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Point gained (?) but..
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Author:  HKR Smithy [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Point gained (?) but..
So, a draw at home to Saints. Before the game, the majority would have taken a point from this encounter with our captain and both first choice halfbacks out. In my opinion, this was going to limit our options in attack and we would probably struggle to score the necessary points to win. Having gone on to score 36 points am I the only one who is disappointed that this wasnt enough to win a game at home? The lack of halfbacks doesnt theoretically affect the quality of our defence, and it worries me that we conceded so many (more if Foster kicked his conversions) after a stern effort at Wakefield. Saints are a fluent attacking team admittedly but if we want to progress into a top 6 team challenging the top 4, we cant concede so many at home. Early days yet and hopefully its a one off, hope i dont sound too negative :lol:
Author:  ☺East-Sard☺ [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
Point gained ... and could'a even been nothing. Saints had perhaps 2/3 more tackles + 30-40 seconds to score, had Thaler not whistled. We were on the ropes and I wouldn't have ruled out them going over such was our defence vs their attack. But that said, St Helens' defence was equally poor all afternoon and they will be challenging the top 4. Conceding 36 pts against a side with key injuries like ours is very poor from their perspective. So perhaps we shouldn't be too critical of our own performance vs a top attacking side.

Sandy talks a good game and it's clear he knows we need to up our ideas in defence, but Rome wasn't built in day etc .... Let's not forget, many had this season down as a 'rebuilding/transitional' season. Of the 3 games I've seen so far, I think our defence (as a unit) is working better each game. It's individual errors that are costing us dearly.
Author:  HKR Smithy [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
☺East-Sard☺ wrote:But that said, St Helens' defence was equally poor all afternoon and they will be challenging the top 4. Conceding 36 pts against a side with key injuries like ours is very poor from their perspective. So perhaps we shouldn't be too critical of our own performance vs a top attacking side.


Interesting point, and certainly reason for positivity from our perspective. Saints are a good attacking side as I acknowledged in my OP, and they wont be happy with their defence but looking at ourselves, I feel 36 points is too many. I agree that we cant expect miracles so soon and as long as our defence improves (both the system and individual technique) gradually through the season we should go Ok :P
Author:  martin 1980 [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
It was a fuuny game.

At the end of the day scoring 36 points you would expect to win but likewise conceding 36 you would expect to lose.

The biggest thing for me was again the attitude showed by the players. We went 14-0 and in previous years we would not have been able to come back from that. As long as the attitude and character remains the coaching staff and senior players returning will improve the sides defence over time, I'm sure. We have new defensive combinations on both edges at the moment and that it is never going to be easy and in Leeds and Saints we have played 2 sides with very good attacks.
Author:  fun time frankie [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
youve got to be positive would we have scored 36pts with both half backs out and then losing withers and hodgson that would never have happened last season when we relied on dobson and when he was out we didnt have a plan b
Author:  LifeLongHKRFan [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
I agree with most of the comments here but look how the game was played. We know our edge defence is not the greatest and saints knew that. Also Saints didn't want to get into a forward battle with us which is why they threw it out wide when ever possible. How many of their tries did they score up the middle? My point is that if our defence needs to tighten up its the backs where it needs to happen. Now we have a decent set of forwards I would like Sandercock to concentrate on the edge defence with the backs. Sort that out and we should have a good season. I'm sure Warrington will target our edges on Sunday and unless we sort the edges out then we will ship even more points than yesterday.
Author:  HKR Smithy [ Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Point gained (?) but..
martin 1980 wrote:It was a fuuny game.

At the end of the day scoring 36 points you would expect to win but likewise conceding 36 you would expect to lose.

The biggest thing for me was again the attitude showed by the players. We went 14-0 and in previous years we would not have been able to come back from that. As long as the attitude and character remains the coaching staff and senior players returning will improve the sides defence over time, I'm sure. We have new defensive combinations on both edges at the moment and that it is never going to be easy and in Leeds and Saints we have played 2 sides with very good attacks.


Yeah the attitude of the players has been good so far and there seems to be a lot more belief in ourselves from the players. Without it we wouldnt have got a draw, and we would probably have conceded when defending those 5 sets on our line against Wakey which would have made the game very interesting.

LifeLongHKRFan wrote:I agree with most of the comments here but look how the game was played. We know our edge defence is not the greatest and saints knew that. Also Saints didn't want to get into a forward battle with us which is why they threw it out wide when ever possible. How many of their tries did they score up the middle? My point is that if our defence needs to tighten up its the backs where it needs to happen. Now we have a decent set of forwards I would like Sandercock to concentrate on the edge defence with the backs. Sort that out and we should have a good season. I'm sure Warrington will target our edges on Sunday and unless we sort the edges out then we will ship even more points than yesterday.


The forwards and the dominant performances seen so far are the most encouraging thing for me, something we havent really had before since returning to SL. Makes us a different proposition to other teams. And completely agree with the edge defence comments, in time hopefully it will come but this weekend we shall just have to :PRAY:
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