Fat Boy wrote:
IMO BMcD had a game plan which, in all fairness, was pretty decent - nothing fancy, grind down the relatively young and inexperienced team with a stronger, dominant pack, wait for the mistakes then exploit them.
Problem was Saints weren't making that many mistakes and soaked up everything we through at them. This is where BMcD should have instigated 'Plan B'. The trouble was we didn't have a Plan B and he kept to the same rigid formula right up to the final whistle. This is his strength as a coach but also his weakness, it will win us games but also lose some. Rough with the smooth so to speak.
Fair comment. But what would your Plan B have been and at what stage in the game would you have made the change. Bearing in mind it was a touch of brilliant play that won it for Saints in the last few minutes. Had Sinfield dropped the goal Plan A would could have been successful.
Mac was unable to use Aiton due to illness which must have upset his week long practice and on the night he lost JJB and subs Clarkson and Singleton offered no impact. Yet we were still in the game to draw or win until the final moments so I can understand why he felt our extra experience would triumph in the end.
However had it been my shout I would have made changes after the controversial Saints no try (when Hall took their man out as he was about to score) when IMO the writing was on the wall and it looked like being their night. So I would have brought on BJB at FB moved Hardaker to centre, Burrow to SH, Sinfield to 9, Ward into the pack for Clarkson and Mags to 6. Ok I know this is a lot of changes but firstly these changes would have players either in their favoured positions or where they have experience so all would have been comfortable. And secondly this change around could have upset the Saints defence as we would have some extra pace in the halves and at FB (where Hardaker had not the answer or the pace to overcome their kick chases) Had we made these changes there was no guarantee that we would have won because as I said it was to be their night and Mac would have been roundly criticised for panicking.
The Saints were very good on both defence and attack and in Lomax they had IMO the MOM and the best FB in SL. They also went out of their way to slow down our PTB and to also tire out our back three with an excellent kicking game and chase. That none of our backs looked like making a break speaks volumes for their defence but this was assisted by our slow PTBs and slow half backs.
