Saints looked disjointed in the first 20-odd mins, but as soon as JH brought Paulo on for Lees the game change. I like his handling & tackling.
What is worrying is that only 9400 turned up for last night. There only looked around 6,500 to me. But i think that is either the 3rd or 4th game with a crowd of under 10,000.
There were few Wakefield supporters there tonight which has a bearing on the attendance figures. With Wembley in the next few weeks, non members may be saving their money for that event and rightly so. Long time coming.
How can RL ever be taken seriously when you have clubs with travelling support that would fit in a couple of mini buses.
It's also the middle of the school holidays. So lots of people will be elsewhere.
This is very true but this certainly isn't helped by Friday night games. I must admit, I was 50/50 about the game anyway but wasn't feeling great so decided to go fishing and listen to the first half on my phone. I'm sure I'm not alone here but I find it hard to be excited about games apart from Leeds, Wire, Hull and the pigs, not helped by my job which means I'm away quite a bit. As mentioned, it's also the start of the summer holidays, we've got the LLS shield sown up, Challenge Cup final and it was never going to be anything like a big crowd.
How did wakey play I listened to some of the game on local radio the commentators couldn't seem to decide if they had done well to keep the score down or just played as bad as they have been doing
On the Back foot looking for the front one.
Saints took time to settle with the changes in personnel and Wakey didn’t really pose much of a threat. It was pretty boring until Saints scored the first try then by half time the game was won at 20-2. The second half was a bore fest and if Wakey continue playing as poorly, they will be in serious danger of relegation. They’re in the mix that’s for sure.
6-4 second half score sums it up. Tedious yes, but a win was all that was required and I wasn’t surprised at the lack of excitement in the game. Young Welsby did well at FB. Danny played a little better but still only a back-up half. Swifty did ok as well.
Cheers , yes Wakey in big trouble might come down to there last game against London
I thought Wakey were far better than when they capitulated to Wigan - at least this time they did try to defend, albeit against a Saints team finding it difficult to raise themselves after last week’s high of reaching Wembley while also missing the Lomax-Coote creative axis. Attacking-wise, Brough and Hampshire offered little and our defence was only troubled slightly by the odd barnstorming run from Fifita or Tupou. Given those two were the only real threats, we were able to gang tackle them and didn’t really look like conceding a try until the last minute.
The most interesting thing for me was watching the referee, Marcus Griffiths, who seems to have insufficient presence to handle any potential flashpoint; his policing of the 10 metres was woeful for both sides despite him continually flapping his arms and calling for players to retreat. He made you appreciate Thaler, Hicks, Child and even Mikalauskas.
The difference in Paulo's game is that he's now playing for a bench spot in the final
I was just disappointed that they scored their try at the end. It would have meant we would have gone two full games without conceding a try.
Lots of people on holiday at the moment. Unless you holiday between November and January you are going to miss some games.
Maybe a little more understanding for a kid on his debut.
We do want refs, so we have to blood them at some point.
I know if it was me I would miss quite a lot stood in the middle of the pitch rather than sat high in the stands.
If you were designing RL from scratch having the ref stood in the middle of the field would not be the ideal place.
https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/r...griffiths.html
According to this site, he’s refereed several SL games already this season so you can’t put down his demeanour to first night nerves. One instance that summed him up to me was when he gave a penalty against Fifita under our posts; Fifita got up and remonstrated that his hair had been pulled. Any firm referee would have moved the penalty 10 metres but Griffiths did nothing. Brough then came over and was obviously told to go away but, as Richardson was shaping to kick to touch Brough stuck out his foot at the ball, causing Richardson to fumble it. Rather than march Wakefield 10 metres upfield, the referee merely told Richardson to get on with the kick. Such lack of incisiveness merely gives the players open licence to carry on moaning about decisions rather than getting on with the game.