Re: London : Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:51 pm  

faxcar wrote:

Crookes and Sooty will play but not sure on how LJ would cope with having to defend down the middle against a big London pack so Brandon and O'Brien in the nines and party trick roles.
Keyes could be held back for another week but if not go with the strongest original starting line up of Keyes, LJ and Woody at 6,7 and 1 with an unfortunate Pickers 18th man / missing out?

Just listening to Grix he makes clear that he regards Keyes as the best half in the championship, so if he really is fit can't see him being left out of such an important game. Very tough on Pickersgill who's got better each week but completely agree with the above. If Moore needed a rest then Inman would have been brought in - I'd go one further than Grix - when they're on form I think the Jouffret/Keyes partnership is the best pairing in the championship.

Re: London : Fri Aug 18, 2023 1:12 pm  

Ilkley Fax wrote:

Just listening to Grix he makes clear that he regards Keyes as the best half in the championship, so if he really is fit can't see him being left out of such an important game. Very tough on Pickersgill who's got better each week but completely agree with the above. If Moore needed a rest then Inman would have been brought in - I'd go one further than Grix - when they're on form I think the Jouffret/Keyes partnership is the best pairing in the championship.

Yep. Other than that he mentioned Kev with a knee problem being doubtful and we will need 3 big guys and the interchange 9 on the bench against London.
Salty has being carrying a bit of a knock over the last month and finished last week heavily bandaged and limping a bit so have to see if he comes through.

Re: London : Sun Aug 20, 2023 5:09 pm  

Always a massive ask to lift yourself a week after a final - all 4 of last week's finalists lost this weekend. And it's always a tough long trip to a very good London, who might be the dark horses to create an upset or 2 in the play offs.

Even Batley came a cropper against lowly Keighley which has really brought them back in to the mix. They host Sheffield next week, and with Fax taking on Widnes it's all getting quire feisty.

Re: London : Sun Aug 20, 2023 5:18 pm  

A tough defeat to take and some big games to come to get in the playoffs now , what’s frustrating is we are capable of beating anyone on our day , the problem is it’s only our day half the time this season. Sounds like maizen and woody failed their hia’s so we might see the Keyes n jouffret partnership return against Widnes.

Re: London : Sun Aug 20, 2023 6:39 pm  

Disappointing result; was happy with the team picked but difficult to gauge how much last week took out of them . Wasn't there so don't know at what stage Maizen and JWH were withdrawn but losing 2 backs, especially a half must have namade a a difference. Would guess Tibbs and Keyes will be brought in next week, both are on paper great replacements but obviously very short of recent match practice. Only good part of the day is that because of other results we're still in touch with the teams above us - looking at London's run in with 4 out out of 5 at home I'd expect them to finish in the top 6 - next week at home to Widnes now an absolute must win.

Re: London : Sun Aug 20, 2023 8:06 pm  

Tough result at a crucial point in the season and doesn’t leave much if any room to play with.

Back to the game 3 players having to leave for HIA’s and 2 failing caused a lot of disruption and they scored down his side when Walmsley was off on the 2 minute green card leading up to his HIA before we could get a sub on and again when Woody was down in back play before he went off and like Maizen couldn’t return, Sooty coming on in the centres.
Fairbank covered a few minutes at 6 before they regrouped with PIckers going there with Crookes going to 1.

A couple of individual errors and very close missed chances lead to further points conceded / missed.

Keyes will be back next week with either Tibbs or McComb coming into the 3/4’s.

Re: London : Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:40 am  

With the HIAs Tibbs back in the centre position and Keyes back for JWH.

Re: London : Mon Aug 21, 2023 11:36 am  

Mccomb for me,but at least we've still got good options..

Re: London : Mon Aug 21, 2023 12:32 pm  

Same problems as many of our defeats this season. Poor attitude, poor discipline, and poor handling but it was always going to be tough going back down London the week after the final. It does make the Widnes game pretty much do or die though for the playoffs and predicting how many of our last 5 games we will win is pretty much impossible. I mean we could beat Toulouse but easily lose one of the games either side of that in Haven and Keighley with our away form so poor. Four out of Five wins should be good enough for 4th and a home tie but any less than that and there is a good chance we miss out altogether.

Re: London : Mon Aug 21, 2023 1:06 pm  

Our away form has really let us down this season - won 2, drawn 1 and lost 8, having failed to win at any of the top 9 which includes some thrashings. Stark contrast to last season. The barmy army mustn't have been beating their drum hard enough!