Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:04 pm  

leyther forever wrote:

You need to blame Cullen and O'Connor if your "squad" is not up to scratch.

You assemble one at he beginning of the season to cope with the injuries that may be thrown at you during the course of the season.

We had our problems early doors and came through relatively unscathed. Why? Because our coach and Chairman had assembled a "squad" to cope with the season ahead.

At the moment we are fortunate to have just one player unavalable but 4 weeks ago this was not the case but we came through it with just one defeat at York and a draw at home to Barrow.

Cullen and O'Connor maybe talk the talk, however do they walk the walk????

What a complete crock of poop!!!!
At one point we had something like 10 squad players unavailable and the situation is only marginally better now with some players playing through the pain barrier at the moment.

The only solution would be to have a larger squad and when you are trying to stick to a cap of £300k that is nigh on impossible.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:06 pm  

Agreed, i would like to see another championship squad cope with 10 missing.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:16 pm  

-VIKINGMAN- wrote:

The Attitude of the Widnes players stank in the first half last night, Toulouse ran harder and tackled stronger and we were pathetic in every area. The comeback in the second half was noted but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Not good enough.

VM,

I don't really disagree with you but there are a number of factors that went into that display... the implosion happened when our two senior players went off the pitch at the same time. Smith and Gannon go off and the rout began. It wasn't until these players came back on that we looked anything like ourselves again. We have three 'leaders' Smith, Gannon and Webster... last night for 30 - 40 minutes none of these guys were on the pitch... ordinarily it might not have mattered too much but Wynn had an exceptional game last night.
There are also a number of players who are playing with knocks and injuries.. I know Houghton (hand), Koe Love (shoulder) and Coyle (hand) are still some way short of fitness but have stepped up to offer themselves for selection.

I'm surprised by the overreaction on here...
Toulouse performed very very well last night and a lot of teams would have struggled against them. They were quick and aggressive in attack, their kicking game was immaculate and constantly put us under pressure and they slowed the ptb down when defending and defended well as a unit. It didn't help that there were so many individual errors from our side and we were undone to an extent by some sloppy play.. I think this will be a one match blip and we won't be so complacent again.
I certainly don't think it was as bad as some are making out.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:18 pm  

No Lucifer wrote:

I would honestly say that was probably the most professional performance I have seen from a team in this division this season.

I'd agree with that... they looked very good indeed.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 12:20 pm  

Chris B wrote:

VM,

I don't really disagree with you but there are a number of factors that went into that display... the implosion happened when our two senior players went off the pitch at the same time. Smith and Gannon go off and the rout began. It wasn't until these players came back on that we looked anything like ourselves again. We have three 'leaders' Smith, Gannon and Webster... last night for 30 - 40 minutes none of these guys were on the pitch... ordinarily it might not have mattered too much but Wynn had an exceptional game last night.
There are also a number of players who are playing with knocks and injuries.. I know Houghton (hand), Koe Love (shoulder) and Coyle (hand) are still some way short of fitness but have stepped up to offer themselves for selection.

I'm surprised by the overreaction on here...
Toulouse performed very very well last night and a lot of teams would have struggled against them. They were quick and aggressive in attack, their kicking game was immaculate and constantly put us under pressure and they slowed the ptb down when defending and defended well as a unit. It didn't help that there were so many individual errors from our side and we were undone to an extent by some sloppy play.. I think this will be a one match blip and we won't be so complacent again.
I certainly don't think it was as bad as some are making out.

I would go along with that mate, Webster is back in training so will probably make a show next week, we have Heckenberg to come in and having both of them fit and ready will be a huge bonus. Gerrard can then move back to loose forward and we will start functioning as a team again.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:13 pm  

vikings 4 ever wrote:

Problem is though that we've probably only got Webbo and Ford to come back soon.

Personally I think that would make a huge difference. We are really struggling at full back and Webbo is a massive organiser for us. Thacks is good but he can't do it all by himself (although he's having a bloddy good go of it).

Gerrard is next to no use in the SO position... he just doesn't have the nouse or the guile. Plus... At the moment we have a bit of an issue on the 20 minute mark when Smith and Gannon are rotated off. We lose our two on-field leaders. With James playing the full 80 minutes we have at least one old head out there for the full match directing things.

Plus I think Ford will lend himself to the attack quite well.. pre-season he linked up well and turned up on quite a few occasions in the line just when we needed that extra man.

If Allen can get back fit too I think we will look in good shape again.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:38 pm  

-VIKINGMAN- wrote:

Agreed, i would like to see another championship squad cope with 10 missing.

We had six missing and caned them 50-6

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:49 pm  

littlerich wrote:

We had six missing and caned them 50-6

I think toulouse had players missing when played halifax.It is swing and roundabouts mate.

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:50 pm  

OFFTHECUFF wrote:

I think toulouse had players missing when played halifax.It is swing and roundabouts mate.

Sure is

Re: Worst defensive effort I've seen in years. : Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:00 pm  

Ive got to say it was the worst we played so far this season, didn;t seem like anyone wanted to play in the first half, Gardner is awful drops to many balls and to drop it falling over the line is a sin, can;t wait to have dean gaskell back.
Toulouse played well last night did the basics right and had a good kicking game, hope for a few more players being brought in this week as the forwards did seem to struggle aswell.