: Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:33 pm  

Bigpev wrote:

...... just wish the Garlic cruncher in the middle made clearer signals, especially when wiping the tackle count just sticking his fist in the air.

.....

did big Phil try & play the ball on the 6th tackle cos he'd shouted cinq beforehand?

But - I thought Mr Alibert had an excellent game - kept things going, wasn't constantly blowing just to show off his own ego on Sky like certain British refs do - tres bon - neuf out of dix pour that performance!

last nite : Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:49 pm  

ok went to the match and watched the rerun on sky

so here are my thoughts for what they are worth,

first of all, good solid game, great result.

and now for the break down,

fitzy, good game solid in defence, good on attack backing up superb when
team in attack, getting back to the fitzy of old.

wilshere, good game solid in defence, kicking boots on today good to see.

henry, great solid game, was tested with kicks in the first half, and
responed well in attack, good in defence,

littler, good solid game was there in support through out the game in
defence and attack,

smith, what can u say, kicks good, tackleing gud attack gud, great speed
through out.

myler, same as above nice to see scrum half n stand off playing together.

cashmere, great in attack made plenty of yards, solid in defence, will do
better as the season goes on hopefully,

alker, one word superb, dont need to say anything else.

stapleton, great in attack took his try well solid in defence will improve
more game time,

sibbit, solid guy played well gud in defence and attack

parker, played well. looks still to be finding his feet, has played better for
warrington , hope to see improvement,

swain, looks the part, played well in attack n defence , turner will struggle
to get game time unless swain injured,

ok the subs,

big phil, looks fitter the season made sum good runs in attack not sure
about his defence at times,

nash, big youngster played well today against a big pack but needs to do
better in defence,

paul, if this is going to be his big season for us, he needs to improve,
medieocore game,

adamsom, played well, in attack and defence, needs more game time for
me , then hopefully see improvement,

talou, good game from what we saw of him, hope he is not going to be
wasted on the bench, there again who wud u drop?in the centres?

overall, summary,

team at kick of brill attack supurb defence solid, game played down the middle of the pitch, wingers n centres left out in the cold most of the game,

then came the changes cashmere n stapo off i can understand that give them a rest but alker aswell ???? i question that decision????
we were on top of the game alker was running the show and the whole team was ripping the welsh side to bits in attack and we were satnding up in defence,

so on came big phil and adamson and robbie paul,
forwards did ok but for me paul looked slow and didnt want to play, only made a couple of advances from dummy half the rest of the time was a straight pass to the nearest player .

the team at the point to me seemed to loose control of the game and lack ideas,

half time

second half first 20 mins same as the last 20 in the first half and i thought here we go we gonna loose this one,

then came on alker , paul off and a change in the forwards aswell, and the game picked up again with said players and the team focused on the game again,

so for me . alker plays for 80mins, and if mcrae is going to take him of put ratchford on the bench and let robbie paul carry on like last season doing p.r for himself,

when the fowards change after 20 mins i think we need to play a diff game in attack and spread the ball out to the wings and bring them into the game, and just let the forwards do the defenecive work intstead of trying to do both attack n defence,

i would keep the same team for next week but change ratchford for paul, and keep alker on the pitch longer,

alker for me is still the captain out there on the pitch the players look to him for guideance, and without him we will loose matches,

bring on wakey/

soz for the long rattle but this is what i thought of the game.

: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:16 pm  

Alker played like a captain last night.

Thought we looked weak down the wing, I dont know if it was a lack of understanding between Talau and Henry or Talou on his own. Henry looked solid enough.

We lost something when Swain, Alker and stappo went off.

When Paul came on we went off the boil, his passing was back to the old Salford rather than the sharp crisp passing we had prior.

: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:52 pm  

Like everybody else I was very impressed with our first choice front row. With Cashmere, Alker and Stapleton firing on all cylinders we took a real grip on the game and Myler and Smith had room to dominate. It wasn't quite the same story when the three of them were taken off. In fact, I don't think Celtic scored a point against us when the starting front row were on the pitch together in both halves.

I hope that Shaun McRae doesn't bring a fixed plan to every game in terms of his substitutions and decide the starting props play for twenty minutes and the hooker for twenty-five beforehand so he is substituting players for the sake of it according to a formula. I am sure that Malcolm Alker is capable of playing for more than forty minutes! At least Shaun McRae brought him back when Celtic were getting back into the game. Substitutions need to be made to respond to what happens on the pitch and not because of a pre-determined plan.

Like others on here I wonder what Adam Sidlow has to do to get a place on the bench. I think he's a real talent who has a genuine physical presence about him.

: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:07 pm  

RedDave wrote:

=
Like others on here I wonder what Adam Sidlow has to do to get a place on the bench. I think he's a real talent who has a genuine physical presence about him.

Should have seen him today immense
Missed him off a earlier post of stand out performers for the reserves today

: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:18 pm  

To use Eddie Hemming's favourite phrase about Celtic I thought last night was "encouraging" from our point of view. We have to remember that when we were at our best last night we had a whole bunch of players making their competitive debuts which bodes well for the future when they really start to gel and settle in super league. I agree with much of what has been said previously. I was impressed by how well we backed up at times last night and it was this that led to our tries. Alker did have a great game but he would have been nothing without people running off him and I hope this can continue when we are under the cosh in future games. Let's keep being creative and showing the good rugby we showed in spells last night. I have to say that after being fairly uninspired by Leeds v Celtic and Saints v Warrington (where in the first 25 minutes there was far too much dropped ball for their level) I thought the game as a whole last night was pretty good.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:41 am  

All posts re the game were pretty spot on, only hope someone on the coaching staff reads them and reacts.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:59 am  

Re the interchanges:

There is no doubt the interchanges totally affeted the momentum we had built in the first 20 minutes.

I have a concern that Shaun McRae is far too rigid with his game plan, with all the players/coaches knowing when and who will be interchanged before the match, rather than giving himself the flexibility of adapting his tactical interchanges to the match situation? Just a bit concerned our game plan is too mechanical and doesn't allow for a plan B!

That said a good result and start to the season!!

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:32 pm  

Can't add much more to what has already been said, good first 20 minutes then after that we off the boil for the middle 40 minutes at one point when Celtic had the upper hand and pulled it back to 20-16 I feared the worse, but credit where credits due the lads stuck at it and finshed the stronger out of the two teams.

One thing I wasn't sure about was the option to kick the penalty goal to put us 20-0 up. IMO Celtic were on the back foot its 18-0 and we were in a great attacking position. Maybe just a little more confidence in our own ability was needed??

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:38 pm  

Ave It! wrote:

One thing I wasn't sure about was the option to kick the penalty goal to put us 20-0 up. IMO Celtic were on the back foot its 18-0 and we were in a great attacking position. Maybe just a little more confidence in our own ability was needed??

Perhaps. It was an easy two though. But negative.