRW, EPC, sensible journalists?

On balance I think we achieved outcomes on a par with what you would expect from this squad of players. 6th in league with a couple of RCC wins is probably about right. So in that respect Pivac has met expectations and performed on a par with his predecessors.

I do however, share some of the concerns described above regarding his appreciation of the need for physicality up front. He seems to have grasped the necessity for depth and power in the front row but this hasn't subsequently translated into the rest of the pack.

A pack with Barclay, Rawlins, Shingler and Cubby will just be outgunned by big competitive forwards in the depths of winter. A point was made above that Rawlins is the biggest tackler in our pack. There is a massive difference in the ability to tackle in open play and defend mauls and the gainline around rucks. The former is more about timing whereas the latter is raw upper body power and technique. Jamie Roberts is regarded as a big tackler but I'd never put him at lock and expect him to defend a rolling maul. Our pack simply isn't powerful enough, Treviso's ease at scoring in a rolling maul was testimony to that.

I think we are slowly declining up front under Pivac, he needs to stop that asap otherwise we will have a dreadful season.