Fisher fuming at young Brumbies
Sat, 10 May 2008 09:20
Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher has branded as "unforgivable" his team's inability to capitalise on a numerical advantage in the 17-28 Super 14 loss to the Bulls in Pretoria on Friday.
The visitors played against 14 men for 20 minutes due to Zane Kirchner and Derick Kuun being sin-binned by Steve Walsh, but they couldn't capitalise as the Bulls scored three tries to two against a Brumbies side which finally lost any mathematical hope of making the top four.
"Not only did we not capitalise, but they scored 10 points while they were a player down," Fisher fumed.
"That's just unforgivable on our behalf.
"Not playing the right field position to be able to convert our opportunities. If you give up 10 points when they are a player down, you cannot win a game of football," he told AAP.
The young Brumbies trio of scrumhalf Josh Holmes, No.10 Christian Lealiifano and inside centre Tyrone Smith tried manfully to breach the Bulls' defence, but they were only rarely successful in setting up more established backline colleagues Stirling Mortlock, Mark Gerrard and Adam Ashley-Cooper.
"Nine [Holmes], 10 [Lealiifano] and 12 [Smith] are all inexperienced players and they are key decision makers, they determine where your game is going," Fisher said.
"While they are doing a lot of good things and working exceptionally hard, it's just at crucial times they might not make a good decision or getting let down by people outside them.
"They've certainly got some potential but they've all got a range of different work they need to do.
"They can go either way. What they are delivering currently isn't good enough, but there's certainly glimpses of some quality football in all of them.
"You've got to learn quick in this game," a disappointing Fisher concluded.
