: Sun Jun 21, 2009 6:58 pm  

saintpen wrote:

The saints try that was given by the IGJ from being behind the sticks looked a try to me I(Although u may call me biased) i cant comment on the bulls one being at the other end of the field. At the end of the day the 2 in goal judges had the best veiw of it so how any one can argue against them i dont know. Though the bulls showed in patches what they can do i just think we had the power off the bench when Maurie and Tony P came on we seemed to just get on top.

Who really knows about the try decisions, but the main point was your two props. They were the only Saints players who could compete with an on form Bulls side. Unfortunately, they didn't just compete they demolished the Bulls. It was like rolling back the clock to when the Bulls used to win with power - today we must have the smallest pack in the league, whilst at Saints you seem to have about 7 props in your team, and two of them just enormous. The retirement of Joe V and Les V before that are the missing part of the Bulls right now.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 6:58 pm  

Bully_Boxer wrote:

It was the wrong call at the time I reckon. As for the rest of it.. are you for real? You actually believe that is where the match was lost?

Indirectly. Yes it did.
I think it damaged your sides momentum and self belief, that was present up till that point. Saints would have almost certainly conceded a try as i doubt we would have been able to hold out for a fifth set of six on our own line. We would then have been 18-4 down. The Bulls would have been rampant. Saints would have had to force play to get in the game, thereby creating errors, and more opportunities for the bulls to score.

As it was at 14-4 down Saints knew that 1 try would bring us right back in it.

At times today the Bulls looked like a top class outfit, you were tough in defence, fast and moved the ball around well.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:05 pm  

According to the Saints players, the ball was stolen by one of the Bradford players as Roby went over, as the rules stated if it is stolen in the act of scoring it is a penalty try, that is what the IGJ said.He was only three feet away from it. You seem to only mention Kyle badly timed tackle, but, forget to mention the swinging of that thug Newton, followed by the Halley shot on Maurie. Amazingly, Thaler did not do anything, because, Maurie did not do a swan dive and rollover pretending to be injured, he got up and played the ball.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:14 pm  

Yet again the referee costs us the game

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:16 pm  

Mick Gledhill wrote:

Yet again the referee costs us the game

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:19 pm  

Mick Gledhill wrote:

Yet again the referee costs us the game

Yet again you talk complete spheroids!

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:22 pm  

From where I watched it there were two significant moments in the game:

1) When Fa'asavalu came on in the first half and ripped us to shreds.

2) When he came back on in the second half and did exactly the same.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:38 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Indirectly. Yes it did.
I think it damaged your sides momentum and self belief, that was present up till that point. Saints would have almost certainly conceded a try as i doubt we would have been able to hold out for a fifth set of six on our own line. We would then have been 18-4 down. The Bulls would have been rampant. Saints would have had to force play to get in the game, thereby creating errors, and more opportunities for the bulls to score.

As it was at 14-4 down Saints knew that 1 try would bring us right back in it.

At times today the Bulls looked like a top class outfit, you were tough in defence, fast and moved the ball around well.

I don't agree. It is far from certain we would have scored. Knowing us we would have knocked it on. And even with the extra 2-4 points the game would hardly have been out of reach. So was that decision alone the reason we lost? Absolutely not.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:48 pm  

I thought McNamara had made the wrong call, but then I remembered Paul Medley's speech, and realised it was the right decision.

: Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:01 pm  

The Chair Maker wrote:

Indirectly. Yes it did.
I think it damaged your sides momentum and self belief, that was present up till that point. Saints would have almost certainly conceded a try as i doubt we would have been able to hold out for a fifth set of six on our own line. We would then have been 18-4 down. The Bulls would have been rampant. Saints would have had to force play to get in the game, thereby creating errors, and more opportunities for the bulls to score.

As it was at 14-4 down Saints knew that 1 try would bring us right back in it.

At times today the Bulls looked like a top class outfit, you were tough in defence, fast and moved the ball around well.

Listening from afar, it seemed to remind me very much of Wigans tactics in the mid 90's when in a similar situation. Be continually off side, throw in the odd high tackle, allways early on in the tackle count. No sin bins were ever issued then and when the attacking team knocked on, a scrum given regardless of how much off side Wigan were at that time. As something similar seemed to be occuring today, was MacNamara anticipating the knock on/scrum event and decided 2 was better than none?