Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:29 pm  

A very positive performance marred by persistantly pedantic refereeing and handling errors at both ends. We controlled the game excellently, and the defence was tremendous at times. The 24 points we conceded were all there to be cut out and made the game look closer than it was. I suspect when young Hulme (who had an excellent attacking game but made too many errors with the ball) made his first howler it dented his confidence somewhat. Despite this I think he is definitely one to look out for in the future. Not a man living off his name I am glad to say.

Why we didn't tighten up the middle of the pitch for the kick offs is beyond me. They went for the same kick every time after it worked and every time we struggled. A kick to the middle of the pitch. And another thing that puzzled me, our disallowed try. Unbelievable, and they immediately score afterwards. They scored off the back of a few dodgy decisions, like the Kavanagh "high shot" which was around his chest. For me the referee interjected himself all too often, it made for frustrating viewing. With a more level headed man in the middle I suspect our dominance would have shown more.

I think Leuluai had a blinding game, my MOM, he was immense, although Penny, an understandable fan favourite, was a close second. His decision making is a lot better, his positioning too. His cut out try was a case of him knowing there were not enough covering the overlap and making the decision beforehand to snatch the ball. Allen too had a great game when he came on, much better from him. There really were few weak links in the team although there were one or two.

For me the worst player on the pitch for us was Thomas Coyle. Slow passes, bad decision making, handling errors, bad tackling, I don't think the lad is up to it. We have a lot of areas we are strong, that is one we need to strengthen.

The crowd was terrific. Absolutely wonderful. Over 4,000. Not in great voice but then there are no away fans to bounce off, so we were as loud as can be expected. But the number of fans and the dominant performance they saw no doubt made today a very positive experience for the widnes faithful.

All in all a great day for the club, and another game Betts can point to to prove his many doubters wrong. We've been getting better and we're poised now to start taking it to the better teams in the division.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:30 pm  

Bloody hell Dalto, mine was short and sweet this is far better with a lot more detail.


Good write up.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:30 pm  

Lulu has been terrific all year, i would give him a contract for SL today. Im also impressed with Kurt Haggerty, its no coincidence that we had a bad spell when he was out injured.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:36 pm  

-VIKINGMAN- wrote:

Lulu has been terrific all year, i would give him a contract for SL today. Im also impressed with Kurt Haggerty, its no coincidence that we had a bad spell when he was out injured.

It's also no coincidence that we dropped off a little when Kav went off.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:39 pm  

No complaints from us, beaten by a much more efficient team, margin could and should have been more. Kind of glad we don't have to play you again as you always turn us over, hopefully now we can push on and make the top 4, we'll have to play a lot better than we did today mind, too many missed tackles and knock ons. Was very impressed by Leuluai (sp) definitely worth a SL contract on today's showing, and you kept our biggest threat (Menzie) at bay.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:42 pm  

E.S.O wrote:

No complaints from us, beaten by a much more efficient team, margin could and should have been more. Kind of glad we don't have to play you again as you always turn us over, hopefully now we can push on and make the top 4, we'll have to play a lot better than we did today mind, too many missed tackles and knock ons. Was very impressed by Leuluai (sp) definitely worth a SL contract on today's showing, and you kept our biggest threat (Menzie) at bay.

Menzie is a player you need to keep hold of. He's a hard working tank. Good luck for the rest of the season.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:42 pm  

E.S.O wrote:

No complaints from us, beaten by a much more efficient team, margin could and should have been more. Kind of glad we don't have to play you again as you always turn us over, hopefully now we can push on and make the top 4, we'll have to play a lot better than we did today mind, too many missed tackles and knock ons. Was very impressed by Leuluai (sp) definitely worth a SL contract on today's showing, and you kept our biggest threat (Menzie) at bay.

Menzie was very quiet and we did well in that regard, you have some big fellas in your pack but not a great deal of agility. Your still in a good position though and are still 1 point ahead of us.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:46 pm  

By the way, how on Earth did you lose to Hunslet?!

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:49 pm  

E.S.O wrote:

By the way, how on Earth did you lose to Hunslet?!

Bad day at the office, hopefully we can get revenge when we visit them next week.

Re: Widnes vs Sheffield 38-24 Post Match Reaction : Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:00 pm  

spot on dalto. the second half was extremely frustrating. unfortunately there is no excuse for so much dropped balll, win or lose. it was frustrating with us having everyone lined up on one side and kicking/passing the other way consistently, and creating large overlaps then ignoring them and insisting on engaging in an up the middle arm wrestle. we looked completely disorganised and clueless for the vast majority of the second half. also, how hard is it to realise they keep doing short kick offs up the middle and actually move to counter that potential? not once did anybody drop into the area THEY KEPT KICKING INTO. all of this will be punished by the leighs and fevs of this world, it needs sorting.
a win is great and its also great we denied them the bonus point BUT it does not change the largely disorganised mess we witnessed in the second half, we were lucky sheffield had the same knock on curse as us, three sure fire tries went begging with knock ons that should have gone to hand and would have 99% of the time.
not wanting to put a downer on it, a win is a win, but i was completely unimpressed by just about everything that came after us going 22-0 up.
on the whole, glad the boys DID win, espcially as its put the icing on a day of success for myself i missed the first two tries as i was busy passing my final diploma assesment