Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:17 am  

Would have been good to have Reynolds on or on the bench. Think a runner like him or Mellor works best with Lam. Think we will be better when we have a fourth prop on and when the players have a more practiced arrack. Long season Leythers nothing won in week one. Salfords attack looked very smooth from being a more established team.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 5:56 am  

I thought we were unlucky with a couple of calls. The try scored by Brierley should not have counted. There was definite crossing by Croft and the dummy runner, as soon as that happens that should be pulled up. The other bad decision was when Impape was passing the ball the ball is clearly played at giving us another set of six. Both the incidents would have been pulled up. When the technology is there then use it. In the NRL both decisions would have been changed as the bunker would have had a word in the refs ear and told him exactly what happened, allowing the ref to over rule is original decision. I thought we played well overall and I think there are worse teams we will come across during the season and we will only get better the more games we play together. We need to get the ball out to Luetelle earlier.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 10:39 am  

There were a few key turning points, the knock on given against Ipape and Josh’s unfortunate fumble at the drop out plus Alkers knock on that wasn’t given. Puzzles me when decision is obviously wrong and shown on a screen in ground why can’t just ask video ref surely we need to get these crucial decisions correct. Amazed they didn’t check obstruction on Brierleys try. Watching it again we played pretty well was an intense game with both defences to the fore. Never quite got close enough to really pressure Salford who looked really solid and have a great spine. With a bit more attacking fluency that should come we could have pushed them a lot closer. Next couple of games will be interesting.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 3:34 pm  

leyther wrote:

-Played within ourselves for the most part)

Are you happy with that? They are not paid to play within themselves, if they are not giving everything they shouldn’t be on the pitch.

There were some fair performances but some poor ones.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 6:40 pm  

reffy wrote:

Are you happy with that? They are not paid to play within themselves, if they are not giving everything they shouldn’t be on the pitch.

There were some fair performances but some poor ones.

Agree some average performances last night , but things will improve , we need to bring in Ava for some size , and Smith is a must at hooker before Ipape comes on , I prefer Reynolds at 6 if Mellor is not fit, and I think we missed Ferguson on the wing , and Luetele should see more of the ball.
All in all we played well , a couple of 50 / 50 decisions went against us , should Watkins have been sin binned for the penalty try , I’m sure Lammy will look at a few things .

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:41 pm  

reffy wrote:

Are you happy with that? They are not paid to play within themselves, if they are not giving everything they shouldn’t be on the pitch.

There were some fair performances but some poor ones.

No, of course not. Why would I be happy about that? Playing within themselves suggests a couple of things to me: lack of confidence; or lack of understanding. Either way, would hope they both improve. Our left edge looked handy whereas our right edge looked clunky. No surprise that the entirety of our right edge, bar Chamberlain, were on debut.

Catalans next week. Apparently they were missing a few last night. If that's still the case next week, we'll beat them.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:14 pm  

leyther wrote:

No, of course not. Why would I be happy about that? Playing within themselves suggests a couple of things to me: lack of confidence; or lack of understanding. Either way, would hope they both improve. Our left edge looked handy whereas our right edge looked clunky. No surprise that the entirety of our right edge, bar Chamberlain, were on debut.

Catalans next week. Apparently they were missing a few last night. If that's still the case next week, we'll beat them.

It just struck me that they just stuck to the tried and tested way - try to dominate through the middle, the last 15 we needed to try something different and throw the ball around a little, but never looked like we wanted to do it - weird really as I think we won the forward battle but when we needed something else but we just stuck to a game plan, which hadn’t quite been good enough

We have a pretty decent set of backs, hopefully in time we’ll get to use that option more

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:17 pm  

More positives than negatives from the game. No doubting Hardaker is a fine full back and his preferred position but I think if he did play in the centres we would offer a lot more going forward and switch O Brien to FB as he’s out of his depth at 6 judging on recent performances

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:16 pm  

I agree with a lot of the above as regards position switches, if only to try something out.

Overall I'm not overly disappointed, in some aspects I might view it as two points dropped but I think the winds weren't entirely fair.

I think the result was a forgone conclusion as they scored two quick back to backs right at the end of the first half, and I think if it wasn't for the hooter we would have been on the end of a few more.

A word on Charnley, bar his unfortunate error, which was also at the worst time; he really did stand out for me, if for nothing more than compared to his performances last season.

We got a player with a proven track record going up against part-time players and he seemed to be full of doubt and never wanted to back himself. Maybe he wasn't match fit (but for a whole season?) or was just coasting a bit, he certainly looked happy enough, but Friday night was a different player; speed, strength, aggression. I very much liked what I saw.

Was worried Amone might get a retro ban for his tip/yellow at the end but it seems a £250 fine is all, because we certainly need his grunt in the middle.

Re: Leigh v Salford Game : Mon Feb 20, 2023 7:52 pm  

Lower Creaser wrote:

More positives than negatives from the game. No doubting Hardaker is a fine full back and his preferred position but I think if he did play in the centres we would offer a lot more going forward and switch O Brien to FB as he’s out of his depth at 6 judging on recent performances

Why move Hardaker? Who in IMO was our best player? Yes he’d be a threat at centre but from FB he can pop up on both edges. And he definitely shouldn’t be moved just to accommodate O’Brien, who if he’s not good enough to play HB (which he wasn’t on Friday but everyone has an off game) then we should play Reynolds until Mellor is fit.