What happened with the subs yesterday? We used all eight by about 62 minutes, did anyone pick up a knock?
What happened with the subs yesterday? We used all eight by about 62 minutes, did anyone pick up a knock?
St Helens Rugby League Football Club
I think he was also wrong about Knowles staying on the pitch throughout the game; certainly there was a 10 minute period when I didn’t see him at all and it looked like he returned when Batchelor went off for the HIA. Not that that detracts from Knowles’s performance.
I don't recall Thompson going off or Mata'uatia, big minutes from those 2 if so.
The move to the right has helped. Seems to get a lot more power into contact stepping off his right foot than he did on his left. With the potency of our left side attack he hasn’t seen much ball out that side but if he keeps running hard he’ll draw in defenders and create space outside him if nothing else. Hope he keeps up the improvement, especially with Bentley out for a while.
Forwards win games. The backs decide by how much.
Thompson just works continually in both attack & defence. His line running close to the try line is excellent & teams need to account for him as he's a big lad. Hopefully Woof will work some crash plays out for him. He rarely makes an error or concedes a restart. I'm willing to bet that his team mates love his work ethic. Not flashy but a very good player.
Very much so, it seems Woolf knows he’s not a line breaker and getting him to attract players and bend the defensive line for the next play. Matautia at the moment is similar but I think he needs to break the line a bit more perhaps it’s a bit early doors for him and that will come later.
Mata'autia can be a real running threat I think, hits the ball hard & looks to have an eye for a gap. He's been looking to offload a few times too which always creates doubt in defenders minds. In Bentley's absence they are a good pairing. Both of them like to put themselves round in defence too, Mata'autia has come up with dome decent one on ones to break an opening down & buy us valuable time.
Really interesting stat regarding Woolf. I know people are going to be critical of how we play generally, but I think it balances out nicely to have the flair instilled in us from Holbrook followed by Woolf to tighten the defence and give us that steel required to win the big games. Very much like what happened with Ian Millward/Daniel Anderson
I think Peacock made a great point that the difference between the teams was ability to build and sustain pressure, which maybe we did not have the ability to do under Holbrook. Peacock pointed out the gap between the teams and particularly Lomax/Fages/Coote and Sneyd/reynolds/Connor is the lack of the ability to do this.
Particularly re: Connor he overplayed the play on tackle 2 (?) and it led to the interception. In hindsight he took the wrong option and should have hit the lead runner Savelio and built pressure. There was plenty of time left and he played too emotionally. I do not think we make that error under Woolf if roles were reversed.
I think an important point which doesn’t seem to have been picked up is that the set up was almost identical to the Fonua try which got them back into the game. The difference is we learnt from it and when Hull did the same thing again the Saints players adapted their approach, and Grace came up with the ball. Whilst Hull overplayed, we still have to credit the players for adapting so quickly and not only defending it, but come up with the winning play
Can't blame conner for going for it.
When you see the still hat someone posted on Twitter Hull had numbers and space.
Saints were wide open coote almost out of shot.
roles reversed you would expect lomax to go for it.
It was a terrific read from Grace.
That whole passage of play from Conner's 40/20 to Grace's interception and length of the field sprint
is what you pay your money for. Great skill and entertainment.
I have just watched it back and I don’t agree that you can’t blame him for going for it.
Easy to say in hindsight I suppose but look at the pressure welsby put on him. He was going to get smashed just as he got the ball. Not many players in the world could have executed that no look quick pass in a clutch scenario such as that. It was never on really and too high risk for play 2. Take the tackle and build pressure. Just an easy let off for us I thought. Great play from both Welsby and Grace.
I would be fuming with Lomax if he tried to throw that.
Last edited by Albion; 8th June 2021 at 13:32.
Connor is an immature player in every sense, that's why he is always talking. There is a time to talk & get under someone's skin, Wilkin was great at it, especially with Chris Hill. Connor could be a great player if he can grow up. Lomax is a very mature player now. It was a great read from Regan, we were done for numbers & he not only saved a try, but scored a cracker.
Anyway i have noticed that when Woolf was talking about Welsbys new contract he described him as "one of ours" that sounds as if Woolf sees himself as such.