Do we need to get a better goal kicker to kick goals; as in the big games the kicks could cost us the 2 points to win
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Do we need to get a better goal kicker to kick goals; as in the big games the kicks could cost us the 2 points to win
I’m not sure Richardson would have kicked any of the conversions Percival missed. They were all tricky touchline attempts in a difficult swirling wind.
Agreed but to be fair he (Richardson) won us a few games last year with last minute penalties or drop goals.
It's not just having the ability to kick, it's doing it under pressure.
If we get to a game the we need a Golden Point drop goal Richardson would be the go to player.
It's a difficult choice for the coach.
Kicks today were all difficult, well the ones missed. Especially second half, both off touchline into a swirling wind.
Incidentally, the decision of Brough, Wakefield’s good kicker, to go for 2 from half way I think probably cost them the game. Better option would have been kick to corner, if not scored after 4 plays go for the one pointer. As it was, we got the ball back and game changed
this is the one area we really miss Richardson ( last season he was worth his place for kicking alone0 In a tight game Percival isn't going to make the difference ( the Cas play off game in 2017 being the best example)
Very true and should be a better player for it
I don't think the decision is as simple as a kicker or defender. So many other factors, training is a key one, who is training harder, showing a better attitude etc. Maybe Fages is edging this ATM, if so the challenge will stand Richardson well
Percival strikes the ball well enough and must practice practice practice.
Long was a terrible ball striker when he first joined us and trained himself into an acccomplished kicker. Not perfect but good enough esp in big games...
Danny Rich kicks goals play him? SIMPLES
People keep mentioning Richardson’s defence. While it is a bit wobbly I think it’s his game management and decision making that costs the team more. Turning over the ball in your own half three or four times a game because of hare-brained last-tackle plays takes its toll on a team far more than the odd missed tackle, IMO.
The tricky/frustrating thing is that in Coote we seem to have someone who makes good decisions but isn’t a particularly good kicker of the ball, while in Richardson we have someone who is a good kicker of the ball but makes consistently bad decisions.
FWIW, my theory is that DR has had it a bit too easy so far in his pro playing career. He was one of the standout players in an Academy team that was the best in the country. At that level and in that team I suspect he would have been able to get away with high-risk plays and making things up on the fly on the last tackle. Then it just so happened that the time he broke into the first team as a regular was also the time when Barba was on fire and we were making breaks from all over the park. High risk plays were coming off because we had the best player in the comp and our left edge was taking teams apart at will.
So I suspect that DR has never really had to acclimatise to playing the kind of rugby that is normal for the top level ... i.e. rugby where points don't come easy and you have to build pressure over 3, 4 or 5 sets rather than trying come up with miracle plays in every set.
My hope is that the failures of the latter end of last season and this spell out of the team will help him to mature as a player. It would be great if he did, as I think DR with some game smarts would be a very good half back indeed.
I would be happier playing Richardson now we have a bether defensive full back. Last season when he missed a tackle it was invariably a try as Barba's defence was awful at times.
Is Richardson still carrying an injury? I hope he doesn’t come back unless he is fully fit
The last tackle was a weakness last year, but though Richardson is the player executing, should it all be down to him. You would expect that we would have some sort of plan as to what we will do in certain situations, and, that senior players would have some input on the field. I know you cannot cover every contingency, and when things don't go to plan the he has to make better decisions, but very often last year he was given the ball on the last because whatever we were trying to do on that tackle failed.
There's probably some truth in that, but what I remember most often is the ball coming to Richardson on the last tackle and him either a) running it, b) chucking it out to the threequarters, or c) running backwards and forwards across the line looking for a gap before deciding to kick, by which point the defence is all over him and the kick is invariably poor. And, ultimately, if you are the only player in the team with a kicking game then yes, the last tackle options are down to you.
I don't mean to say that Richardson is to blame for our failure to win major silverware last year. I think it was just a key weakness of our squad that we only had one player capable of running the last-tackle plays, and that player happened to be a rookie with only a handful of games under his belt. While we've started well this year I'm not convinced that we've fixed that problem.
All it will take for DR to improve is a shift in mentality, IMO. From what I've seen of him I get the impression that he sees kicking on the 5th as a last resort ... as if it is an admission of failure. I think he just needs to learn that he can make a huge contribution to the team with his kicking as well as (or more than) his running and handling.
Wilkin's just added that Sean Long was good but didn't like kicking, Scully didn't like kicking and "Saints have never treated it seriously" which I think is unfair given Walsh's success rate and Richardson last year.
Bit of a difficult one, Richardson a much better kicker than anyone else we have, but DR would never put himself in the middle of it the way Fages does.
Depending how DR does at Leigh, and how we suffered with only forwards on the bench, I wouldn't be surprised to see him back and Fages on the bench
Thanks for the replies. Now we have a new drop goal specialist, could Robes do it? Seriously should Coote be doing it? I recall Tommy being good but it needs someone who is comfortable doing it.
I think that might be down to the individual rather than the club. I'd also include Foster in with those you mentioned.
To only have one or two players in the squad that are reliable conversion takers is a poor position to be in, if you look at the likes of Wigan & Leeds they usually have half the team that are reliable as and when needed. Luckily it doesn't tend to cost us, but it's better to not be the position where it might do.
Haha I remember always going into desperation mode when we had to resort to Wello taking the kicks when Long and Scully were missing. Unless the try was under the posts you could forget it.
The question is what is more valuable to the team, Richardson's goal kicking or Fages defence, tonight had Richardson played I don't think goal kicks would've mattered because hurrell would've been even more devastating second half
Percy and Coote look a bag of nerves when executing a pressure kick, Richardson can kick from anywhere. i would imagine we will keep the same team until we start to struggle and goal kicks costs us a game.
Whether Danny is the answer or not is of course debatable.
What isn't for me is the fact that missed goal kicks will cost us along the way.
Percy really isn't a great kicker and that is undeniable fact.
Percival isnt a kicker. But his positioning to save Lolehea (spelling) try was a fair trade off for his missed kicks.
H
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Clarke said that Richardsons conversion rate is about 75% but you would always back him to kick a pressure kick.
Percival has already been tried and he isn't good enough and is never going to nail a pressure kick as we saw at Cas a couple of years ago.
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[QUOTE=barry;754375]I still think it was soft
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Without Richardson in the team, we hav to solve this. Given Coote is the big name, I think he should shoulder the kicking duties. I think it detracts from Percy's game.
One common ingredient every good team has is a very good goal kicker. By trusting part timers to fill in Saints are looking at around 100 points less scored over the course of a season.
How many games that will cost us is anyone's guess but if we want to win silverware it makes it more difficult
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