I thought Sheffield always looked more dangerous than us, even in the 1st half when we were leading. They destroyed us round the ruck where our marker defence was shocking. Only our strong line defence and scrambling back saved a bigger scoreline. Once again I will say I don't think Kirk is good enough. As much as I like him and he is a tireless worker he simply does not offer enough going forward. He looks like he is ready to drop as soon as he meets the first line of defence. Has anyone ever seen him bust a tackle? If he has it's very rare. This is not a pop at him as I say he has a great attitude but it takes more than that.
Kirk is a grafter, finds his front and gets a quick play the ball so our hookers can get the next pass out quicker and catch the defence out. Wood also does this very well. They may not bust the tackles but they do not get turned on their backs often like some of our larger forwards which slows down the play. Don’t know why Wood and Hallas were left out of the team as they are our best defensive middles by a long way. Magrin’s defence was dire especially around the ruck. Onto York next week!
Poor discipline from the Bulls cost us the points in a match we had a good chance of winning until the sending off. Can’t argue with the red card, Green swung his elbow and deserved to walk. I guess the frustrating thing is how often antics such as that or worse go unpunished in the Championship. But that’s sport and if we had been a bit smarter we might well have had a few more points on the board by that point.
It’s a long season though and this performance whilst disappointing won’t define our entire season. It’s our first season back and the club is still rebuilding so we will certainly won’t have it all our own way this year, we will need to fight for every victory. You cannot lose a player halfway through the game at this level when there is nothing in it. A settled partnership at 6/7 would be a big help!
Any one know how Keyes and bustin got on yesterday?. If they came through reserves game plus Webster and Chisholm back will be a decent boost for York game.
Any one know how Keyes and bustin got on yesterday?. If they came through reserves game plus Webster and Chisholm back will be a decent boost for York game.
Unless they played without being on the teamsheet, they didn't play. Team sheet was announced as:
Thought that was a really immature performance from us. We seemed to be playing the ref more that the opposition. Whining and waving your arms around and getting aggrieved at perceived injustices won't help win the game.
TBH I thought we were just about staying in it until Green got sent off. After that we went to pieces. Before he got sent off we struggled for decent ball and were well beaten up front. I liked the play for our two tries but after that we rarely looked like repeating it.
Green is obviously going to be taking a long rest. Hopefully Magrin will too as he was rubbish. The halfbacks were too young an inexperienced for this game when we started to lose it up front. Lilley needs to stop running across the field, at one stage in the second half he was even running more towards our own line than the opposition's.
I noticed Keyes and Bustin didn't play vs Hunslet. No Wilson either. That's a shame as it leaves us with Crossley, Kirk, Wood, Krasniqi (who for me didn't do much) and unfortunately Magrin for next week. If we don't improve 100% York will have a field day.
I think some of the criticism aimed at Magrin is a bit harsh here. For starters it was his first game so match fitness will have been an issue. Secondly he's a prop and was asked to play LF. Not sure he's ever played there before in his career and it was a decision JK made which didn't work out. My guess is JK was concerned about losing the forwards battle so decided to throw another large body in there to try and help. The downside to that is what you lose with ball in hand. I don't recall Magrin making any handling errors and he was very harshly done to by the ref for the penalty he gave away while in possession of the ball right on Sheffield's line in the first half.
The most frustrating thing for me from Friday is that despite playing on a surface perfect for RL, we still stuck to our boring, one out style of rugby that we always seem to play. Why are we obsessed with trying to steamroll every team we play? We have some of the best backs in the league and they are starved of the ball every week almost! Hitchcox should be scoring tries for fun in this division, Ryan too, but the only way they ever seem to get a sniff is through kicks. Our attacking structure just isn't there at all for me and we still look like we're waiting for a piece of individual skill to create something (Milnes on Friday) rather than set plays or offloading/decent support play. We're a very frustrating team to watch imo.
Be nice to get some info on the long term injured. What is the issue with Keyes back? It's plainly a major concern. He has a long life after rugby to live so hopefully this is not a long term condition. Grant was apparently injured playing in the World Cup. That was back in October. Four months on and still no sighting of him. It's plainly a very serious injury indeed.
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