St Helens Openwater Swimming Society
Looking out from the top of Table Mountain
Ive been one of NB critics this year. Today i say very well done. With a patched up team his tactics worked fantastic. Big pat on the back from me.
Season ticket renewed, fifth year at Saints 2017. Beer at The George time.
Good win with some good tries however one thing, any player receiving the ball at the kickoff, has one foot in touch one foot in play & the ball is caught on the full, shouldn't that be a penalty to the receiving team, as that happened when Wakefield kicked off after Saints try & conversion but the ref gave a scrum to Wakefield rather than a penalty to Saints & the touch judge was looking right at it?
This is the last play, Long, kicks it wide to Iro, Iro to Hall, Hall is trapped, back it goes to Hoppe, over the shoulder to Hall, there is Jonkers, here is Long and Long fancies it, Long fancies it, it's wide to West, it's wide to West, Dwayne West, inside to Joynt, Joynt, JOYNT, JOYNT!, OH, OH!
They've won it, they've won it, they've won it. Chris Joynt; Chris Joynt has won it. It is unbelievable here, it is, frankly, unbelievable. Chris Joynt has won the match for St Helens.
Listened on the radio (before the 'better fan' brigade jump in) so obviously impossible to say much.
All I'd say for sure is that when we're struggling for fluency as we clearly are and don't look massively threatening with the ball, we really cannot afford to compound everything by making so many errors. 13 the stats suggest we made last night of which LMS made 4, he's beginning to make Gelling look safe.
Simple truth is the sides around us in the table will muller us if we make errors like that come Play Offs. The injury problems we have make it imperative that we do not make errors, not make more.
But this was the game to try new plays, good angles or bursts. LMS may have dropped a few passes giving 4 errors but they werent all decent passes and were 50 50 to being great moves including a burst which would have given him a try possibly. He was in my top 3 yday, as was turner for effort and pace
LMS had his best game for a while, on for the full 80. I was impressed with Turner and would both in my top three for this game. Kyle is getting up to full speed now just in time for the play offs and Walmsley caused major problems every time he took it up.
Wakefield have been on a decent run, so if we can beat them by seven tries to three, I'm not sure why people assume we're going to lose our next three. OK , so last night was workmanlike rather than spectacular but I thought on the whole they stuck to the game plan pretty well, and I thought Turner contributed well.
Of the next three - Leeds will have a Wembley hangover, win or lose, so that must give us a decent chance. Warrington blow hot and cold, and so do Huddersfield. I am confident we will win at least one, and probably will win two.
Some heavy criticism on here especially for Turner who I thought was probably our most threatening player along with LMS & Flash. In fact, I thought all our forwards played well and our gameplan was pretty simple with the lack of halves. To score 40 points with the makeshift team we had last night was a very good effort IMO.
The tactics of playing LMS & Laffranchi as wide back rowers with Sia & Mosoe as our impact props seemed to work pretty well and something worth considering going forward for the rest of the year.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
True but with the injuries, players out of position and learning new structures what do we expect. Was a huge improvement on Hull, LMS to be fair to him played 80 mins and was a constant threat as was Turner. Alls we can do is get behind them and hope for the best. Realistically play offs are a faint hope missing so many key players but lets see if we can salvage something and get the shield. We may get lucky and Leeds have a Wembley hangover, win there and then who knows.
Season ticket renewed, fifth year at Saints 2017. Beer at The George time.
My point is that we steamrollered them so our poor kicking game and lack of a general wasn't a major problem. Just wait till we come up against a pack that matches us or at least compete's. We will have no plan B or way out of trouble where Sinfield for instance will kick us to death ... Again. Who said Warrington where a good team ? ;-)
I was impressed by Turner. Given that he's playing where he's hardly played before he did a good job. He was bossing everyone. Some of his kicks were really good and he was lively and energetic throughout.
Great job by the whole team to get a win after so much change so late in the season.
I'm sure people on here have suggested doing this many times in the past?The tactics of playing LMS & Laffranchi as wide back rowers with Sia & Mosoe as our impact props seemed to work pretty well and something worth considering going forward for the rest of the year.
Lms was my man of the match. He had a massive game last night. But some people on here are too much against him that they can't even acknowledge a good performance from him.
I agree, our pack is our strength. They are at full strength, it worked well and we should stick to it. If Lance is back for Leeds, I'd keep him and Turner there, as he played well. Turner kicked reasonably well, it wasn't perfect, but no worse than Tim Smith's! Turner is not a kicker, we cannot expect every kick he puts in to be good. His running game was good and was dangerous at times. Sia was outstanding, and we should be 2 points clear by the end of the weekend, which increases our chances of finishing higher up the league. I think we need a top 2 finish, we've only lost once at home all year and if we're to have any chance in the play offs we need home ties.
Of course, I'm not being overly critical. I didn't see the game. Just a general point that errors when we're in this scenario don't help our cause.
Re the new 'tactics'. Strikes me as being as simple as pick our biggest group of forwards and blow teams to pieces. We ended up putting 40 up last night through little more than Wakey being knackered it sounded after defending our big men all day. Wish FM don't go into tactical intricacies, far too interested in telling us about Bob from Mauritius, but I bet Jones defended in the back row with Turner defending in the centres as well. Basically we are looking at a big tactical reorganisation. We'll change again if Hohaia is fit for Leeds as well.
Where we'll end up will be interesting. With a fit pack like last night, we'll be a match for any forwards in the table. Leeds I've said many times I don't think are anywhere near our first choice forwards. Their reliance on Peacock for territory is enormous. Defend properly at Leeds and I think we have a great chance. Wire will be a defensive test due to the relentless nature of them throwing the ball around. Hudds will match our forwards and be a real struggle for us IMO. It's a damn shame we've lost Walsh. With this set of forwards, I think we'd be nailed on to win the SL with Walsh fit. To think we're missing Lomax as well. This season we've been dreadfully unlucky.
A well worn Wakefield side at home... LMS's type of game.
LMS has come in for some stick this season but I think over the last couple of months he's really stepped it up.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
Agree totally. No other team has has as many injuries to key critical players all at once. Not even muscle pulls which could be blamed on conditioning, weve got long term serious ones. Horrific luck, we would if won shield and playoffs if this hadn't happened. We still might but its doubtful. Brown for me has poven his worth with tactical nouse and using what weapons we have left to their maximum, even if it is based on forwards bashing up teams like Canterbury do.
Season ticket renewed, fifth year at Saints 2017. Beer at The George time.