Crosswire wrote:Please can someone explain why our long kicking game is so inferior to that of our rivals in the top six of the table?
We have seen our attacking game apart from this improve markedly this season and yet while Snead, Lewis and Smith amongst others kick it high, move it in the air or create a contest we constantly kick it too low and too far to make it any sort of threat.
We even did that with the goal-line drop out on Friday, and our kick-offs are soooo predictable.
It can’t be just that Drinkwater isn’t as good as the players named above can it (although he isn’t)? Surely even he could be coached to kick it higher or shorter, or both - quite often he’s not even under that much pressure when he kicks.
It baffles me why we can’t do it better.
I was going to post along these lines on the match thread. Joe Burgess had the luxury of running onto the ball a number of times and gaining many yards at the start of their set. In the kicking department, both long and short, we were dreadfully deficient during Friday's game. I totally agree that Drinkwater is a journeyman fulfilling a role, rather than being a player who has the ability to change a game. The frustrating thing being that Hayes has missed such an opportunity to gain a lot of experience at SH to the end of the season, due to injury. He already had the shirt, and could have improved so much. I hope that he fully recovers and can reset to progress with his career in 2025.
