Crusader CC : Sun Feb 11, 2024 5:46 pm  

Doesn't appear to be a game thread, I guess interest is at an all time low for the Cup comp. Must admit, I’m struggling to find any enthusiasm to attend until the league starts. Read a few reports that it was pretty low quality today and we made hard work of it until the Crusaders ran out of steam - fair assessment?

It will be interesting to see how we get on in 2024, following on from 2023 when we probably over achieved in final league placings. You would fully expect Wakefield to finish top (anything less would be a failure considering the spend and FT status) and I assume Toulouse will also be fairly strong. I guess top 4 will be the target and and ultimately trying to be the side that almost certainly faces Wakefield in the final. Personally, I still feel we are light in a few positions and I guess we will look to recruit as the season progresses.

[Bullseye]

Re: Crusader CC : Sun Feb 11, 2024 9:57 pm  

I was there today. Must have been barely 1k fans there. Really scrappy game for the most part. We started very sluggishly and Crusaders deserved to go 2-0 up. Our discipline and ball retention was pretty crap.

Once we upped the tempo we pulled away and in the second half we scored a couple of decent tries. Positives were McGowan and Appo for me. McGowan looked capable of beating s man and was safe as houses at the back. Appo injected much needed go forward off the bench. Negatives was the half assed attitude for the first 20mins. We also played up the middle too much and got dragged into a battle around the ruck. For me Sam Hallas needs to sort his discipline out and rise above the niggle because he got sucked in today. Thought Dan Smith was a bit ordinary, trundling up and then making some poor attempts at ball playing. We needed to come into this game and play up tempo but that only happened in fits and starts.

Improvement needed for the next two games.

Re: Crusader CC : Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:32 am  

Bullseye wrote:

I was there today. Must have been barely 1k fans there. Really scrappy game for the most part. We started very sluggishly and Crusaders deserved to go 2-0 up. Our discipline and ball retention was pretty crap.

Once we upped the tempo we pulled away and in the second half we scored a couple of decent tries. Positives were McGowan and Appo for me. McGowan looked capable of beating s man and was safe as houses at the back. Appo injected much needed go forward off the bench. Negatives was the half assed attitude for the first 20mins. We also played up the middle too much and got dragged into a battle around the ruck. For me Sam Hallas needs to sort his discipline out and rise above the niggle because he got sucked in today. Thought Dan Smith was a bit ordinary, trundling up and then making some poor attempts at ball playing. We needed to come into this game and play up tempo but that only happened in fits and starts.

Improvement needed for the next two games.

Spot on assessment of game yesterday. Too much one man drives when we got to the line and not enough creative rugby. McGowan and Appo were superb but Hallas and Smith offer very little. One player I must mention who has come on leaps and bounds from last season is Dan Okoro who is taking the ball in very strongly and making yards. I thought the ref was very pedantic, constantly making the players take one step back to play the ball and slowing the game down.
Much better effort needed next week as Keighley will be really up for this one.

[Bullseye]

Re: Crusader CC : Mon Feb 12, 2024 9:16 am  

Yeah Okoro looks decent if a little raw. Flanagan backed up well to finish off our best move of the match and he scored one by diving over at the PTB. Mixed game for him though as he threw some awful passes from dummy half.

Keighley will be much tougher. We'll need to start a lot better or it will be a repeat of last year's match there. For me Scurr and Lawrence come into the squad if fit. I'd drop Hallas and rest Peposhi.

Re: Crusader CC : Mon Feb 12, 2024 10:29 am  

Think the RFL are killing the cup with the ridiculous format of the SL teams entering when there is only 4 champ teams left. So we have to win 3 Cup games before even having a change of been drawn a plum tie. Would imagine SL fans find it pretty uninspiring being drawn against teams they play all year over and over again. There's only so many times you can watch Wigan V Warrington.

Didn't go yesterday, but ties like these are always difficult to get up for. Pretty much know you're going to win, poor conditions, lack of atmosphere etc disappointing but unsurprising Hallas discipline is still an issue. Never thought it was right bringing him back as he was part of the leadership group of our most toxic year. He gave away cheap penalties in the friendlies too. They are just absolute killers.

Re: Crusader CC : Mon Feb 12, 2024 11:55 am  

Bull Mania wrote:

Think the RFL are killing the cup with the ridiculous format of the SL teams entering when there is only 4 champ teams left. So we have to win 3 Cup games before even having a change of been drawn a plum tie. Would imagine SL fans find it pretty uninspiring being drawn against teams they play all year over and over again. There's only so many times you can watch Wigan V Warrington.

Didn't go yesterday, but ties like these are always difficult to get up for. Pretty much know you're going to win, poor conditions, lack of atmosphere etc disappointing but unsurprising Hallas discipline is still an issue. Never thought it was right bringing him back as he was part of the leadership group of our most toxic year. He gave away cheap penalties in the friendlies too. They are just absolute killers.

No way should Hallas be in the starting 13.

[Bullseye]

Re: Crusader CC : Mon Feb 12, 2024 1:35 pm  

While I don't like to pile on one player when many were below par yesterday Hallas was pretty poor and it was interesting to see him subbed after a dust up with an opposition player (we won the penalty) when he'd not been on the field very long. He's simply not good enough to be a regular member of the 17 no matter how committed to the cause he is. The drop in quality from having Jason Baitieri at loose forward last year is very clear.