Meadows made a big difference when he came on and showed what we are missing in our halves, Batley's last tackle play's were more imaginative and they were able to play off the platform set by their robust forwards. Quite simply they were better than us in most area's of the field, including some Oscar winning performances. Did my eyes deceive me or did one player appear to headbutt the ground in the tackle?. Of course he got the pen. as well. All adds up to a more experienced team taking home the points. We desperately need a half back.
I can't really comment on the first half as the flipping sun was in my eyes most of the time, WTH is it going to be like in the summer?
Still, won't have to worry the sun next week up in Whitehaven I guess, if I see us lose up there 1 more time I think I will just give up ! For me it's all ready a relegation 4 pointer
Whitehaven is certainly a game London need to target. The final position this season won't be decided by results against Batley, we know they are the better side.
I think there's enough in the first 17 to avoid too serious a relegation battle but am worried about what happens when injuries strike.
Meadows made a big difference yesterday, the halves is an area that could do with strengthening in an ideal world.
Smithers99 wrote:Ten point loss 20-30 from leading 14-10 early second half. We were there with first timers (our knowledge remains closer to first timers than experts in many respects still) so harder to follow what was going on. Defensively we still look a bit suspect especially under the high ball. Macani provided the x factor again. Raiwalui was missing from the 17 and may have made the difference.. Leyland and Horsman are good 21/22 year olds, but the half back position needs some experienced craft to complement them.
Personally I thought there was only one winner and the scoreline was pretty accurate. Not criticising Broncos but feel we need a bit more quality. But the foundations are there, so some additional recruiting would make a big difference.
Fair points and it was pretty alarming to watch our drop off in the halves, particularly in the second half. I like Horsman and I think he's a good prospect, but we need a more dominant 7 if we are going to bring the best out of Leyland. We weren't able to hold down a consistent choice at 7 last season and it really told. I know it's early doors, but we don't appear to have variation in our kicking game, outside of shovel the ball to Leyland on the last and see if he can put a bomb up. It was something we did constantly last season and it doesn't appear to have changed. Having some size in the halves wouldn't go amiss or us either.
I don't mean to dig one person out, but if Raiwalui is fit for Whitehaven we need to be going with him.
jbuzza wrote:Possibly, but the ref wasn't looking at the first one.
Oh oh. You're going to start NB off - I can feel a lecture coming on about refereeing!
Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number-- Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you-- Ye are many -- they are few.'
Disappointed about the final result but I didn't think the day was all bad. Firstly I thought we were in for a pasting when Batley took the lead early on, so credit to the lads for digging in, coming back and taking the lead- although it was disappointing to have let it slip going in at half time. Second half, despite leading early on we seemed to run out of ideas/ steam going forward. One thing I noticed was that Batley finished most of their sets on our try line, we were kicking from halfway a lot of the time on our last tackle. Which wasn't always a bad thing as their fella on the left didn't seem too happy under the high ball. But we were having to work a lot harder to clear our lines and not making too much meaningful forward progress. While Batley are a good side I felt that if we had a bit more about us ( and cut out silly mistakes ) we could , stress COULD , have got a result. Someone else made the point about the difference Meadows made when he came on - he did, perhaps he used to read this forum, and had a point to prove to some?
That said I feel a lot more confident about this season on the pitch - after last season's opener it was pretty clear that a number of players ( not just the ex- Skolars) weren't going to be good enough if they couldn't seriously up their game. Staying injury free ? Grant seemed to have a bad injury first half - was pointing to his chest when the physio came on, and she instantly signalled for him to be replaced. Rib injury?
Off pitch - good crowd, good to see one of our local clubs ( Brixton) involved - hopefully they and other clubs in London and the Southeast will be present at our other home games. Medway Dragons to be invited for the game at Ebbsfleet would be a good fit , no?
If I hadn't been to a gig at Pizza Express on Friday I would have tried the pizza option yesterday.. Hot dog and chips was ok, if the cook was burning the burger buns then it could only add to the flavour - brioche buns are the product of Satan's bakery! Fanzone could be a winner in warmer times, somewhere to hang out pre match, would be good to have a merch stall out there - I've no idea where the club shop is!
Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number-- Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you-- Ye are many -- they are few.'
Joined: Mar 09 2002 Posts: 5130 Location: Twickenham
RfE wrote:Someone else made the point about the difference Meadows made when he came on - he did, perhaps he used to read this forum, and had a point to prove to some? Fanzone could be a winner in warmer times, somewhere to hang out pre match, would be good to have a merch stall out there - I've no idea where the club shop is!
The fact that Meadows made a difference gives an indication of where our side is.
The shop was just opposite the pub (which was nice and lively pre match) but didn't see any customers in it when I went past.
Missed opportunity with a decent crowd to have the new shirts available and on sale.
Even Buck and Dusty were wearng plain shirts and not sure why they weren't pitch side entertaining and geeing on the crowd.
Did'nt see the match, have not seen the highlights, but I feel we had a very light pre season in terms of competitive games into the campaign this year. One friendly against lower opposition is not good enough to gel a side together. As we have a quiet preseason schedule, from a ex Rugby Union player, you need at least 2-3 good games to get back into the swing of things. We are missing game toughness which you cannot replicate on the training pitch.
From what I have read, we have potential in our young half backs but need a bit of experience coming in, we have good foundations, but we have clocked off at the start but had enough in ourselves to dig in and get ourselves back, and the fan feedback is positive, apart from an expensive pizza (which would annoy me aswell).
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on the crowd.
