Re: v St Helens : Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:52 pm  

likely we will see mcgillvary back for this one which is a boost

walne too may return to the pack after a calf injury

think they will give lawrence and wakeman another week

dont think many deserve to miss out after the victory over wire, maybe just mcgillvary in for mcintosh and walne to return in the pack for dickinson maybe

forecast to be better weather too which may or may not suit us

Re: v St Helens : Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:09 pm  

From the squad announced I think Stone will go:

1. Mamo
2. Jerry
3. Gaskell
4. Turner
5. Murphy
6. Rankin
7. Brough
8. Taai
9. O Brien
10. Walne
11. Ferguson
12. Roberts
13. Hinchliffe

14. Ikahihifo
15. Clough
16. Leeming
17. Smith

Roche & McIntosh to miss.

Would usually have Seb and Leeming starting but Stone seems to be going for impact off the bench at the moment.

Wakeman and Lawrence back fit for next week and Mellor due back very soon as well.

Symonds was meant to be ready for Wakefield next week but noticed its gone very quiet again and Stone never mentioned him during the injury update yesterday so cant see that been the case anymore.

Anyone heard how Leroy is getting on?

Re: v St Helens : Wed Feb 21, 2018 2:30 pm  

yep think that will pretty much be the team

not sure if leeming and ikahihifo will regain their starting spots, thought it was due to not being fit but they will be upto speed now

yes gone quiet on symonds again

Re: v St Helens : Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:49 pm  

Decent in patches, but too much pedestrian sluggish rugby in attack. 6 consecutive sets on the opppsition line with nothing to show says it all. Mamo was shocking. Jerry a passenger. The “best winger in the world” against a young rookie but we didn’t once try to exploit it. WHY NOT! Saints didn’t look too special -made plenty of errors.
Rankin taai clough and Murphy played well.
When we ran from deep we looked dangerous, but too often we were stood flat. We need the attack to start to click.

Re: v St Helens : Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:08 pm  

All the flair has gone out of the game. No breaks by either side and boring one out Rugby. Giants need to start scoring. This Aussie coach obsession of mistake free pressure building is destroying the sport

Re: v St Helens : Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:22 pm  

As far as I'm concerned and I know I'll get slated, we're a decent team but not a great team.

We have many "solid players" who don't do much wrong but can't win us games.

We're incredibly slow all across the field.

At the moment the weather suits us aswell with our style. In the summer, I think we will struggle massively against teams with pace outwide who can throw he ball out quickly like Saints, Wigan, Wakey.

It's hard for me to see us finishing any higher than 6th. We will make the 8 no problem but don't have a cat in hells chance of making the top 4 or play offs.

What's worrying for me going forward is the rugby we play is dire. We don't make breaks, have anyone with any pace outwide. Our plays are very telegraphed and obvious in attack.

Our effort it great but we do go to sleep quite often on the 6th tackle.

Regarding Mamo, great at getting in good positions attacking. Shocking defensively at present, 2 errors against Hull and Saints before half time, which changed the context of the game. Why on earth does he keep running forward at defenders then just stop completely still and get tackled? Drive forward and make some more metres!... because every time he's does it, whatever he's trying to do, doesn't work! He will hopefully get better though, hopefully sooner rather than later as we know he is a quality player.

Ferguson and Clough were our best players for me and have put in 1 hell of a shift again. I suppose they are playing for a new contract, as is Murphy.

Massive game against Wakey now and a must win really. While the weather is like it is I think we should be able to beat them.

For next week:

Smith out Bruno in.
Walne out. Wakeman in.

If Symonds is injured for longer, again, release on medical grounds and try bring an outside back/centre in with abit of speed to cover Leroy as Gaskell is not a centre. We're ok in the forwards for me.

Re: v St Helens : Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:00 am  

Lots of positives for me some good individual performances we just struggle for impact up front. That performance would have beaten a lot of teams at home. As ever concerned only 5k Giants fans v Saints but it’s been like that for a long time.

Re: v St Helens : Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:58 am  

hxgiant wrote:

Lots of positives for me some good individual performances we just struggle for impact up front. That performance would have beaten a lot of teams at home. As ever concerned only 5k Giants fans v Saints but it’s been like that for a long time.

I don't think that is the case myself. Our forwards front up fairly well we are just the slowest team at playing the ball. You saw how fast St Helens Helens at times turned it on, we simply could not cope with it and we aren't able to do that ourselves.

Think we would of beaten most teams last night such as Salford, Hull KR, Cats, Wakey Widnes, Possibly Cas but would of been then same outcome against most of the other teams like Leeds, Hull, Wigan.

Top teams half back combinations are so much better than ours. Brough can still play well but not the player he was and quite inconsistent now...but Rankin or Gaskell would not get in any other team in the top 6. I'm not saying they are bad players, because they are good, it's just other teams have far better players than them such as. Sneyd, Kelly, Richardson, Lomax, Fages, Moon, Williams etc etc

Our defence is fairly decent we just seem to concede a lot of tries on the last tackle.

We also cannot get on the score sheet first can we? We always concede in every game in the first 5-10 mins.

Re: v St Helens : Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:44 am  

tough game, we matched saints for long periods, even looked the better team but just couldnt take our chances, attack not good enough ... but thats been the same for years now... brough has been our attack for years but cant break down defences... still its early days with our new half back combo so can still improve

roberts is not as effective as a starting second rower.. needs to impact off the bench but has to play from the off due to symonds not being available.

ferguson was great again lastnight, so was murphy

mamo was poor, needs some sun and more game time after such a long lay off... same for jerry ... can see the rust just not match fit.

taai and clough were great up front and matched saints

the ref i thought was abit harsh on us.. gave us knock ons then let saints get away with exactly the same! dont want him as a red again anytime soon.

that try just before half time and the two quick fire ones second half were the difference and saints being more clinical in their finishing.

roll on next week, not disheartened, loads off effort form the lads lastnight

Re: v St Helens : Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:22 pm  

On the positive side, go forward in the middle of park was very good, and our defence in the middle third was also excellent. Saints really struggled to make ground and their scores came from making ground due to penalties/mistakes. The effort was also there, Ferguson was surely our MOM, tough to put down every time he had a carry.

On the negative side, we were woefully incompetent with the ball in their 20. It was obvious we would lose the game when we had 6 sets of six on their line and couldn't score. The short ball from Brough to Ferguson was attempted at least 4 times, and they read it everytime. We had players knocking into each other, and getting in the way, scoring from kicks and mistakes saved us against Warrington but that was never going to happen against a good Saints defence.

Mamo is surely using up a lot of the positive credit he gained last season as he more or less single handedly lost us the game with a cold drop from the kick off costing us one try, and losing the contest in the air against a saints attacker costing us another. I would guess that we had around three times as much time in the opposition 20 as they had in ours and yet we score two less tries. That's unbelievably bad, and would leave any coach seriously questionning their sides abilities.

As one poster has already pointed out we have the worlds best winger, and make zero attempt to get him 1 on 1 with his opposite number. We should be spreading the ball to his wing as often as is possible, The conditions were fine for handling rugby last night, why did we not attempt this at all?!?