Kickoffs (Kicksoff?) : Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:24 am  

The one & only thing that impressed me about Wigan on Friday was Pat Richards kicking off, there again he has had plenty of practice I guess.
He gets terriffic height & swerve on the ball (from his kicks from the hand as well, just ask Scott Donald).
That allowed his forwards to be making their first tackle almost on our 10 metre line.
Sinfield's kicks go as deep but without the height or spiral.
When Sinfield was injured Lee Smith's kickoffs were more varied than Sinfield's and he was able to get more height as well.
I'd like to see him taking more kickoffs, just to mix it up a little.
Though when we conceded so few points I'd love to see it limited to just one kick per game.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:27 am  

Kind of strange nearly all Wigan's KOs were to McGuire though... not really that varied.

A great KO was Sinfield at Wigan (a) towards end of last season at the start of 2nd half. Bounced and went out at the 25 (?) for Webb to score from the scrum. Lovely stuff.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:39 am  

SouthStanderDave wrote:

Kind of strange nearly all Wigan's KOs were to McGuire though... not really that varied.

A great KO was Sinfield at Wigan (a) towards end of last season at the start of 2nd half. Bounced and went out at the 25 (?) for Webb to score from the scrum. Lovely stuff.

Yes, but if you look craefully Danny took them all very deep & struggled at times to pick up the flight of the ball.
That meant that we were taking the ball up from very deep in our 20 metre area.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:40 am  

Old Feller wrote:

Yes, but if you look craefully Danny took them all very deep & struggled at times to pick up the flight of the ball.
That meant that we were taking the ball up from very deep in our 20 metre area.

Yeh sorry got carried away and forget to state I agreed with your OP.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:45 am  

I remember Danny having trouble with Richards' kick offs in a play off game either last year or year before so possibly why he was targeted.

Sinfield 9 times out of 10 always kicks to the left hand side of the opponents sticks. I find this tedious and don't see why he doesn't target a weakness in one of the opponents or just mix it up a little bit.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:51 am  

kendall17 wrote:

I remember Danny having trouble with Richards' kick offs in a play off game either last year or year before so possibly why he was targeted.

Sinfield 9 times out of 10 always kicks to the left hand side of the opponents sticks. I find this tedious and don't see why he doesn't target a weakness in one of the opponents or just mix it up a little bit.

Just slightly OT, but was it in the CC final against Hull that Sinny got the ball from their KO and then kicked it back upfield straight away? That was certainly mixing it up a little... didn't help much like..

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:03 am  

SouthStanderDave wrote:

Just slightly OT, but was it in the CC final against Hull that Sinny got the ball from their KO and then kicked it back upfield straight away? That was certainly mixing it up a little... didn't help much like..

Yeah it is, but from our kickoffs I & most people can probably guess where it'll end up.

[Ex-Swarcliffe Rhino]

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:06 am  

Anyone remember the 10 yard grubber last season at HQ?? now that was ace!!

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 11:47 am  

kendall17 wrote:

Sinfield 9 times out of 10 always kicks to the left hand side of the opponents sticks. I find this tedious and don't see why he doesn't target a weakness in one of the opponents or just mix it up a little bit.

I agree that he is very predictable but maybe he is not looking for the oppos weaknesses but playing to our strenghts. How often do we concede tries from our KO's? The players know exactly what to do in that situation.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:42 pm  

You kick to where your best chase is. Invariably that's JJB, and invariably that's towards the left hand corner. It also suits a right footed kicker to be kicking across his body in that direction, and pushes the non-kicking team into one side of the field.

Bang your kickoffs straight down the middle, and they can take the first play either left or right forcing your chasers to make decisions on the run rather than just lining people up.