Personally I don't hate Lees, I just think he's nothing player. Not big/tall enough, no impact, too many penalties, no passing game, no step, no tackle busts, too many missed tackles. No idea why he got a young player award.
Smith is another nothing player, just a body in a shirt. I realise after Cunningham, Roby and Higham they are big boots to fill but he will never fill them. Given our style of play and the importance of a good hooker in the modern game we need a great longer term hooker and he isn't it.
I think Lees comes in for some tough criticism. He’s trying to play above his weight and occasionally having to fill a void working as a prop when AW got his terrible injury. I can be corrected, wasn’t his whole youth time served around the centre position not in the forwards?
Shouldn’t coaching come in for criticism for asking so much. I understand he has competition now in the quarters since the arrival of Niq. He sometimes was holding his own in the backrow too.
Both of them, they had step ups at he same time.
I'm glad I watched the game. Reading the different threads about players who aren't good enough, not heavy enough, bodies are shot, coach is inept. Then taking in the fact we only had 3 subs for 55 minutes and 2 for 40 minutes. We had several players forced to play out of position and what will probably be the freakiest try of the season score against us. I would be thinking how on earth did we only lose by 2 points against a team that will be one of the main challengers for honours.
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
I’m generally in agreement with you. Players vary in ability and that won’t change and, within the constraints of the cap, we have one of the best teams.
But, I think it was a mistake to play Percival without Peyroux being available to stand in for him. A player coming back from injury must always be a risk.
This is it exactly, there wasn't a contingency plan established in bringing Percival back in case of repeat injury or fatigue. Its not good enough to say we were in chaos when he limped off. It's simply not good enough to pick a 13+4 and not have a plan in place for the loss of each and every player leaving the fray let alone a repeat hamstring casualty. This is pro sport it's unacceptable and is basically negligence or a failure in capability. Either one means the high jump. If one of my managers at work had brought a manufacturing line back into production following major refurb without a plan in place and it ran for 15 mins then failed again with known faults prior to shutdown his arse wouldn't touch. It's simply a case of placing reasonable expectations in someone supposedly in control. It's not looking for fault, this isn't a kick about on Sunday morning, it's business with jobs at stake and we're being short changed.
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Played centre at York and i think he finished the top divisional try scorer
Wasn’t the contingency plan to put Bentley there? He has played centre there in the past and people on this forum were suggesting him in place of Kev if he got suspended ( rather than Simm). You then have LMS and/or Knowles to play second row in place of Bentley. What you couldn’t really have foreseen was another injured player going off in the three quarters ( Welsby)
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but Percival was in full training for almost two weeks. The medical staff, coaching staff and player will have been confident he wouldn't breakdown and will have put him through every test possible to make sure he was fit to play and with that in mind will have picked what they believed was the strongest team for the Wire game. You shouldn't just pick a team to cover for a potential injury if you believe someone is 100% for, which Saints obviously thought with Percival, you pick the strongest team.
I'd have personally picked Peyroux on the bench (I said it earlier in the thread) for two reasons 1). His ability to cover a few positions and 2). I believe he is in better form that Lees.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
Fine if that's the case, but there can be no complaints for when Bentley got moved and left holes. The common view is we ended in chaos before half time. Thee should be no chaos, it should be planned & Bentley shouldn't leave a hole. It's as if all of this just happens down to bad luck, as I've said Firethorn up it bad planning not bad luck. He has to show a level of due diligence that for the life of me I can't see any sign of. We're supposed to be Champions not making up the numbers.
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I will agree that it was close on the scoreboard but half time came at just the right time for us, Ratchford missed two conversions and they were pulled for a forward pass that was marginal at best with Mamo in untouched. We were not handed our arse but we looked second best apart from the opening 17 mins. In the second half before Walmsley got back on, we were being slightly mauled down the middle and giving set restarts, Alex was needed then. Theo who many think is not creative? spotted the blindside for a try and the Austin tackle on Regan was very good.
Bentley has not got enough acceleration to play centre against quick lads, when we used to have four forwards on the bench Gilmour or Anderson could cover there, we don`t have starting SR with that gas nowadays.
Both sides at full strength I fancy us to do them but their second rows and centres will exploit any tiny weakness in a backline that is not quick.