Well thank god were not on television this week. I'm sick of seeing us get embarrassed every week since round 1. In fact I'm completely fed up of evening rugby period. I miss Sunday rugby.
Hull shown us, vs Pies, that they can be smashed, well in the 2nd half they did. There is a hope. Starve them of possession and attack. We must not think we can win a game defending like we did vs Saints.
Hull shown us, vs Pies, that they can be smashed, well in the 2nd half they did. There is a hope. Starve them of possession and attack. We must not think we can win a game defending like we did vs Saints.
But isn't this the problem? We gift possession with errors and our attack is non-existent. This could be the perfect storm of a result.
Well thank god were not on television this week. I'm sick of seeing us get embarrassed every week since round 1. In fact I'm completely fed up of evening rugby period. I miss Sunday rugby.
Hull shown us, vs Pies, that they can be smashed, well in the 2nd half they did. There is a hope. Starve them of possession and attack. We must not think we can win a game defending like we did vs Saints.
I think you have a chance, we aren't playing brilliant, but are winning, discipline and handling is still not where it should be, against Wigan our defence was amazing for 60 minutes, Wigan has some much possession, due to the above factors, eventually we got too tired and gaps appeared, it certainly didn't help Houghton going off after 8 minutes (already had made 12 tackles), he wont play on Saturday. Watts will be back though and could have a couple of outside backs returning for this one.
Our defence looks excellent this year, but our attack hasn't fully clicked, although it has in parts, if we that does, we won't be far off winning something again this year, Kelly has been amazing and Griffin has started to play well.
On paper it should be a Hull win, but you look at your squad and see very dangerous players, so for some reason I am not that confident.
Firstly drop Russell. When he is on form he can make big yardage but he isn't, and we can't afford the errors.
Move Gidley to FB and Ratch to centre. Ratchford is our best FB but he is needed in the centre of the field where he can both create chances and defend the line.
Bring back Patton with Brown in the halves. I wouldn't say Patton has been outstanding, but he is young and needs the game time. This year should be all about seeing if he will make it as our HB for 2018. Brown hasn't exactly impressed either, but he needs runners around him to provide options, and so far that just has not happened. Between the two of them they ought to be able to produce a kicking game with perhaps Ratchford contributing. If we can't make good field position on the last tackle we will be dead in the water.
From our youngsters, King needs to stay in the centre and Livett on the bench, whilst Johnson provides pace on the wing. Ryan Jones (U19) is also very quick but it may be too much to expect him to make a wing debut, which I suppose only really leaves Evans for the other wing spot.
I don't think there are many options for the pack. You could swap Westwood for Philbin, but what we really need from the pack is the desire to simply run hard at the opposition and get the ball played quickly. We need to see some dummy running as well rather than just one man taking the ball up.
No off-loads inside our 40m (Cooper / Sims), no charge-downs at all (TS). No speculative 20m passes, keep it simple and lets see if we can at least get a close score against a very good Hull side.
Gidley Evans Ratchford King Johnson Patton Brown Hill Clark Cooper Westwood Hughes Westerman
....and now more CHARGE-DOWNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And kick to try and regain possession from every kick off...not just the last kick when 20 odd points down and 3 mins left on the clock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Firstly drop Russell. When he is on form he can make big yardage but he isn't, and we can't afford the errors.
Move Gidley to FB and Ratch to centre. Ratchford is our best FB but he is needed in the centre of the field where he can both create chances and defend the line.
Bring back Patton with Brown in the halves. I wouldn't say Patton has been outstanding, but he is young and needs the game time. This year should be all about seeing if he will make it as our HB for 2018. Brown hasn't exactly impressed either, but he needs runners around him to provide options, and so far that just has not happened. Between the two of them they ought to be able to produce a kicking game with perhaps Ratchford contributing. If we can't make good field position on the last tackle we will be dead in the water.
From our youngsters, King needs to stay in the centre and Livett on the bench, whilst Johnson provides pace on the wing. Ryan Jones (U19) is also very quick but it may be too much to expect him to make a wing debut, which I suppose only really leaves Evans for the other wing spot.
I don't think there are many options for the pack. You could swap Westwood for Philbin, but what we really need from the pack is the desire to simply run hard at the opposition and get the ball played quickly. We need to see some dummy running as well rather than just one man taking the ball up.
No off-loads inside our 40m (Cooper / Sims), no charge-downs at all (TS). No speculative 20m passes, keep it simple and lets see if we can at least get a close score against a very good Hull side.
Gidley Evans Ratchford King Johnson Patton Brown Hill Clark Cooper Westwood Hughes Westerman
Simms Crosby Dwyer Livett
Looking at the that side, it is hard to explain why you haven't won a game, backs lack a bit of spark, but your spine of Gidley, Brown and Clarke are good and your starting pack has 5 England Internationals (plus Hughes who is a good player) in it.
Maybe it is lacking in the backs to get into the top 4, but you should easily be top 8.
Anyone else on here wondering how Jack Hughes has escaped any criticism in the media from TS like Dec Patton has, Hughes has been by far the worst of our lot so far for me , even despite his miss tackles and handling errors he seems to run aimlessly infront of defenders and end up going no where, great athlete poop Rugby player
I think our beloved Airlie Birds may have to fly through a perfect storm on Saturday if they are to keep your losing run going.... and our winning run too. You're lads are going to throw absolutely everything at us first 30, I'm sure of that. TS won't need a team talk. If we can weather that storm and keep our heads then our rugby may have to be played 2nd half. A reversal of what happened at Wigan the other night. But thats usually the way we go, were normally strong finishers even with our biggish pack. Its going to be a great spectacle of head to head physical attrition from the off. I can't wait to get there.
I think you have a chance, we aren't playing brilliant, but are winning, discipline and handling is still not where it should be, against Wigan our defence was amazing for 60 minutes, Wigan has some much possession, due to the above factors, eventually we got too tired and gaps appeared, it certainly didn't help Houghton going off after 8 minutes (already had made 12 tackles), he wont play on Saturday. Watts will be back though and could have a couple of outside backs returning for this one.
Our defence looks excellent this year, but our attack hasn't fully clicked, although it has in parts, if we that does, we won't be far off winning something again this year, Kelly has been amazing and Griffin has started to play well.
On paper it should be a Hull win, but you look at your squad and see very dangerous players, so for some reason I am not that confident.
Just out of interest ,Who do you think these very dangerous players are? Personally I think we have Clark, Hill and Ratch who are only just back from injury and Currie who is a long way from coming back.. If Hull turn up with anything like a decent attitude on Saturday you'll have it won at HT.
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