matthew wrote:I watch other teams and at various stages of the game its possible to see what they are doing or trying to do.
As an example -Salford hit the Warrington right repeatedly and if the centre and half back defending were drawn in went short side again because Warrington were a defender short. They also compressed the defence because Warrington had no desire or plan to go outside the middle of the field. In defence Salford turtled the Warrington players easily and that meant slow PTBs
Cas looked good last week- running in twos and threes isolating the weaker defenders and running big guys against them who would then try and offload. Once the offload came the aim was to get the ball away from that area asap - because defenders scramble to that area
So whats the Warrington game plan been this year. Against Brisbane it was to use 13 players - vary the points of attack - hit the outside channels and spread the ball where possible. That worked
In other games its been - take the ball in...run in ones...stay in the middle channel then hoof and hope. Any offloads and the supporting player stays in the middle where the defence is. I cant recall a decent switch or short side play this year. It means the forwards look battered and bored - its not enjoyable to play and the backs look unused and bored. There is also a skills deficit....
Take the shackles off, Tony. Lets see some rugby
Cas also compressed their defence against us leaving some big big spaces on the flank. Either that was decided pre match, or they adjusted tactics during the game. It seems strange when we have our best forward out and another one with a broken hand, to focus our attack through the middle. It will be interesting to see what we do against Wigan who have a better pack than we do, but perhaps question marks in the three quarters. Certainly their defence is pretty good, so we will need to stretch their line (or hope some short / high kicks to the in goal area come off). I fancy for this match we will play it very high tempo as though it were a final..... and for a couple of the players it may well be a final of sorts.