TJ, incredible : Fri Oct 23, 2020 4:18 pm  

Since Johnstone's return he's hardly been on fire but to be fair he's not had many chances. Last night he scored two fairly simple tries but nothing special. Last night was definitely a team win.

So although he's not playing incredibly he's still incredible IMHO. In those four games ??, he's still scored 3 tries, more tries than we've scored as a team in most post-COVID games.

We know he's quick he is and we know he's an acrobat but he's also got an incredible instinct when it comes to scoring tries. It's a gift that's hard to explain but he's always there and nearly always has just enough time and space to score. It's a gift, it can't be trained IMHO, he just has it. You can train and improve his defence, occasionally his positioning, even his speed but that instinct too know when it's on is a rare gift indeed.

Makinson is a quality winger but he's in a team where chances come thick and fast but his try-scoring record per game is not much better than Toms, may not be as good I have not checked.

Part of Toms confidence comes from being at the same club all his career, suits some players, whether he could take that to a bigger stage I don't know. Personally, I think he could but I really hope he doesn't as we need him. Over the last 5 years, I reckon TJ has score 30-40 tries that we wouldn't otherwise have bagged. He's been a huge difference between winning and losing, almost to the point of costing us our SL spot in his absence, see 2019.

Oh well, fingers crossed because I reckon it will be another 50 years before we uncover such a points machine if the past is anything to go by, certainly one who is as entertaining, I don't think we always appreciate what we have. I do concede that compared to a Prop or an HB it's not as physical or as mentally taxing being on the wing, but you can only be the best at what you are and he certainly is one of those.

Re: TJ, incredible : Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:20 pm  

I think one area that he has improved is the yardage after contact early in the tackle count. He’s consistently making the valuable yards and rarely gets pushed back. His workrate is impressive too. He was helping out the right side in taking the ball up and then running back to his left wing spot vs Hudds. Stuff like that goes unnoticed but it’s valuable.

To score the trys he has when we have had many halfback combinations and centre rotations takes some effort. Makinson and Grace for example often get put into space which is a luxury TJ doesn’t often get.

Let’s face it he’s playing in the worst/second worst defensive team this year and our wingers have been left in cruel situations a number of times. Wingers at clubs like saints don’t tend to end up in those situations often. He’s just class and I hope we get to see a lot more of him.

Re: TJ, incredible : Sat Oct 24, 2020 7:36 am  

It still baffles me how little we try to get him into the game in attacking positions at the minute, we barely even kick to him in on the 5th when in their 20 half the time, against Hudds I think a forward got tackled in their 10 on the 5th tackle twice possibly 3 times. Alternatively we have been hammering it into touch to get a breather rather than giving him a kick to attack.
Surely we can come up with some ideas to try and get him on the outside sometimes but we don't even seem to try. He's the best player and yet half the time he's reduced to being used to bring it out of our 20. I don't get it.

Re: TJ, incredible : Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:22 am  

Schunter wrote:

It still baffles me how little we try to get him into the game in attacking positions at the minute, we barely even kick to him in on the 5th when in their 20 half the time, against Hudds I think a forward got tackled in their 10 on the 5th tackle twice possibly 3 times. Alternatively we have been hammering it into touch to get a breather rather than giving him a kick to attack.
Surely we can come up with some ideas to try and get him on the outside sometimes but we don't even seem to try. He's the best player and yet half the time he's reduced to being used to bring it out of our 20. I don't get it.

Up until Hull 2919 we did get the ball to him at every opportunity then it stopped.

We know why it stopped because the main architects Miller, Bill and Ashurst got injured at roughly the same time along with Tom.

It was clearly going to be at least 12 month before this machine could come back on line.

However this imho is where CC failed. Although it was never going to be as effective without all four there was no need to abandon the attacking down the left policy completely as we seemed to do. Especially when those players started to return.

Instead we seemed to panic and opt for one up rugby. As I say it wouldn’t have been as good but I seriously doubt it would have been as bad as what replaced it!

Now I’m afraid it’s lost. Miller doesn’t get quick ball, Ashurst has decided to plough on down the middle, Tupes when he plays is starved of ball and so then is TJ.

Hampshire can pass and kick to the left, we’ve seen him do it, yet now he kicks and passed exclusively to the right! Why? Even BJB our excellent second best winger doesn’t have the ability Tom has.

BJB was at his best when the opposition expected the ball to go left and then it went right and suddenly there was space a plenty for this talented winger to exploit.

Even if we aren’t up to supplying TJ the killer passes there is absolutely no reason why we can’t send him plenty of kicks, another top notch part of his game.

As I say we might never get back to what we had but that doesn’t excuse the woeful misuse of such a talent. I mean you’d swear it was malicious it’s that bad. I don’t think it is, I think it’s incompetent and that’s just as bad.

We have the skills, both Miller and Rocky have shown that. We can win up front as shown on Thursday. We need to get out of the negative mind set we’ve been in these past 18 month, stop feeling sorry for yourself Chester and co and unleash the beast!!!

Re: TJ, incredible : Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:27 am  

He's missing those early balls, especially from Tupou. Plus, he's very much a marked man and we need to exploit this and use some of the space left inside. The threat and fear of what he can do, should leave space for others to exploit.

Re: TJ, incredible : Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:07 pm  

[quote="wrencat1873"]He's missing those early balls, especially from Tupou. Plus, he's very much a marked man and we need to exploit this and use some of the space left inside. The threat and fear of what he can do, should leave space for others to exploit.[/quot
Spot on, get the ball out to him and if he’s heavily marked use the space that threat creates

Re: TJ, incredible : Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:29 pm  

The intercept for BJB’s second try was insane.

Re: TJ, incredible : Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:52 pm  

Who knew we had such a devastating broken field runner. I suggest we work on getting him in open space more often.

Re: TJ, incredible : Sun Oct 25, 2020 5:57 pm  

:

Khlav Kalash wrote:

Who knew we had such a devastating broken field runner. I suggest we work on getting him in open space more often.

Re: TJ, incredible : Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:45 am  

In the latest England squad. But are England playing any fixtures this year?