The left edge defence of Swift - Walsh - Tuner - Greenwood screams missed tackles to me. The only change that could happen here is having Burns defend on that side, but will he make such a significant difference? I don't want Greenwood on the right as he's more effective going forward on the left. I don't want Percival on the left as he looks better on the right. We won't swap our wingers round.

I guess we shouldn't forget that - regardless of what anyone says about this defence - there's only one team with a better record. Which means every other side bar Huddersfield is making more mistakes than we are.

What on earth is Phil Clarke talking about? [i"Huddersfield should go home feeling great about themselves"[/i



If I were Huddersfield I'd be disconsolate. If you can't beat a side which is at sixes-and-sevens you've got no chance in the playoffs.

As for Turner & Swift. None of these guys were a problem toward the final quarter of last season when the forwards were meeting the opposition on the advantage line as a unit. The reason they are getting caught short is because we are giving the opposition playmakers far too much space to maneuver centre field.



I do think tiredness is a significant factor. And BOY do we need Vea back. It's been a long season. And we were pretty flaky at this point last season, too. The important factor is whether Cunningham has reserved enough fuel in the tank for the run-in. That was Nathan Brown's masterstroke.



Championship-winning sides invariably hit top form with five or six games remaining.

A one point game to put us one point off top and that's us in the top 4 for the split as Cas can't catch us with the points difference.

Been like that all season. The left edge is awful in defence. We have walsh, Turner and swift and its very vulnerable.



Turner can read play, he makes awful decisions which puts pressure on either side of him. I play 6 and Id dread to play next to someone like him in defence.



On the subject of walsh, I thiught it was 100% improvment in terms of effort, attitude and getting involved. Sure he wasn't back to his best but it's a improvment.

Spot on! Exactly what ive said all season even when was unbeaten and I got shot down with "we have best defence in the league".



Every week I could see with my own eyes that Greenwood (even tho was playing well) was missing to many tackles. Same goes for Turner and the stats of missed tackles proved that. They both miss 4/5 a game but then you add walsh to that edge and that's another 4/5 missed tackles on that edge.



You'll struggle with 12 + missed tackles on that edge each week and needs sorting fast!

The left edge is no less manageable than it was last season. If the forwards cut down the space aggressively and in unison it's very difficult for opponents to work a man advantage without taking a risk. They didn't do it tonight. They didn't do it last week. We know they CAN do it because they were very successful in making life hell for opposition forwards at the start of the season.



Let's see if the pack gains a second wind down the stretch. There's a long, long way to go. And plenty of time for other sides to suffer some of the injury nightmares we have.

He looked a bit more organised tonight than the previous 2 games, seems as though Walsh is working the pass and kick to Percival, whilst Burns works the pass over to Turner. Think Walsh had to do 3 tackles in the Giants set of 6 as they targeted him he missed one, put in half a tackle and completed one tackle.

The main thing his involvement is getting better, hopefully he can get a good run of games with Burns to settle things down tactically.

I think he knows he let himself down badly last week. The effort and atiitude was there tonight which showed he was hurting.



A massive improvment and one step foward and needs to build on this each week heading into the super 8s

I agree that it's been a weakness all season, but I don't think it's been quite as weak as it has over the last couple of games. I think the reintroduction of Walsh, who clearly doesn't want to get near contact, has brought the worst out in Turner and Swift. It's panic stations every time the ball goes out that way.

The thing that slightly concerns me is Keiron playing Flash on the bench. Given that he offers us very little I can only think it's a contingency in case Walsh breaks down. Which suggests that even Keiron is having second thoughts.



Walsh was often criticised in the NRL for playing when he felt like it. But he wasn't a bad defender. Certainly nowhere near as bad as he was tonight.



That leg really does worry me. I kind of expected that he'd be short of zip coming back. But it's very noticeable that he's struggling when forced to change direction. Either he's frightened that the leg will go under load. Or it's hurting. Or he's lost some degree of joint flexibility. Whatever the case - it needs to improve soon.

When Wilkin and Vea are back in the 17, Flash won,t get a game.

It would be nice to have an old-school loose forward. I know Sav is making a stab at the role. But he's too young to have picked up the skills which a wily old 28-year old veteran at loose possesses.

When you say the forwards cut down the space are you referring back to the start of the season when we were playing well and winning? If you are, we were still missing a lot of tackles down that left side. The combinations in defence down that side really need work on so that they can improve.

The biggest issue in defence isn't Walsh, it's Turner. He can't read play/make decisions well at all. He ends up either planting his feet and getting beaten on the outside, or shooting in. Then half the time Walsh ends up having to defend a player he shouldn't, meaning either a passive tackle with a quick PTB, or a line break because there's a weak cover tackle which is broken, or a 3 on 2.

I'm referring to what our forwards WERE doing in defence at the start of the season which they ARE NOT doing now. I think it's reasonable to assume this might have some slight bearing on our performance.

WTF?!! Turner's made mistakes, yes. But to seriously suggest Turner has been a bigger problem in defence than Walsh over the last two games is totally absurd.

Your right, it was poor on that edge at the start of the year but as we was winning and everyone thought we was the best thing since sliced bread that nobody noticed it.



That left edge is probably the weakest ive ever seen and probably the worst in super league in defence. It looks worse now with Walsh on that side snd teams are targeting thst edge more.

Yes, they're were doing it at the start of the season, but our left edge defence was still poor back then. It can happen you know, that the forwards do what you've stated they did but for us to still miss tackles on the left side of defence.

I doubt there is a single team in SL which defends equally well on either side. In any case, performance is meaningless without some kind of context. The fact that going into last night's game ALL BUT ONE side in SL had a worse defensive record than Saints speaks volumes about the problems other sides have to worry about.



Given the injury craziness we've had to contend with this season it's nothing short of a miracle our defence is as good as it is. Let's see how well Leeds or Wigan or Huddersfield do when they're down to their 7th choice fullback, missing their best winger, second row, loose-forward and nursing a crocked scrum-half back to full fitness.

2nd best defence but think I read we've missed more tackles than anyone.

Hull KR 684

Saints 645

Salford 634

Catalan 625

Wakefield 613



Bottom of the league stuff. Still time to get the MIT award. Good chance of getting the PEN award we are no 1 offenders for that one.

You win no trophies for missing the least number of tackles.



I'm sure Huddersfield would trade the best defensive statistics in the competition for being where we are now in the league.

The problem is we are making it very difficult for ourselves, if we can just improve 20% on our defence and conceding penalties we will most likely control the game for longer periods and perhaps go on to win more games.