: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:46 pm  

My missus thinks that in the second half they must have felt under pressure a little, otherwise why leave Harris on all game.

[Jemmo]

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:36 am  

In the firtst half Fev were a lot sharper, cohesive and most of all fast around the play the ball which saw us spending too long on the back foot. And while we were marking up well for long periods it created moments where players were left unmarked, and a lot of the tries came from those starting positions.

When we were getting out the line and hitting them earlier it was stopping them doing it as much.

In the second half we did this more to slow down their momentum and give ourselves more chance to go forward although we still didn;t see as much of that smooth preseason passing. The periods of Briggsy's quietness showed

Thought Coady was good value for the Man of the Match but would not be sure about fullback yet...there were a couple of times when he was caught still with union wingers positions/thoughts (ie didn't fight hard enough to keep the ball from going out when we would be losing possesion). But what Scott has over him in terms of positional awareness Da Vinci maybe makes up for in size and speed (and it would also be good to see him hitting a broken field and choosing his runs...again something he would need to learn the subtleties of League to do effectively). So the jury is out...could be worth a test in the remaining group games though.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:14 am  

I do hope that Fev are one of the best sides in NL1.......because if they are not.....then?
Results yesterday indicate that Gateshead and Barrow are strong.
So we are looking at Batley, Sheffield and the likes of weaker sides at the Keepmoat to get some points.
It will be tight.
We need to get a lot better.
COYD

[Wanderer]

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:04 pm  

Jemmo wrote:

In the firtst half Fev were a lot sharper, cohesive and most of all fast around the play the ball which saw us spending too long on the back foot. And while we were marking up well for long periods it created moments where players were left unmarked, and a lot of the tries came from those starting positions.

When we were getting out the line and hitting them earlier it was stopping them doing it as much.

In the second half we did this more to slow down their momentum and give ourselves more chance to go forward although we still didn;t see as much of that smooth preseason passing. The periods of Briggsy's quietness showed

Thought Coady was good value for the Man of the Match but would not be sure about fullback yet...there were a couple of times when he was caught still with union wingers positions/thoughts (ie didn't fight hard enough to keep the ball from going out when we would be losing possesion). But what Scott has over him in terms of positional awareness Da Vinci maybe makes up for in size and speed (and it would also be good to see him hitting a broken field and choosing his runs...again something he would need to learn the subtleties of League to do effectively). So the jury is out...could be worth a test in the remaining group games though.

We also gifted the third and fourth tries to them which didn't help at a time where we might have still been in the game.

Their third came after we gave them field position and a set of six only 15 metres from our tryline after we were penalised from the kick-off after the second try and the fourth came when Scott Jones lost the ball in contact near our tryline.

After that, and although we improved a fair bit in the second half, the damage had probably been done.

[Wanderer]

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:08 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

I do hope that Fev are one of the best sides in NL1.......because if they are not.....then?
Results yesterday indicate that Gateshead and Barrow are strong.
So we are looking at Batley, Sheffield and the likes of weaker sides at the Keepmoat to get some points.
It will be tight.
We need to get a lot better.
COYD

I do feel that Featherstone will be a top-half side.

As for Gateshead, yes they beat Sheffield yesterday but they lost at Keighley in midweek.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:22 pm  

Our defensive line was poor in the first half and we were punished especially by Kain
and when we were in possession of the ball we appeared to panic, and to be fair to Fev
they capitalised on this well and at half-time I for one feared the worst.

But well-done to the lads they came out for the second half and played a good deal better
and looked equal to Fev in most departments—not one of Briggs better performances but we can’t
expect him to be man of the match every week.

WANDERER wrote:

As for Gateshead, yes they beat Sheffield yesterday but they lost at Keighley in midweek

And Keighley lost to Blackpool yesterday.

[Wanderer]

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:37 pm  

As I see it, we've already played our toughest NR group game.

Batley is a game which could go either way, then we play NL2 opposition twice in London Skolars (who leaked 74 points in their opening fixture) and Swinton Lions (who conceded 50 in theirs).

Realistically, whatever happens on Wednesday night, we should go into the league season off the back of a couple of victories and that can only help build confidence.

Come on you Dons!