: Thu Mar 19, 2009 12:54 pm  

Kick to the right - we have all seen all too often how bad most players are when passing to their right, out of their left hand. Kick to the right and you can pin them into that edge of the field and they'll struggle to move the ball over to the other side.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:43 pm  

Surely Leeds' thinking behind kicking it to one corner is that their opponents will only bring it one way. Rather than putting up a high and spiralling kick (where it can be lost in floodlights or taken by the wind etc etc) on the off chance an opposing defender drops the ball, the Rhinos play it out wide to a corner. The defender has two choices when returning it.......Blind or Open Side??? 1st Drive you'd take it inside wouldn't you; I doubt many professional players would take it out wide, they'd at least run straight, if not they'd come inside. Which is where your greeted by Leeds' Pack and one of the best defences in Super League. I think its Leeds' confidence in their defence that makes them kick off this way. It means they have teams where they want them from the off..... Its working well for them at the moment too

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:47 pm  

Richard's simply has a more powerful kick than Sinny.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 2:22 pm  

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.

Please also note that he came down with each and every one safely, a very good achievement from those towering monsters. I'm not sure whether I think the modern kicking Tee's they're using to get such height are a good thing or not.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 4:49 pm  

Matt23 wrote:

Please also note that he came down with each and every one safely, a very good achievement from those towering monsters. I'm not sure whether I think the modern kicking Tee's they're using to get such height are a good thing or not.

Don't know about Richards' kicking tee but Sinfield was told to lower his by Ian Smith V Wigan.

McGuire seems to collect the majority of opposition kick offs as if he is targeted. It doesn't appear to faze him at all and he makes few (if any) fumbles when collecting anyway.

: Thu Mar 19, 2009 5:08 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

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.

I agree with you generally but found it rather odd that at Warrington Sinfield on at least one occasion chose to kick off to the right even though the sun would have been in the catcher's eyes had he kicked as usual to the left.
You'd have thought that the wind strength/direction and where the sun is would be taken into consideration at each kickoff.
Perhaps it depends on which defender(s) we wish to target.