The most importan t thing was the zero against a team that likes to stretch defences. Although Welsby had a good game we really need Coote to link up with our halves, Lomax was running down some blind alleys tonight. It was another game of being patient and not forcing the ball yet play tough when we can't grab momentum, thats what Woolf has installed into this team.
Another good effort from Matty Lees in that first half, Thompson is showing a great work ethic, hopefully Coote and Iggy next week should add a bit more spice and variety in the game against Leeds.
Thought LMS was immense in defence today. Would like to see his stats.
Yeah, about right, I think.
Without the ball we were very impressive again: energetic, aggressive, organised. My only concern about our defence is that we play with a very compressed line and rush up hard on the edges. If teams go wide early against us we might be vulnerable, but that’s a trade off that’s working really well so far (and worked for us in the GF, too).
With the ball, our pack looks really good so far: Lees looks to have gone up a gear and I’ve been really impressed with Amor’s stints, while Thompson and Matautia are clearly going to contribute a lot and Walmsley just carries on being Walmsley.
We just lack shape and composure in attack. Welsby did a lot of good things tonight and thoroughly deserved his MOM, but I’m hoping Coote returning will be a big help. I think our attack may be missing Knowles more than we imagine, too.
Good professional performance. Lees is getting better each week and Thompson looks like being a very good signing.
Second game in a row where we've barely been under any pressure defending our line. I think with Coote back you can add 6-12 points in attack, so I'm not worried by any lack of free flowing rugby yet. As it happens it's perfect early season rugby at the moment.
Correct. A regular feature of our attack for at least the last 2 seasons has been Knowles’s involvement, receiving the ball straight from the dummy half and then passing behind a decoy runner to either Lomax or Fages who have then shifted the ball to Coote. In Knowles’s absence we don’t appear to have anyone capable of filling this role, instead relying on just a pass out wide without distracting any defender.
9/10 for defence, 5/10 for attack. Virtually a full 2nd half of pressure and only managed 2 tries against 12 men...
Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
Still in Newport....still no nearer home.........
Hard to judge really because HKR were pretty woeful with the ball, but a 25-0 win when you’ve not really clicked is a decent sign. I was happy that Woolf commented on us needing to be better in attack because I thought we were low on ideas at times and became a bit predictable, but I’ve seen enough in the first two games to think we will be a bit more open than last season and so I’m just taking the games as they come and not being too judgemental. We’re doing some important bits right and are a bit short on other things, but two weeks in we’re fine. Bigger tests to come of course.
I like the steadiness, workrate and composure shown by Thomson so far but we’re also missing Zeb’s footwork and sleight of hand down that left hand side where he used to combine with Lomax and Percy. This has also contributed to our clunkiness in attack in the first two matches.
I think without Coote some of our decision making with the ball can be lacking. It's as if Lomax tries to make up for him not being there and tries a bit too hard as a result. I thought Hull KR also made it difficult for us
Last edited by Sean Day; 2nd April 2021 at 06:13.
I don't think we really got out of 2nd gear to be honest after those 2 early tries. Hull KR put in a massive defensive effort but if we'd put our foot down the scoreline would have been much bigger. The Sky pundits talked about the scoreline not maybe being a true reflection of the match but it's like a boxing match where you're so far ahead on points that you can just play it safe, take it into the later rounds and finish off your opponent when they're forced to try and close the gap. It was a wholly efficient performance.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Lomax is definitely the target for opposition defences without having Coote to worry about as well. They seemed to learn late in the game it meant Welbsy is getting a lot of space as a consequence and we put together our best combinations using it. Very impressed with Welsby and Mata’utia in the game, and Lees was good in his first stint, we lost our way a bit when he went off, though I suppose that’s where we missed Paasi. Simm had a bit of a mare but not sure if that’s because he’s more a right sided centre, or if he’s a little off pace this year - hope we have Percy back to deal with Hurrell.
It’s another performance to build on, without being totally convincing. I think next week will tell us a little more as we get challenged a bit more. I feel like they have started the year with consistency ringing in their ears for the early part of the year. If only that were true for the refs. Lost count at the number of times HKR took Lomax and Fages off the ball despite us being penalised for an innocuous one. A more cynical me would link it to the sky teams utter desperation at times to imply we’re going in a shock loss game. I feel like short of 50-0 up we’re not going to get credit from anyone.
Bigger tests to come but there are definitely positives there. Defensively we look really solid around the ruck in particular, our line speed is impressive and we're putting teams under pressure through that, it feels like we've got a physical pack now that can hit hard and often and we seem to have players who really enjoy that side of the game which is good. The overall attitude around kick pressure, kick chase, pressuring the half backs and getting them to use the ball early etc has been really good in the opening two rounds as well and hopefully that will keep going through the year. As has been mentioned already, I think teams will look to move the ball and will try and play around us because we are defending aggressively on the edge.
I thought our kicking game was good last week and good again tonight as well at times, we scored a couple of tries off kicks last week and tonight we forced a few repeat sets and got some field position through our kicking. I think we'll learn more about that next week against Leeds though under a bit more pressure.
Obviously with Coote, Percival and Knowles missing it's difficult to say where we are with our attack but we look solid enough bringing the ball out from deep, Thompson and Matautia both got us quick play the balls constantly tonight and have helped get us on the front foot, IMO Matty Lees' first stint was his best for a while. When we've got good field position we look a panicky at times, we showed with Grace's second try that when we're calm, we play direct and we isolate the players that we want to we will score tries. In fairness attacking from within 20 m out looks to be difficult at the minute, I think a lot of teams are better defending there than they are further up the field.
Obviously we'll have a clearer idea next week as to where we're at but so far so good.
Steve Prescott MBE (1973-2013)
V
I'm quite happy with where we are at this stage. 2 games in, 4 points on the board, 1 try conceded. We've been missing players who will have a large influence on the games to come and it's good to see the competition there is going to be for places. Probably no coincidence Amor, Lees and the like are stepping up. Our game has changed slightly, I think we have become a bit more patient and with our fitness this is going to tell the longer the game goes on. Looking back to last season we were a lot more ragged at the start and look where we ended up.
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
Solid win. KR never in with a sniff of scoring a try. KR also defended very well. Much more positives than negatives tonight. I thought Lees and Amor ran hard, and our tackling supremos, Roby and Bentley in particular, did a top job
I turned it off with 20 minutes to go. I was bored stiff.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
It was boring, no question. I don't want to criticise us when we've just nilled a team but it was KR ffs, I even predicted we'd nil them on some scorecast thing I do but why on earth do we need to keep ploughing it up the middle? I know it's early season and I know Woolf likes to keep it tight but we're a better team than that and it's hardly going to leave the better sides guessing when we do need to tighten up.
I'm happy with the win and the improvement Mata'utia showed, plus some decent defence and a few nice touches but Woolf is making a rod for his own back here, we're back to back champions, of course I want to win another one but I want to see us play a bit along the way and I suspect there's plenty more who feel the same.
Professional, sums it up. Playing in first gear with the handbrake on appears to be more than enough to beat most teams.
I hope we play with more freedom once everyone is back.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There might be the odd flash but last year tells you we won't. Ok, we had those few games after lockdown were we blew teams away and looked great but that aside it was all pretty much simple stuff. It's strange to think we could win SL 3 years on the bounce and I don't think Woolf will be as fondly remembered as Holbrook.
It almost felt like we went easy on Rovers. Almost patronising.
A word on Rovers. How crap is Simms? He was terrible in Australia and now he’s come here to steal a living. He was crap last week against Catalans and last night he didn’t fancy it. He went off with a head knock but he looked fine to me. He’s an insult to Mose’s jersey.
screaming in the family corner, scaring the kiddies
It was always likely to be that type of game with Lomax just the one experienced attacking player in the side, with no Coote, Percival, Knowles and Iggy we are pretty much short on open play options. We also need to add in the factor that Hull K R defended pretty well for most of the game. If we played with a full strength side and came up with that attacking performance then that would have been a concern despite only 2 playing games, plenty of things to work on but you need your best pivotal players on the pitch.