Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2009 7:21 amwell where do you start with that one we were DIRE. Not that i am surprised. I just knew it was gonna happen , big crowd, big anticipation, sky cameras ( extra pressure on the players to put in a big performance leading them to panic.) and then the curse of SKY. I have' nt watched it on Sky yet but where do we start.
Firstly the scoreline flattered the Giants we were out muscled in the forwards and lost that battle. they appeared to make more metres in the pack. Also they appeared stronger we regularly had three players in the tackle and could not put them on their backs.
Their rush defence was very good ( bordered on illegality at times as regularly looked offside) but they played to the ref and it worked.
We seem to have difficulty in our forwards in sucking in defenders and making gaps. It seems pointless to me to be playing those short passes around the ruck UNTIL you have either tired their forwards or are able to get quick PTB and exploit the gaps. too often we seemed to be sending our back row into heavy traffic this only tires them out and reduces the enegy levels.
Passing
i am not sure what was worse our passing ability or decision making. some of our passing from Dummy half was appalling Moore and Brown seemed to be guilty of some of it( will check later).
Suicide passing in our own 20 metres . i fully understand the need to protect hodgson as our most creative player and also to try to counter attack from anywhere but trying to string several 20 metere passes together is a recipe for disaster ( or knock ons).
this allied with some of our short passing around the ruck is only going to lead to some of our players ending up in hospital.
Creativity and organisation too much responsibility on Brett Hodgson to be our main go to man. He needs some more help. I could not believe that when we were attacking the Hull line in the second half that we had Jackson at first reciever on the 5th tackle.
goal kicking is not good enough the first conversion miss was inexcusable. I really thought that it would be sorted now. It is dispiriting for the fans and the players to know that unless we score within 15 metres of the post we will only get 4 points.
Discipline giving away penalties is part of the game and is always open to interpretation but leap frogging an opponent getting off the ground or straddling him with your legs whilst getting up is silly.
Whilst i accept that too many indavidual errors may have cost the game yesterday s but some of the above points are recurring patterns which need to be sorted.
I would be happier if we played a little bit more conservatively for a while until a/ the players are better equipped skill wise and b/ Brown has recruited players that he wants.
Trying to play the fast attacking way Brown wants may work in australia where skill levels are higher but not yet with the crop of players that we have. I think tim Sheens at west tigers was recently talking about gareth ellis and he was saying how shocked he was at his poor skill level. well if ellis was not up to scratch then i am sure some of our players require remedial work.
I may be wrong on some this as it was the way i saw the game yesterday which is quite difficult when you are trying to get the crowd going and in pain after having a cortisone injection in my knee that afternoon. I will watch it on sky and reserve the right to amend anything and everything i said.
Still at least we can look forward to an away game next week without sky
Firstly the scoreline flattered the Giants we were out muscled in the forwards and lost that battle. they appeared to make more metres in the pack. Also they appeared stronger we regularly had three players in the tackle and could not put them on their backs.
Their rush defence was very good ( bordered on illegality at times as regularly looked offside) but they played to the ref and it worked.
We seem to have difficulty in our forwards in sucking in defenders and making gaps. It seems pointless to me to be playing those short passes around the ruck UNTIL you have either tired their forwards or are able to get quick PTB and exploit the gaps. too often we seemed to be sending our back row into heavy traffic this only tires them out and reduces the enegy levels.
Passing
i am not sure what was worse our passing ability or decision making. some of our passing from Dummy half was appalling Moore and Brown seemed to be guilty of some of it( will check later).
Suicide passing in our own 20 metres . i fully understand the need to protect hodgson as our most creative player and also to try to counter attack from anywhere but trying to string several 20 metere passes together is a recipe for disaster ( or knock ons).
this allied with some of our short passing around the ruck is only going to lead to some of our players ending up in hospital.
Creativity and organisation too much responsibility on Brett Hodgson to be our main go to man. He needs some more help. I could not believe that when we were attacking the Hull line in the second half that we had Jackson at first reciever on the 5th tackle.
goal kicking is not good enough the first conversion miss was inexcusable. I really thought that it would be sorted now. It is dispiriting for the fans and the players to know that unless we score within 15 metres of the post we will only get 4 points.
Discipline giving away penalties is part of the game and is always open to interpretation but leap frogging an opponent getting off the ground or straddling him with your legs whilst getting up is silly.
Whilst i accept that too many indavidual errors may have cost the game yesterday s but some of the above points are recurring patterns which need to be sorted.
I would be happier if we played a little bit more conservatively for a while until a/ the players are better equipped skill wise and b/ Brown has recruited players that he wants.
Trying to play the fast attacking way Brown wants may work in australia where skill levels are higher but not yet with the crop of players that we have. I think tim Sheens at west tigers was recently talking about gareth ellis and he was saying how shocked he was at his poor skill level. well if ellis was not up to scratch then i am sure some of our players require remedial work.
I may be wrong on some this as it was the way i saw the game yesterday which is quite difficult when you are trying to get the crowd going and in pain after having a cortisone injection in my knee that afternoon. I will watch it on sky and reserve the right to amend anything and everything i said.
Still at least we can look forward to an away game next week without sky
