Don't know what anyone else thought but Tommy seemed to be carrying an injury last night. He was holding his arm by his side for quite a while, but was still running it in hard.
Loyal and true, not a glory hunter.
He has been carrying that for what seems a while, dunno if it is his shoulder or arm.
Tommy had that shoulder dislocation during the GF that he stayed on the pitch with as he says it went back in though he needed the big surgery after it during close season. He is a toughie alright, surprised Newman nearly got back to him last night, Regan showed him his heels in that last length of the field last year.
The Sky commentators get a lot of stick on here, and mostly rightly so. But I thought Carney raised an interesting point last night when he said that Saints hadn't quite put Leeds to the sword in the way that they might have. It's something I have noticed this year. We regularly get into the 30s but rarely these days push on into the 40s and never seem to give anyone the kind of thrashing we would hand out in the past. A bit like a batsman who regularly gets into the 70/80s but never seems to push on to the century even when the bowling is shot.
Of course usually it doesn't matter (as Clarke said last night, you can only win a game once) but I think really letting rip occasionally does increase the feelgood factor for fans (and maybe the team).
Maybe it's because we put so much into winning the game in the first quarter that we don't quite have enough left in the tank to go mad in the last? That strategy is working pretty well at the moment, but if we don't get that commanding lead in the first quarter (which could due to anything from the attack being a bit off, to dodgy reffing) it can cost us (see the Wire and Cas games) and it may have been a factor in the Catalan comeback.
Not trying to be controversial, just intrigued by the phenomenon and wondered if anyone else has noticed/has a view on it?
Fair points you make. We don't seem to have the killer streak in attack that we had under Millward / Holbrook when we let rip.
Although, I think the injuries and changes didn't help in the 2nd half. We seemed to lose intensity once Walmsley, Knowles and then Mata'utia came off and later on we lost Percy and Welsby too, so we just lost all rhythm with the ball and we're happy to just manage the game.
Originally Posted by Despondent Dave
Yes, I think the trend to saving most of your substitutions for the second half (which in our case has had a lot to do with blooding the likes of Dodd and Wingfield) does disrupt things, especially if you then get a couple of nocks. It does, however, seem to me that when everyone is enjoying themselves the ball tends to stick better (whoever you have on the field) than when you are 'managing' the game!
There were a few valid reasons for that, you would normally expect Agar to make Leeds respond at the start of the second half and they did just that. But after that we lost Welsby, Matautia and Percival and Makinson picked up 2 knocks (arm + leg) and played one prop, there was quite a lot of dissruption and organizing to do, I think Roby played half back. Once Welsby came back on we started to look OK and more threatening, for me the 6pts was more important than the 40 pts an indicator that we didn't switch off.
It looked like Roby went to 6 & Batchelor did a stint at prop with Knowles when he came back on. The disruption certainly hindered us 2nd half but we looked very comfortable. We appeared to go for a long period without much ball at that point & had to do a lot of tackling but never looked at all troubled.
What was great to see was the effort made at the end when they made the break on our right. Walmesley had no right to get back there & the speed that Grace showed really helped. That was a dead set try but we had enough spirit & hunger to deny them.
Just hope Matau'taia is ok, it didn't look great.
Sorry Suttoner, wrong quote...
I see what you're getting at but I think that last night was just down to injuries & disruption as much as anything. I reckon that Woolf has tried to get us to peak at this time and has been focussing on our defence which has aggravated many of us as our attack has been pretty poor. Whether it's the combination of Dodd & Welsby or just plans coming to fruition we will probably not know, but we have certainly been at a different level in the last few weeks. It may well be that Dodd & Welsby play less structured than Lomax, they definitely play what they see & have both shown excellent kicking.
I am convinced that the Catalan defeat was a massive blow to our pride, Walmesley said as much in an interview.
Rest Robes, Percy Makinson & Walmesley next week
I agree with your sentiment but I would say the last month we have played our best rugby of the season. I have been very critical of our style of play but there has been definite progress on that front. A lot obviously has to do with the form of our young half backs. I love tthe way young welsby creates space for the outside backs. He has a knack for being able to put the ball in a position where our centres running on to it at pace. Also he is not shy to get it wide to the outside backs early in the tackle count which is adding unpredictability to our attacks.
Last ten disappointing against Catalan but such complacency will not happen again.hopefully our injured back row heals by the playoffs and I think we will be in good shape.
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[QUOTE=Suttoner;833226]He was also obstructed by Kendal .[/QUOTE
Correct