Got to say people are talking about Hull KR throwing the ball about but some great defensive efforts by them there.Credit.
I can't remember a pass that went to either centre to be honest, even the tried by Grace & Welsby missed them out. Taia didn't pass it once from memory which completely stunted everything as they knew what was going to happen. I suspect they're operating under directions but I can't say that it's thrilling me as things stand. It was rinse repeat rinse repeat for 80 mins. Not great if you ask me. Dull.
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Certainly not our best day at the office, but tbh, as soon as HKR scored their final try, I thought it was most likely we'd lose, and so to cling on - especially with them receiving the ball first on golden point - was a positive sign.
For me, we had weaknesses defensively on both edges, but particularly our right. I was nervous whenever the ball headed out to the wing, which I'm not normally when Makinson and Percival are defending. The biggest issue, though, was the attack. We really seemed to lack direction. I kept waiting for Lomax to link up with Coote, but instead kept seeing both Lomax and Fages taking the ball up and getting tackled as if they were forwards. The attack just didn't seem to be functioning. Add that to a poor show for errors and ill discipline from the pack, and we were quite lucky to come away with the points.
We all have bad games. Let's hope that was ours, and they're back firing again for the Wire.
Think its fair to say though, Woolfe did say in his post match interview with sky that we wasnt good enough tonight.
I think Coote was playing with a blurred brain after his earlier head knock.
Naiquama was looking banged up with his arm and leg bandaged up. I also felt he was responsible for KR's first try, he rushes out the line and leaves Theo in no mans land.
But looking at the positives, we did come away with a win in a ugly game.
The ref missed alot! For both teams. He is usually a decent ref as well.
I thought Rovers played well in spells but we weren’t clinical in the first 20-25 mins and flattered them. Having said that, they smashed Wigan last week because an unstructured team is difficult to defend against because if THEY don’t know what They’re gonna do next, we have no chance of knowing.....
Bear in mind that we made some bad errors to concede possession (and Grace’s fumble for Rovers try could have gone anywhere) and to be fair we got out of jail.
Typically, winning ugly and flukey wins when you’ve been poor are the sign of a champion team.....
COYS!
Can't stop the spirits when they need you.
This life is more than just a read through.
Last nights performance reminded me if our loss to Warrington before the covid break. We look really slick in the opening 15 minutes. Plenty ball movement, solid defence etc. Then after 15-20 minutes once we realise we’re in a dog fight we lose our shape and revert to one out clueless rugby.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
I think we need to give Rovers some credit here, they're playing really well lately, run us close twice and beaten the pies. Their defence and line speed was excellent. They'd have beaten most teams playing like that.
Spot on. They just didn’t beat the goons,they hammered them. As someone else as said unless we beat everyone by 50 it’s a poor show. Saints fans are so fickle.
It wasn't great and we do throw those in occasionally but we are missing two of our best backs. I am more concerned about the halves. As much as I love Theo he needs more as a 7.Our kicking game in particular well below standard and last tackle options and reads need improving. But I'm probably nitpicking.
Learned comment from The Don
Yes, I agree you could say Hull KR are the form team at the moment, couple of days ago I mentioned they will be a better team with Abdull and Garbutt playing. They had a bit more go forward and Abdulls kicking game was much better than when we played them a couple of weeks ago. At the same time we had a couple of players who were off their game, Woolf said it was an ill disciplined tough game and we've got it out of the way for next week.
I was a bit concerned that Fages didn't run at the line enough with intent, seemed to release the ball too laterally so it was left to Lomax to cause trouble to Hull KR. Don't think Coote chomped into the line as his usual regularity, all this gave us a below par attack with a shortage of support play.
Last edited by STIDDY; 12th September 2020 at 09:18.
Thanks I've made a note of your critical & detailed analysis. We're joint top in a weak and chaotic league, struggling to stay there, where the coach inherited a team/squad who strolled in as champions last year. As long as everyone's happy then that's ok then.
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I think firstly you've got to credit Hull KR. They played well against us two weeks ago and they were excellent last week against Wigan. They came to play again yesterday and despite us dominating them for 20 minutes they held firm and their confidence grow. They've been the hardest side we've faced post lockdown. We've pretty much handled everything other teams have grown our way but Hull KR have scored 38pts against us in two games.
From our perspective though it wasn't great. Our attack was very clunky and the link between the halves and Coote wasn't really there for most of the game. I don't know whether this was down the Hull KR slowing the game down and the ref allowing them, their rush defence outwide or our lack of structure in attack which reverted us to alot of one out play. Maybe we had one eye on next week, who knows but it wasn't good at all from us with the ball. Our two worst performances since the restart have been at the TWS coincidentally. It's like we feel pressure to win at home.
Defensively we were fairly strong throughout but they got us a couple of times on the edges and that will be a concern. I can see why Welsby is getting game time in as many positions as possible but he isn't great under kicks and I'm concerned Wire will target him next week. Maybe worth picking Costello on the wing as a safer option, I'm not sure. Makinson will be a loss.
We showed great composure at the end though with 12 men to win. Two great sets got us within the right areas and Theo's drop goal was perfect. Anyway still unbeaten post lockdown, top of the league and still plenty to work on.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
I'm not sure Lomax passed to anyone 95% of the time except to Taia who then ran it in himself without ever passing it. We're finding it increasingly difficult to unlock defences from extended close in pressure save for Walmesley's dumper truck efforts.
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Yep.
I was not a fan on him in the opening games but Hull Kr have been building to this for a few games. Indeed bounced the top team last week.
Some people expect saints to be at 100% week in week out and unless it's a cake walk they complain. Sport is not like that even bottom sides can turn it on and Hull Kr are not that. Top sides equally can't be outstanding week in week out. Indeed it is often said top sides find a way to win even on a bad day..
We did miss Makinson and Percy’s contributions early in the sets. They really get us moving forward and everything flows from that.
Having said that, we were eating up enough metres to do more in attack than we did. The key stat for me was our 15 handling errors. Quite a few of them came just as we were building pressure in HKR’s half. We gave away too many penalties in their half too, so I think we were just letting them off the hook too many times for us to really get a roll on.
Great post. Bang on about Welsby, his only reasonable performance has been in the halves. Austin & Ratchford will crucify him with high balls next week if he plays. Some are saying Fages is stunted in attack but is anyone willing to swap Welsby into the halves. I think Costello may be the short term answer if a rusty Percival is back and Naquima is out leaving us short. I think Simm looks a natural centre albeit inexperienced which can only be expected with limited game time. We unfortunately have no kicking game to speak of and of late very limited link up play.
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I was worried more about our blunt attack last night than frailties in defence but we looked vulnerable on the few occasions they got into our half.
For those who think we don’t need him, I thought Amor was possibly our most effective forward last night but we also missed LMS.
We started the season with several international players hurt. We had Roby, Coote, Knowles, Tommy, Grace, Walmsley and Percival out at several periods prior to Lockdown which no doubt affected the coaching staffs plans at the start of the season. You can add the distraction and preperation around the WCC which was the priority at the start of the season.
Post lockdown I have to ask what you actually want because like Bostock said further up some fans have been wanting a performance a like so they can just start slagging Woolf off. We have scored 38 tries and conceded 8, most of which have been by a Hull KR side who battered Wigan last week. We have scored more points and and are second (by 3 points) in points conceded. We are unbeaten in 5 games since lockdown despite having to rotate the squad numerous times due to injuries. A number of tries have been conceded due to Grace being put under pressure with high kicks which doesn't tend to happen if Percival is playing.
Last night was garbage. Everyone can see that but that happens on occasion, it is the way sport works. Last season we lost to London twice who aren't as good a side as Hull KR are this season. It happens. In relation to the league being crap, there are millions of reasons as to why this is but Catalan, Warrington and Wigan are all good sides and we are above them all. There weren't many complaints last year about the league standard after we battered the most average side to ever compete in a Grand Final.
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