upthecats wrote:
It’s not exactly rocket science when you look into it...
We lost nine straight after lockdown...
Seven of those were against teams currently sat in the top four.
One was a ‘home’ game against Huddersfield that we ended up playing at theirs and was an even game barring Aidan Sezer who was the clear difference between two struggling sides....the other loss being a tight game against a depleted Hull side but we were depleted too...Hull were favourites to win the game at every bookies in the land....
We didn’t have home advantage in any of those games which for a team like us is a major plus...we had injuries, disruptions and were in a rut and low on confidence....we slowly started getting our star players and match winners back on the field though...game changers like Johnstone and Fifita...our pack leaders and experience in Ashurst and Arona and I’d even add BJB into that.
We’ve then taken on two beatable teams...Huddersfield without them having home advantage and came through to win that, then the first game since lockdown that we’ve been favourites to win...with home advantage...with the majority of our quality players on the field and we’ve put them to the sword...
You could see in the first half the confidence come flooding back...giving the ball some air, offloads, numerous players backing breaks up etc...
That’s how I see it anyway...
Yeah but you're kind of missing the point......I know for a fact if we had lost yesterday it would have been because of late withdrawals, 2nd game in 4 days etc etc.....they are not reasons, they are excuses!! You talk about previous games, we lost to Hull, Wigan, Saints, we lost because someone knocked on in the 71st minute, threw the ball into touch in the 67th minute, gave a stupid penalty away etc etc, they are actual reasons why we lost those games?! When the players were out there in those games in the heat of battle, no-one is thinking about covid issues etc, they just didn't play well enough to win. Most of the other games were just very poor performances, bordering on unprofessional. Catalans away we were virtually at full strength, hardly any disruption with team changes, same 17 and had 8 days to prepare against a team who were playing their 3rd game in 7 days, and we were abysmal, explain?! Anyway i'm pleased we have performed better and finally given us something to smile about