Re: possible teams for catalans? : Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:07 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

While I reckon you're right in many cases it's not all down to him. Versus Hull the chasers were very lethargic at times and we didn't create any pressure. Jeffries was guilty of a couple of aimless kicks too. As deacon is the main kicker he gets the plaudits and the brickbats.

We need to start playing as a team. If we position players so Deacon gets more time to kick then that's a start, they don't need to obstruct, merely be in the path of those trying to charge down the kicker. Then the chasing team could use a bit more vigour and involve more than two or three moving up to the bloke who fields the ball.

I'd like to see us mix up the kicks too. Deacon's (and everyone else's) kicks have been pretty poor so far in that they've not created any pressure. We either need to be seriously pinning teams back or kicking so that we have a good chance of contesting the ball and forcing the error. A halfway house of the two just turns the ball over and gives cheap yards away.

This isn't rocket science, it's basics, and I'm sure the players and coach know all this. As with everything else it's another area where we'll be looking for improvement.

Good post, I've highlighted the part that really sums it up for me, the kicks at the moment are just 'nothing kicks', as if the players are hoping for something to happen. Lets just hope it improves in France, hopefully without the pressure from the fans the players can settle and play some better rugby.

: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:12 pm  

Hull was not the first game where we've been pinned down by several very well judged precision kicks, other teams seem to do this with monotonous regularity but when we do it, it's like a minor miracle at the moment.

Other teams also seem to find ways to make decent metres from penalties, in 2009 we seem to pretty much settle for making about 10 metres with the ball disappearing into the crowd high up the terracing or the back of the stand.

We used to see regular 40-20's or attempts at them. I was amazed that given the wind conditions we never seemed to try to use the wind for kicks, in particular no 40-20 attempts, and we never put any real height onto kicks to let the swirling wind do the damage. Near the end we did a couple of half decent cross-wind kicks but why only then? I'd have thought the conditions on Sunday were tailor made for a deadly kicking exponent such as Deacon, yet nothing. Puzzling.

OTOH it was nice to see him back in the groove kicking touchline goals, both into and against the wind.

[Bullseye]

: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:53 pm  

I think a good kick is often at the mercy of things leading up to it. For example a good quick ptb is needed with the ball coming back cleanly so the dummy half can give a quick accurate pass to the kicker. Too often this season our attacker has been put on his back by the defence who slow down the ruck so quick ball to the kicker is rare.

Service from the dummy half needs to be accurate and passing has been a bit astray lately too.

The team needs to be aware of the call too so they know what kind of kick is being made, e.g is it a long kick? So then the chasers can get a shift on or if it's a cross field kick or chip over the top we have people who are ready to contest the ball.

To often it looks as if the team have no idea what the plan is and we're making it up as we go along. The result is we're not playing as a team or to our maximum potential. If everyone was aware of what's going on we can all pull in the same direction. This means all kickers need to have some sort of plan in mind and be able to let their teammates know what it is. I assume that this sort of thing goes on at SL level but looking at our kicking game you wonder whether we just like hoofing it downfield without any thought!

Re: possible teams for catalans? : Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:07 pm  

faxtastic wrote:

you want to drop sherriffe when he's scoring tries.

no problem with the tries, the problems with his handling errors in try scoring positions,unwillingness to go looking for the ball and generally poor defense.