Re: M8 RD 5 | Leeds Rhinos -v- Salford Red Devils : Sat Sep 15, 2018 6:49 am
I always look to the stats after, and I have a particular draw to missed tackles, because it tells a lot about a team. I think last night was Leeds lowest of the season, although still a poor 21 misses. Salford missed a ridiculous 39 tackles, that is poor. More alarming there is that despite this, and despite our dominance as a result, we still had to rely on a lucky last minute penalty to scrape the win. Our defending has been poor all season, but this IMO, is a direct result of what we do when we have the ball, and our whole attack is just not good enough.
I see the post about Sutcliffe, and this apologist mentality for him all the time gets repetitive. It was actually already stated he won us the game, and that is not in doubt, he produced the two moments that mattered, and deserved the credit. But the rest of the game he bombed so much for us, and contributed 3 missed tackles, and four errors. Those were important faults, and exactly why it gets mentioned. You can’t just turn up for two minutes a game. Luke Briscoe was also critisized for the same reason, but his position is far less important to the team.