Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:48 am  

On the bright side the academy had a good win showing some really good prospects for the future. Well done lads.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 10:59 am  

GT wrote:

You mean you don't like anything that could reduce Saints' standing in the game? Little clubs like Salford should just know their place, eh?

1) We're four games in with a 50% win ratio. Calm down.
2) You only need one exclamation mark. Calm down.

Defensively we always looked frail last night, especially when the ball went out wide. Too many missed / non-attempted tackles. Going forward we just seemed to have no spark or creativity. The biggest worry, though, was the body language. Even when we'd just scored two quick drives the players had their heads down and didn't look up for it. Low on confidence, maybe?

Not time to panic yet, although the next three games do worry me. We just need a bit of spark, hopefully players returning from injury can help provide that.

Strange comment. I was under the impression that the salary cap was there to introduce level playing field as well as stopping clubs going bust.

Saints ain't the team campaigning to abolish the cap and introduce marquee player rules. We believe the future of the game is to Develop youth not to sign 17 superstars from all over the world.


We also didn't vote to scrap the u21s to save £30k a year like Salford.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:00 am  

Hi Chaps Leigh fan here.

I thought it was a great game and a fantastic advert for Super League,

Harrison Hansen was best player on the pitch tonight and ran himself into the ground for 80 mins and looks to be by far your best signing, young Johnson on the wing also showed up well and reminds me of Jason Robinson.

I thought the obvious poor tactic from Noble was the consistent "drop off" pass from the first receiver, the attacking line just looked disjointed and never looked like threatening the Widnes edges.

I Think you will come good though, I like the Doc, I think you threw the ball about much slicker when Sean Long was with you though.

Chins up, your in a much better state than this time last year!

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:19 am  

I watched the game on the box last night and it to me is very apparent that we look shockingly low on attacking set plays (maybe due to chase being out but you'd have thought that Theo would be up to speed on them being the first deputy for them both) Smith's drop off ball is so telegraphed it's not that far removed from a hospital ball.

While I'm not a fan of him being in the squad for reasons I've stated before if your going to have someone with the pace of Johnson then you need to utilise his speed, chips over the top must surely be a good option occasionally.

We need to involve Mullaney more in attack ala Patton, we saw with his footwork for Theo's try that he has no little skill in areas other than at the back.

Howarth I'm sorry is now just getting found out, Lee (while most like me didn't see him as the best option to buy in at hooker) offers so much more skill a ruck speed, either try ad get Lee to play 80 minutes or bring one of the younger kids through. And the flop in the first half was the laziest piece of rugby I've seen in an age.

A couple of positives for me was how good Walton looked when he played in the second row, think if ever needed he'd make an excellent #13 and that S'au looks to have trimmed down from the first game and looked eager for the ball, just hope his shoulder injury is nothing serious.

I'm just hoping that Rapira and S'au are fit for next Friday as we are starting to look seriously light on bodies.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:21 am  

dany1979 wrote:

Hansen was outstanding for Salford and their clear stand out player.

I thought Morley was playing too many minutes tonight, he looked shattered at times. Also the Salford backs don't seem to know what the half-backs are doing.

Doc looked far from happy at the end of the game.

yeah we'd just lost mate - doh !!!

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:34 am  

Binosh wrote:

Hi Chaps Leigh fan here.

I thought it was a great game and a fantastic advert for Super League,

Harrison Hansen was best player on the pitch tonight and ran himself into the ground for 80 mins and looks to be by far your best signing, young Johnson on the wing also showed up well and reminds me of Jason Robinson.

I thought the obvious poor tactic from Noble was the consistent "drop off" pass from the first receiver, the attacking line just looked disjointed and never looked like threatening the Widnes edges.

I Think you will come good though, I like the Doc, I think you threw the ball about much slicker when Sean Long was with you though.

Chins up, your in a much better state than this time last year!

Hello Leigh fan.

All very fair comments. Hopefully, the lack of attacking flair is mostly a timing issue, and will improve as the players get used to each other. In that respect, the chopping and changing of the team due to injuries can't be helping. Things are getting pretty bad on that front, and we're having to play players from other clubs who are currently under treatment for a serious eye injury. According to photo and caption in the print edition of this week's Advertiser, Sean Gleeson took a big hit off Saints last week while playing for Salford.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:48 am  

Will we have anyone fit for Friday? Sa’u, Rapira, Mullaney, Tasi, Howarth and Hansen all looked like they picked up injuries of some form or other. Hopefully none of them are too serious as we’re pretty light on numbers as it is.

On reflection of last night we did ok in the middle, our pack was on top for large parts of the game, but we looked clueless in attack. There was no understanding at all between the half backs and for all Theo’s effort, scrambling around, backing up and picking up loose balls etc he didn’t push the team around the park enough - saying that he was the miles better than Smith. Tim Smith was poor again and his kicking game was woeful. Greg Johnson kept us in the game single handily in the first half with 3 try saving tackles and an absolutely outstanding individual try. Hansen ran his blood to water and put in some huge hits, but what disappointed me is, when he put a huge hit on someone in the first half the fans lifted, but the players didn’t respond at all, a hit like that should have sent shockwaves around the rest of the team and got them pumped, it didn’t! And if anyone needed anymore reason as to why I don’t think Howarth is up to it, look no further than yesterday, he was awful! Scapegoat? Nah he’s just crap. Morley and Tasi were good and I like the look of Mullaney. Williams was busy and got through plenty of work I just think we need a little bit more quality. Another major plus was Jason Walton, he was outstanding when he came on.

Anyway – we’ll get there, I think. We need Chase back asap, difficult to say I know, but I think we could have won the game if Chase was playing yesterday.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:54 am  

Michigan red wrote:

if you're going to have someone with the pace of Johnson then you need to utilise his speed, chips over the top must surely be a good option occasionally.

The only excitement of the first half - apart from the other try - and the individual try from Johnson,of an attacking piece of play,was the kick by Mullaney,which saw Johnson do a startling impression of a speeding bullet,which resulted in the GLDO.
The tactic was never repeated in the second half - which,of course,was lost.

We managed to lose all the second halfs last year when Stu Howarth was not around to be the scapegoat.

Poor display notwithstanding some atrocious decision making by Silverwood.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:29 pm  

St pete wrote:

Strange comment. I was under the impression that the salary cap was there to introduce level playing field as well as stopping clubs going bust.

Saints ain't the team campaigning to abolish the cap and introduce marquee player rules. We believe the future of the game is to Develop youth not to sign 17 superstars from all over the world.


We also didn't vote to scrap the u21s to save £30k a year like Salford.

Oh right, so did the salary cap prevent Bradford going into admin and Salford and London very nearly going bust but for the intervention of new owners?

'Level playing field'. In other words a status quo. The salary caps works really well when a star studded squad (Leeds) can sign a would be challengers best player (Briscoe).

In your own words 'strange comment'

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:33 pm  

Biggest disappointment has to be Smith. He looks completely out of his depth and I really cant see him getting any better when Chase returns with his 'unpredictable' plays. Mullaney looks good, S'au looked unfit. It really says a lot when Jason Walton looked the most dangerous player in the team. All in all, Widnes looked like a TEAM, Salford didn't!!!!!!