Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 9:40 am  

[quote="Highlander"]Cracking game, score line flattered Fax a little I thought. Defence and enthusiasm were excellent. Middles were dominant for large parts of the game and I include Appo, Baldwinson, Scurr as well as Bibby, Donaldson and Walters in that. Keyes had an uncomfortable game which, along with Holmes’ positioning negated a lot of his tactical kicking. Well done boys. The other interesting thing is we’ve won 5/8. Only 2 of those are against teams in the bottom half of the table. We’ve now played everyone in the top half[/quote]

Indeed. Think facing a tough Batley team who have had 3 extra days recovery time than ourselves will be too much of an ask. However after that, we play 4 of the current bottom 5 plus Keighley at the bash and a real opportunity to string some wins together. None of the them will be easy games as results have shown. But with the table as tight as it is, any team that strings 4 or 5 wins together could find themselves very high up in the table. Things could look very rosey when we play Fax on 18th June.

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:21 am  

It makes the brainfarts against Keefly and York even more irritating.... What might have been now?

[Bullseye]

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:24 am  

The attitude was much improved on the Keighley debacle. We came out ready to play this time. Thought the pack was immense. It helps to have a couple of old heads out there, you could see Thompson and Donaldson doing plenty of talking. Thought Holmes was excellent at the back. Again I thought Lilley was most effective when he went to dummy half. Jowitt's take at the end was another highlight.

It was so important that we capitalised on the opposition errors and for the most part we did that. They really didn't help themselves with their errors, ill discipline and booting the ball out on the full twice from kick offs is unforgiveable. Some of the penalties they gave away were very relieving and lifted the pressure at key moments. Their sin bin was utterly needless too. I bet Grix is pulling his hair out.

Losing Blackmore and Arundal in quick succession meant it was squeaky bum time at the end when we had 12 men on the field and no subs left. Dunning seemed to suggest that Blackmore's injury was a dead leg but to me it looked like he pulled something. Arundal's was meant to be cramp. With DFJ still doubtful due to a knee injury we could again be depleted in the backs next week.

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:26 am  

To be fair, we’ve done alright considering we’ve had Walker out since minute 2.

Lawrence and Thompson have been sidelined for nearly half the games.

Our starting second rower retired before a ball was kicked.

Matongo has been out since the 1 game he played.

We’ve got bodies to come back over these next 5 games as well as 3 back from bans.

[Bullseye]

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:46 am  

We may have plenty coming back which is good but we're not exactly blessed with outside backs.

How did that Fijian lad look versus Midlands Hurricanes? Could he be on option on the wing if needed?

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 10:51 am  

Bullseye wrote:

We may have plenty coming back which is good but we're not exactly blessed with outside backs.

How did that Fijian lad look versus Midlands Hurricanes? Could he be on option on the wing if needed?

Fijian lad? Don’t think we had a Fijian playing that game? Wingers were Blackmore and DFJ. Centres were Arundel and Myers. Bench was Wallace, Johnson, Rodgers and Turgut.

Right in what you say though. Only DFJ and Walker to come back in the backs. Very light in centre/wing. Maybe why we keep going back for Tindall and Roberts.

[Bullseye]

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:12 am  

Sorry, the Fijian lad played in the reserves game versus Salford not vs Midlands. Adrea Vasuitoga - was in the Army sevens team and had a trial for Cas last year.

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:17 am  

Bullseye wrote:

Sorry, the Fijian lad played in the reserves game versus Salford not vs Midlands. Adrea Vasuitoga - was in the Army sevens team and had a trial for Cas last year.

Ah. I haven’t seen the highlights of that game yet although I think they are on Youtube now. Has he been going well for us so far?

[Pumpetypump]

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:18 am  

all the two-headed, 12 fingered farmers from Greetland on social media wrote:

gOoD wiN fOR LeeDS lAsT niGhT

In all seriousness, the two Leeds forwards were immense, and I'd welcome back Donaldson any day. I suspect Roberts is not an instinctive player who can be parachuted somewhere and thrive. He'll need to build up a relationship with his centre and then he'd have been on the end of some of the opportunities he missed last night (not all of which were his fault).

[Bullseye]

Re: Halifax (A) : Tue Apr 11, 2023 11:27 am  

I'm sure we've had similar numbers of loanees/dual reg players in the past when we've been beaten and nobody has said a thing. Wonder why?