: Sat Apr 18, 2009 7:56 am  

To an extent I think Cullen's hands are tied re subs. Wasn't sure why Wildbore went off but otherwise the number of players injured is getting worse.
I think we missed Duffy tonight who has been excellent and I hope he comes back fit and not carrying a knock. I think we need another option at hooker as Smithy has looked out of sorts. With Beswick gone the competition for his place has gone with it as we all know that is where he really wanted to play. I do hear Robinson is playing well in the reserves. Maybe Cull will look at him at some point?
Also heard in the club afterwards that they have been hammering defensive work in training all week! At the moment the technique is just awful with players just grabbing at shirts. We really need to put the shoulder in and bring them down fast but at least it's being worked on.

I am fairly positive after last night... again we had all the possession but we looked fairly good with the ball at times. A little more ingenuity and we will be fine. Some of the plays were class though.
With the raft of players that we have to come back in I think we will be a lot stronger in the weeks to come.

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:51 am  

vikings 4 ever wrote:

You have agree that Mark Smith has been out of sorts for a few games in a row now. Not going to bag him or anything, but whether its an injury or tiredness or whatever - we're not really seeing a lot from him. Sheffield game he was class - 3 games in a row after that and we've not really seen him. IMO Smith's at his best when he's driving forward, I don't care if people would see it as selfish but if I was him, I'd be running from dummy half a lot more than he has been recently.

I agree 100% mate

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:26 am  

In EnemyTerritory wrote:

To an extent I think Cullen's hands are tied re subs. Wasn't sure why Wildbore went off but otherwise the number of players injured is getting worse.
I think we missed Duffy tonight who has been excellent and I hope he comes back fit and not carrying a knock. I think we need another option at hooker as Smithy has looked out of sorts. With Beswick gone the competition for his place has gone with it as we all know that is where he really wanted to play. I do hear Robinson is playing well in the reserves. Maybe Cull will look at him at some point?
Also heard in the club afterwards that they have been hammering defensive work in training all week! At the moment the technique is just awful with players just grabbing at shirts. We really need to put the shoulder in and bring them down fast but at least it's being worked on.

I am fairly positive after last night... again we had all the possession but we looked fairly good with the ball at times. A little more ingenuity and we will be fine. Some of the plays were class though.
With the raft of players that we have to come back in I think we will be a lot stronger in the weeks to come.

don't count on it

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:28 am  

Gregory Peck wrote:

don't count on it

Duffy is a great player even if he is a little overweight.

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:34 am  

-VIKINGMAN- wrote:

Duffy is a great player even if he is a little overweight.

i agree think he was brilliant for us before he was moved into the forwards, infact i believe he should be starting at scrum half instead of webster. Anyway it will be interesting to see if he plays for widnes again this season in his desired position

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:47 pm  

I can't understand why people a bigging up Thompson and Kavanagh. When they had both replaced Ostick and Gannon we were f*****g mickey poor. That's when Batley started to get on top and scored their trys. As soon as we had Ostick and Gannon back on we were immediately much better.

Kavanagh may be worth persevering with, but Thompson is useless imo.

: Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:52 pm  

I do think Thompson is getting better... from his early season performances he is quite lot better but I agree that we do suffer when we lose Gannon..

Maybe the trick is to start with Gannon and Thompson and then bring on Ostick (as an impact player) with Kavannagh. Not really sure what other options there are at the mo until Morrison is back? Doran?? Not sure!!

: Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:09 am  

Dare to Dream wrote:

Sky plussed it and watched it when i got home from the match, wouldn't say classic, was more of a whitewash against a mickey poor Bradford side

Widnes IMO were poor tonight, defence was awful. Very good game for Kav, I think Thompsons getting more confident with every game he plays. Simm looked very strong. Gaskell was making some good runs. Webster is still failing to impress me. If we hadn't been lacking basic defensive rugby skills we would have put in a great performance.

Don't think the ref had a great game, few mistakes, mainly the Grady "knock-on" that led to a Batley try. It was a great take by Grady. Batley were offside at most plays of the ball but the ref didn't seem to mind.

Also noticed that we tapped on a couple of penalties, why were we not kicking for position? maybe Cullen has clocked on that we can't score whilst on the opponents line and would rather us break from 20-30 metres.

Dont agree about Simm looking very strong, especially in defence. Missed two tackles which led to Batley tries, Thompson missed the 1st tackle on the 1st try and then Simm missed the other. Gave away the penalty for their 3rd try which from the resulting set of six they scored off.

However he's still only a young lad and only started playing the game from the age of 15 so cant be critisised too much.

: Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:35 am  

Simm is also doing 80 minutes week in week out, he has really impressed me this year and will only get better.

: Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:43 pm  

Aye really rate Josh Simm, looks to be a very commited and hardworking young lad/player.