Aboveusonlypie wrote:
What a difference SOL made to the pack. The props played like props as well. I thought Mossop had his best game so far. He looked like he took the criticism to heart and really tried. Clubb's defence was excellent.
The props looked much better and Flower was aggressive in the right way so that was good to see but in the 2nd half we still had our 3/4's carrying the ball out of our own 20m line with Sarge doing this time after time.
I know the idea of letting the 3/4's do this is to let the forwards have a rest or even just to try something different but we do it all the time in situations where hard yards are needed.
Tactically we were still weak in our own 20m area and there were numerous very risky passes that on another day could have cost us dearly.
What a footballer John Bateman is. Doesn't matter where he plays he does a massive shift. His tackling is incredible for a guy who isn't the biggest. And he usually evader the first tackler when he has the ball. It's easy to see that with SOL and Bateman in the team last week, we would win. I feel better now.
I thought he was great in the centres.
And last word to Matty Smith. He takes a lot of unfair criticism on here. I was pleased for him at the end. His kicking has really improved this season. I think he's roughly on a par with Mantellato and better than Sneyd for example in terms of percentage kicked this season and I think most people would rate those two as excellent kickers.
That was his best goal kicking performance I think I have seen from him. In other games he has sometimes kicked a hard one and fluffed the easy ones! All were spot on and of course crucial to the win.