Such a frustrating game to watch on TV, seeing so many poor referring calls at vital times, and all costing us and putting Salford on the front foot. That first half was controlled completely by some mystifying calls and a six again applied at times when it was clearly not appropriate and not when needed. The cherry on the cake in the first half being the forward pass call for our try. Second half he was again pivotal at some critical moments. He was the only person, including the whole commentary and then the halftime TV panel, to see the moment that would have given us the win, as a forward pass.
Ok, that off my chest, we should still have won this game. We made so many critical errors when some patience and execution would have given us the win. We missed O’Brien for sure as the ball movement looked clunky without his presence, but we could and should have done this without him and despite the ref. On another thread I called for Reynolds to centre as a one off, and I stand by that post game (if a Joe Mellor was fit). Chamberlain has pace to burn off the mark, and tries his heart out, but he is not at SL level at this time. It cost us several times, ball in hand today, and he also struggles in defence. I believe he will be a top flight winger, but not yet in either centre or wing. Salford will feel like they stole this game, and they would be right. All power to them, as they took advantage of their chances given to them. We on the other hand did the hard work to creat chances, but then blew them way too many times. I still think we win our next three but we need to be more patient and go back to moving the ball out wide smoother, and stop making stupid mistakes and bad decisions near the opposition line. This is a good team, we are not far off and as frustrated as I am right now, I still believe we finish 8 or higher.
Frustrating is an understatement, bad decisions by ref (made worse when the sky pundits say the same )a few crazy moments by players , one being not realising we had another set of six so throw the ball around like a hot spud.More composure , more pressure we win that game comfortably.A fit mellor in the second half would have had a field day (is he fit by the way )the goal kicking is starting to be a problem, kick half of the conversions and we at least draw, hope this problem doesn't define our season !
To be fair to Ben R, his conversion kicking has been pretty on point until today, and all missed were tough kicks. Our composure (and because of that, the ref) cost us today. A calmer me now knows we gave the ref the ability to be a deciding factor today, by not completing with more composure.
A poor performance, and we still should have won it. Too much one out rugby, too many mistakes in golden positions and an all round bad day at the office. Very disappointed for Ed, he had a stinker and I agree with VL that he probably isn't ready at this level.
With O'Brien back in the team and Zak back in the centres, we need to win well against Wakey - whom we need to take 6 points from this season - and build off that. In some respects we look good, in some we don't and I think we're still lacking grunt up the middle.
“Disappointed for Ed” is a very good way and fair way to put it. He did not lack effort today, just a bit of experience and composure. The grunt down the middle was a problem for sure. We were already looking light in the forwards before Hughes pulled up so early on in his stint. That left a big ask of the remaining forwards. Ava had a couple of good runs but it is starting to be the time when he should play more impactful minutes. I’m hoping for more from him from here out. If O’Brien is fit for Wakey, we are too much for them to handle in the back line, let’s hope Big Ben is back and Ava steps it up. Mulhearn was a strong positive for me today by the way.
The ref doesn’t consistently miss tackles, the ref doesn’t consistently choose the wrong option, the fact we have already won 3 games is a unbelievable effort, today we carried a whole edge and still stayed close To a good team, Reynolds, chamberlain, briscoe and especially holmes are nowhere near super league quality, holmes needs to be released now, and as for that fraud jack hughes the less said the better!! As said we have done unreal up to now to win 3 games, let’s get Through this year and build again. On a positive, charnley lam and Asiata were all top class again
How a ref can call a forward pass from where he was is unbelievable, he was on there try line.He doesn’t clall it forward, that’s six points, who knows how much we could have kicked on from there. Some total brain explosions when we were pressing on there line. More composure we would have scored easily. Next week is a big game. Wakey will have had this game marked off as one to win, so we have to hit em hard and score early.
How a ref can call a forward pass from where he was is unbelievable, he was on there try line.He doesn’t clall it forward, that’s six points, who knows how much we could have kicked on from there. Some total brain explosions when we were pressing on there line. More composure we would have scored easily. Next week is a big game. Wakey will have had this game marked off as one to win, so we have to hit em hard and score early.
Pretty sure the linesman would have called the forward pass not the ref, however watched that all half a dozen times and that call is a shocker - an absolute peach of a run by Kai and what looks like a perfectly timed pass by Lam
Said before bigger game for them than it is for us, other performances this season have put us in a decent position unless the wheels fall off - and I reckon only the depth of squad (or lack of it) can cause that