Had a great night out at the All Stars game.
I could really feel the horrible taste of a wasted summer watching the pathetic Paki's and woeful West Indians getting routinely humiliated being washed from my mouth as the footy unfolded.
I expected to see plenty of run and giggle last night with chip kicks and flick passes galore but it really was a high intensity match and it gave us a good barometer on a few of our players.
Preston and Princey had nothing to prove last night (from a form perspective at least...) we know what we are going to get from them every week. I have to say however, that I enjoyed the game a lot more when Prince was benched because my heart was in my mouth every time he got involved. That pommie Burgess nearly ended our season in February by going for Princey's legs on his kick from the first set!!
But our other 2 All Stars have plenty to prove:
BULL BAILEY: He ended last season in pretty aawful form. He was working hard but he was completely incapable of bending even the weakest of defensive lines. My mail is that he was playing hurt, that his arm never completely healed after the incident in the Dragons game. He looked good last night. He looked strong and fast and hopefully he can get back to the sort of form he showed in the first couple of months of 2008.
BIRD: He was exceptional. He really played like a man with a point to prove, and prove it he did. He put his shoulders into tackles, he ran strongly and he offloaded in traffic. The highlight of the night for me was the hit he put on someone (not sure who...) one pass off the base of the scrum.
If we can get him and Taga on the field at the same time we might finally be able to compete with the big guns physically. Our team has always been full of players you would describe as 'exciting', 'skillful' or 'hard working'. This year we might finally have some players who can be described as 'tough' or 'intimidating'.
Exciting times ahead...