I see where you are coming from SD. I just think it's a bigger issue than you do as it's habit now & we need to kick it. Composure is something we don't have a lot on imo.
As an aside & way OT, that Bevan French is a really good player
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Is it just me? Nobody's mentioned Peyroux (correct me if I'm wrong). He offered himself up a lot last night and really got stuck in. Not usually into stats etc but I think he would be up there. Mention to Kyle who's improving every game; passing, off loading in the tackle plus a try.
The conundrum here is that by focussing on these elements we would be moving away from the style that has resulted in us being runaway league leaders and adopting a Cunningham-esque style of boredom. Given the spate of injuries that we suffered over the past 6 weeks, allied with the rotation of players to provide rest, we have not had our top playmakers on the field together for a prolonged period. I believe it is this rustiness that has mainly contributed to our low completion rates and think that we should continue to try to play our natural game to reinforce our superiority.
Agreed.
We have a problem with overplaying at key times as well. Yesterday it was at 18-0 up when we knew one more score would kill the game. Hudds were rocking and putting a couple of straightforward sets together would have been enough to finish them off. Instead we just kept turning the ball over because we were trying to score on every play.
Obviously against that opposition it doesn’t matter, but like you I’m worried that this side is not addressing its biggest weaknesses.
There’s no doubt for me - if we overplay like that in the playoffs we’ll either lose at OT or we won’t get there.
There isn’t a rule that you have to play the same way for 80 minutes every single week. Obviously every team favours a certain way of playing and have things that work for them but the really good teams play what’s in front of them and can adapt their ‘style’ to what the game needs at that time. If you only play one way 24/7 and can’t change or adapt then you’re in trouble. It doesn’t have to be one of the other.
We seem to go from one extreme to the other. Sometimes I think we look very overcoached. Happens every week and again yesterday where we start a set near our own line, we make some good ground through the middle, play really fast, Huddersfield were going backwards. But then we go away from the middle, Roby spins the ball to Fages or Lomax who turns Peyroux/Taia back on the inside and all that happens is the defence resets. It’s a pre-planned set of six but if you’re a forward playing for Wigan or Warrington, you’d rather have Peyroux taking an inside ball on his own than Walmsley/Thompson/Knowles all flooding through the middle, Coote kicking the ball in the air and then having to run all the way back to carry off your own line.
Then we have other periods where we’ve got forwards stood still passing behind each other, or we’re flinging the ball from side aimlessly or we’re throwing daft passes.
Also think we’re setting Lomax up like we did Barba last year. He was given some shocking passes again last night.
Whilst you make a fair point, our tactics need to be adaptable and flexible and we need to be able to win in different ways.
We're not in the middle of June now where the weather is perfect and the tracks are dry. The pitches are slowing down and as a result points will be harder to come by in the bigger games.
Rustiness may be a factor in some of our errors and hopefully the next game will help eradicate those befor the Play Offs but in pretty much every semi final we've played since Holbrook has come in, we've self destructed when put under pressure. Hopefully we panic less and put the pressure on the opposition because they will crack if we do.
Agree with most of what’s been said, last night wasn’t great and play anything like that in the semi final/grand final we’ll struggle. However, at least we scored quite a few points which was needed after the past couple of weeks and LMS was much better. Taia looks knackered though, as he did towards the end of last season. I think his age has caught up with him. Ashworth again put in another poor contribution. 6 carries for 35 metres which now makes it 11 carries in 3 games. Dreadful really and I think there should be questions surrounding his future here, he’s our worst prop by a mile and isn’t fit enough to cope despite hardly doing anything.
I've said this before about Ashworth, he's not a prop. He doesn't seem to like doing the hard work in the middle of the pitch and is better suited to running wider but needs to lose some weight first as he doesn't look fit and doesn't carry it well. It would be a shame to lose him as there's some talent there and I think he would do good job in place of Taia.
Are we allowed to bring Douglas back in or was he shifted off the cap? I should know this but I don't so apologies