Greg Florimos Boots wrote:
I thought first half we offered very little and Fev didn't really have to get out of 3rd gear to gain the lead they had at half time. Second half I thought were were the better team and with a better first half we would have gave ourselves a great chance of winning the game. In that respect I was really pleased with the performance but I will reserve judgment saying we can really compete with them until after next week.
Yesterday showed how laughable that Jouffret and Walmsley not been selected for previous games was. Its no surprise that both our halfs were outstanding when you add in another pivot to take some pressure off them and with Walmsley you get that extra bit of quality, only inches away from a hat trick which would have been a class finish as he got on top of one of the best wingers at this level. If either of those two lose their spots after that they have every right to be miffed. I think our pack did really well and were not as out muscled as I thought they might be, if anything it were Fev in the second half that looked to be lacking energy wise which was a surprise.
Regarding Walmsley and Jouffret I hope they are both back in the side for next week based on performance and what was added in attack from yesterday and there's no doubt the drier pitch help them and us.
Would they have been the better selection than Martin and McComb in the mud?
And if we are using form as the marker.
Certainly against Widnes all the backs were outstanding as were the pack.
Now there's part of the conundrum, because apart from being cup tied which forced the issue, on their form against Widnes should any of them have been left out?
It was the kicking game that let us down against Widnes and SG went for the players he thought were better suited to the conditions and they produced apart from with the boot.
On conditions, horses for courses where both Walmsley / Jouffret are closest to the race horse variety and if we were going to choose a surface for them to play on would it be yesterdays or the swamp against Widnes, decide for yourself?
LJ, in attack he's going to be a cracker jack player if he's picked, only question.
Not sure on the strength of his defense and because of the sun couldn't see if it was Jouffret with succesive knock on's who coughed up the ball close to the line gifting a couple of scores.
Would the steady Joe Martin have done that?
Either way Jouffret for me, because he adds extra threat, enough in his own all round game and he gives live in game options at 1,6,7 and 9 if anyone gets injured.
Connecting a few dots on SG, LJ and Widnes.
In that game LJ was on the bench instead of the injured Kyle Wood, now if KW had been fit would he have just been left there to sit it out never getting onto the pitch?
I very much doubt it regardless of how Brandon was playing KW would have been on.
My question to SG is, why would you almost certainly bring on KW to spell BM and not do the same with LJ once he's included in the side?
We'll likely never know.