Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sat Mar 23, 2024 1:10 pm  

I dunno I’m a bit torn on Leeds under RS. I do think we’re making progress, but last night wasn’t good enough. I can take losing to Saints but not with slack play like that, at home, in a cup game and when they had a few missing.

Conditions have been poor and I think we will do better in the dry, but if you can’t play rubbish conditions then you’re not going to win the CC or GF.

Cas away is a good game to have next, and we have winnable games coming up so we need to show what we want to be about this year.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:28 pm  

We’re making progress (too slowly) because GH brought in some better players, not because of some revolutionary game plan from the coaching team. We’re failing to do the basics, and being coached that way if you listen to the Head Coach, so it all sits squarely on his shoulders. His team, his tactics, his failings.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:55 pm  

kjrhino wrote:

Quote from the BBC website:
“ Leeds head coach Rohan Smith:
"It's very disappointing. There are a lot of hurt people in that dressing room.
"You could feel that aspect of what we wanted to accomplish this year has slipped away. It's disappointing that our focus now is on one competition so we'll dust off and go again next week.
"In the end it's a couple of deflections and a shocking miss on a barge that cost us the game.
"There's plenty for us to take out of it as far as hanging in there and keeping connected, but I thought we were not where we needed to be and the better team clearly won."

Not sure what there is to take out of that game and if he thinks a couple of deflections and a missed barge are the reasons we lost then he has lost the plot.

I suspect what he says in public and in private are completely different things. At least I'd hope so.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sat Mar 23, 2024 6:57 pm  

Jack Burton wrote:

I wouldn't be changing the spine unless we have injuries. They need game time together. We definitely need some extra pace and athleticism in the team, though.

Where would you definitely get the pacey athletics from exactly?

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sat Mar 23, 2024 9:44 pm  

Watching the game again we weren’t actually far off them in the first half but that Clark try just on half time killed us. Several unlucky/harsh refereeing decisions too I have to say.

Very similar template to the first game in some ways. We should have done better but we didn’t play quite as badly as I thought we did live. Still think we need a real high quality addition to that pack and we need the right wing position sorting out.

Saints are a good defensive side as we know.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:29 am  

KaeruJim wrote:

Watching the game again we weren’t actually far off them in the first half but that Clark try just on half time killed us. Several unlucky/harsh refereeing decisions too I have to say.

Very similar template to the first game in some ways. We should have done better but we didn’t play quite as badly as I thought we did live. Still think we need a real high quality addition to that pack and we need the right wing position sorting out.

Saints are a good defensive side as we know.

Watching the game again? I strongly suggest you have another look at Fridays abject display. We were soundly beaten in every aspect of the game. We spent most of the first 15 minutes camped on our 25 yard line. When we did venture into the Saints half we weren’t exactly hammering away at the Saints line. Sure we had a couple of bad refereeing calls, certainly had no major bearing on the result. The Saints pack made easy yards all night.
I have praised our commitment this season, unfortunately that was lacking on Friday, Clark strolling past some powder puff tackling to score for one example. At the moment we are a deeply flawed side, we had a Centre for which we paid serious money playing on the wing. A forward playing in the Centre. No back up winger to fill in for an injury prone winger ,which for whatever reason we retained his services. Surprise Surprise he is once again injured. Since super league was formed the top 4 clubs for league matches won are Saints, Wigan us and and Warrington in that order. I shudder to think what our standing is over the last 5 seasons. I haven’t given up hope with Smith , he may turn it around. If he does and finish in the top four I will be the first to praise him. It’s not asking too much this season for a top four finish, I am not even contemplating a grand final appearance. I certainly don’t come on here to play devils advocate or wind people up (hate that expression) but along with my wife we are both Leeds supporters from before super league was formed. As a club 5th or 6th place isn’t good enough for a club of our stature. Finally big praise for the Saints fans who stood on the western terrace in that god awful weather.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:53 am  

cheekydiddles wrote:

The No 7 for Wests putting in a good kicking performance this morning

Just watched the highlights. Maybe Sezer is now playing with a team that has more structure in attack and actually works on set plays.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sun Mar 24, 2024 5:03 pm  

Sezer was superb for wests at the weekend.

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sun Mar 24, 2024 5:30 pm  

RS just needs to make peace with the fact that sl refs won't police the ruck / PTB effectively and to play to it like Saints do and virtually every other side.

It's why having Plan A B and C being " play fast abd off the cuff" isn't a great idea.
Having support runners, off loads and trying yo get quick ptb is good, but so is having a good kicking game on T5, doing direct hard runs from the forwards and set plays when in an attacking position.
So is applying pressure and turning the screw.

The less said about wasting a bench spot the better.
It's stupid and pointless and contributes to players making mistakes / errors

Re: RD 5 | St Helens (H) : Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:55 pm  

Again, the main reason we lost to Saints two times in my view is our errors. Penalties and really poor kicks/passes at crucial times. That's not structure it's player quality/form. The errors have robbed us of field possession and pressure at crucial moments.

Miller, Frawley again culprits this week. Miller is great running forward but we need to learn how to integrate him better into the team.

We weren't that far away - in fact we were the better side for half of the first game against Saints.

Totally agree we aren't incisive enough in good ball and we aren't making enough metres. Said it before but compared to how Leigh attack we look very individualistic.

We are playing poorer quality opposition at times over the next few weeks and we need to show what we're capable of. I think we will but... we'll find out.