Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:09 am  

Loiner at large wrote:

And what is the role of the Linesman in the game these days they seem to be anonymous

To walk over to the ref after these incidents and just nod along with what the refs saying, that's as far as I can tell anyway.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:10 am  

On the reffing, I think Hicks is pretty good, and I wish all games were reffed like that, it’s a tough sport and there shouldn’t be loads of penalties and cards. The one I thought he got badly wrong was not giving a penalty at the play the ball on their line.

Thought we did well in a game we were always going to struggle in. Gannon was immense, and I thought Zane continued his good run of form.

Few players were quite poor for us though. Hardaker showed why he won’t be the starting fullback with all fit. Out of position for a few kicks behind conceding goal line drop outs. Also got taken back over the line trying to run across. Tindall was shocking running out of D, always started our sets poorly. Prior looks physically finished, and offers nothing.

Few back next week though and we should beat Cas. Still amazed we’re in this position following our start to the season.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:29 am  

Second half was very good considering the total battering we got in the first half.
If a couple of decisions had gone our way (handover on their line, yellow cards for Kasiano and Whare), we could have given them a proper scare.
But we can't give teams a 30 point start and hope our 'conserved energy' will get us back in it.
I'm really not sure about this tactic (if it is a tactic) of holding back the defensive line.
It gives the opposition momentum. Cats rolled us up the full length of the field time and again.
Clearly we need a couple of big hitters in D to counter this.
In the forwards, thought Bentley and Tetevano showed up the best.
Prior is clearly finished and it's becoming a big problem.
Walters did OK going forward, but has a lot of development to do in D and needs to bulk up.
The second choice 3/4's got exposed and gave us very little go forward.
I can't see Tindall making it, he puts the brakes on every time he's going into collision.
We really did miss Handley and Fusitua.

Anyway, on to Saturday and winner takes all.
Hopefully no more injuries (Dwyer?) or suspensions (?).
Get some of the starting backs in and we should have enough.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 7:44 am  

Simmo71 wrote:

Second half was very good considering the total battering we got in the first half.
If a couple of decisions had gone our way (handover on their line, yellow cards for Kasiano and Whare), we could have given them a proper scare.
But we can't give teams a 30 point start and hope our 'conserved energy' will get us back in it.
I'm really not sure about this tactic (if it is a tactic) of holding back the defensive line.
It gives the opposition momentum. Cats rolled us up the full length of the field time and again.
Clearly we need a couple of big hitters in D to counter this.
In the forwards, thought Bentley and Tetevano showed up the best.
Prior is clearly finished and it's becoming a big problem.
Walters did OK going forward, but has a lot of development to do in D and needs to bulk up.
The second choice 3/4's got exposed and gave us very little go forward.
I can't see Tindall making it, he puts the brakes on every time he's going into collision.
We really did miss Handley and Fusitua.

Anyway, on to Saturday and winner takes all.
Hopefully no more injuries (Dwyer?) or suspensions (?).
Get some of the starting backs in and we should have enough.

I’m convinced being passive in D is how RS is trying to mitigate our lack of props. To be aggressive in D and get up fast, you have to have good prop rotation, which we don’t! The tactic worked against hudds, but won’t against saints.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:44 am  

If you recall several seasons ago defenders, having made the tackle were told to get away from the play the ball area to enable a quick play the ball.
Failure to do so would result in a penalty, we were attacking under the Catalan posts when Micky Mac made no attempt whatsoever to get out the way the end result was a failed play the ball. So that ruling seems to be cheerfully ignored. Similar with high tackles, early on in the season anything remotely high was a sin bin. That also seems to have fallen by the wayside. Having watched the cas game the cas forwards were poor, don’t think they will be as bad this coming Saturday.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 12:25 pm  

If we do end up both in the play offs and bound for Perpignan I don't think we have that much to fear. For a side missing both wingers, both halves, strike centre, loose forward, plus preferred bench options (Thompson & Donaldson) we did amazingly well. Would imagine that with the exception of Newman, most of those would likely be back for that match. Could be a totally different ball game. The props get some hammer for our defensive struggles down the middle, but having Leeming and O’Connor in our starting thirteen was more of a factor in my opinion. Leeming really needs to concentrate on his defence in general if he wants to be considered for international selection, and O’Connor just isn't big enough to be playing loose forward in our current pack. Overall though, not too much to be downhearted about.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:36 pm  

ArthurClues wrote:

If we do end up both in the play offs and bound for Perpignan I don't think we have that much to fear. For a side missing both wingers, both halves, strike centre, loose forward, plus preferred bench options (Thompson & Donaldson) we did amazingly well. Would imagine that with the exception of Newman, most of those would likely be back for that match. Could be a totally different ball game. The props get some hammer for our defensive struggles down the middle, but having Leeming and O’Connor in our starting thirteen was more of a factor in my opinion. Leeming really needs to concentrate on his defence in general if he wants to be considered for international selection, and O’Connor just isn't big enough to be playing loose forward in our current pack. Overall though, not too much to be downhearted about.

Mostly agree with this. I'd be inclined to put the first half down to issues of a disrupted squad down to the bare bones after playing several games in a short period of time. With a few more players back I'd imagine we could have stopped some of the softer tries in the first half and offered a bit more threat at the same time. It's not a matter of the gameplan or tactics IMO. Earlier in the season I would have expected us to continue conceding and/or offer much less in attack in the second half.

Individual players.

I think Tindall is going to have to put in a performance to stop Smith dropping him when Handley and Fusitua are fit, but this seems a long way off. A winger should at least look capable of getting over the try line - has Tindall actually scored a first team try yet? I'm not writing him off just yet but he was well behind Briscoe in terms of performance which has to be worrying. None of the other outside backs looked great.

Sinfield showed some nice touches but understandably he's not ready to step in every week yet. Myler was one of our better players again. Leeming still struggling a bit to find the same rhythm as the rest of the team.

In the forwards I thought Tetevano and Gannon looked good as others have mentioned. Sam Walters' performance kind of summed up the team today - he clocked off at vital times in defence (leading to at least one try) but looked better going forward with his try and a close call on another couple of opportunities where he needed to show a bit more composure. McDermott's point in the commentary on the uncertainty over whether Walters has a big enough engine to play prop seem spot on. With a bit more development Walters could easily be a destructive Walmsley/Kasiano style impact prop that we are missing.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:15 pm  

Walters is similar to Graham West the former Wigan player. Probably most on this site won’t recall him.

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:27 pm  

Backwoodsman wrote:

Walters is similar to Graham West the former Wigan player. Probably most on this site won’t recall him.

Isn't he now a Taxi Driver in Wigan?

Re: RD 26 | Catalan Dragons (A) : Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:45 pm  

christopher wrote:

Isn't he now a Taxi Driver in Wigan?

He was driving a taxi although he has gone back to New Zealand.