Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:42 am  

NB I was thinking that. A number of champ forwards have beaten us in the ruck. SL will dominate and thus be very fast getting away, which may catch us out. The frogs are traditionally nasty to add to that

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Tue Aug 01, 2017 4:14 pm  

Happy enough to drag Catalan into a battle, as has been said in the Rl papers, Catalan are the most penalised team in the comp, so let's try and earn the penalties.
For a number of seasons we have been poor in controlling the ruck. A quick ptb wins mtrs, how often do we see our players finishing the ruck on hands and knees? How often do we see our tacklers putting the ball carrier on his back facing his own line? It's all about technique in both attack and defence.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Wed Aug 02, 2017 5:14 am  

cant make the game due to family holiday is it on the box

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Wed Aug 02, 2017 8:41 am  

All Catalan home games in M8s will be on TV.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:02 pm  

itsmeagain wrote:

cant make the game due to family holiday is it on the box

On Sky, programme starts at 5.15 U.K. time.
Will be traveling across Ireland on Saturday, place we're staying in has a Sky subscription- hoping not to get stuck behind any tractors on the country roads !

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Thu Aug 03, 2017 8:19 am  

We have Chris Kendall as our referee on Saturday. Robert Hicks is our video ref.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Thu Aug 03, 2017 9:11 am  

The referees head (Ganson) needs to look at the bunker in Australia. The video refs last week on BBC were embarrassing to say the least.

They go looking for to much instead of just looking at what the ref asks for. If the try is scored from a kick and the ref asks for grounding just look at grounding and not go looking at onside offside. The ref would ask for that if unsure.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:10 am  

Ok question for you WQ the RFL go down the route of JUST looking at what the ref asks for like the grounding. Grounding is fine but in the playback it's obvious that a player us offside, what happens?
Watch Aus rugby, watch every try, look how long it takes for them to award a try! Why do they go through thus whole dance of looking left, looking right at the TJ,s then checking with the pocket ref? Checking for feedback? Or waiting for the bunker to say we need to look at It?
I would rather let the VR look for offside, at all kicks to prevent any embarrassing headlines.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:26 am  

Look at the other option, ref asks VR to look for player in touch, while they are looking, it's obvious the hand came off the ball on grounding so knock on. If ref has not asked for it are you suggesting it's ignored?
I think the problem is not the VR it's the fact we now get to listen to his deliberations.

Re: Countdown to Game 1- Catalans : Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:00 am  

Last week in the Leeds game a try was cancelled because they went looking for a variety of things the ref hadn't asked for. The one where Briscoe was touched in mid air or something like that. The commentators weren't sure

The referee looks left and right and then can go to VR or give the try. (in addition they are all talking to each other). That doesn't change plus the ref can ask multiple questions.

As I said last week was embarrassing listening to Hicks. Not only was he talking cr$p he clearly wasn't competent in working with the camera crew.