Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:00 pm  

The general points regarding a bit lethargic and some mistakes plus hot/cold kicking have been made.
Lots of points about individuals.

The one thing that stood out to me was that attack wise everything went down the right
and the left just didn't function at all bar the early try.

Strange when traditionally Saints struggle on the right.
Swift was pretty much redundant from an attack point of view.

Hohaia and Lomax and to a degree Walsh have attacked down the left with great effect all season.

Flanagan Jones didn't really provide much by way of target or option to the ball players.
They are both SR grafters.

Perhaps a chance to liven things up with the introduction of Percival/Dawson and Wilkin.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:28 pm  

I have seen many occasions over the years were following a superstar performance, the team falls flat the following week.

Often I put it down to over confidence, leading to a lack of focus.

I think this happened to some extent on Sunday. We got a couple of early trys and looked comfortable. Then started throwing out slack lazy passes, particularly Roby. This gave Huddersfield field position and once they scored their first try they were dominant and we were looking somewhat shell shocked at something that wasn't supposed to be happening.


There were also possibly other factors at play, particularly fatigue from Roby and Hohoia. They both put in massive shifts against Leeds, but clearly struggled at times against Huddersfield. Roby in mental focus and Lance defensively.

It also looked at times like we were a scratch side just having been thrown together at the last minute. I suspect many players hadn't trained together all week, and instead merely passed a late fitness test and made it into the squad.

The encouraging thing though was that even when playing against a top class and determined Huddersfield team we could still hang on in there while out of form. The great 2006 season was characterised by Saints grinding out a lot of results without really hitting the heights.

Hopefully we will see this continue, and our losses will be close affairs whereby teams have to really fight hard to defeat us.

I also think that Flanagan playing down the left kills our attack down that side. He is a very good defensive player, but doesn't have the guile of Wilkin or Manu to attract defenders. I actually think Flanagan may be best utilised playing in the middle supporting the props with the defensive workload.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:31 pm  

I just think it was a mix of players out of match practise and knackered. In terms of picking a side, maybe it was a mistake not to pick LMS. Everyone who came in where previously injured and so would not be running at 100% were as LMS was banned so still should have been training at full throttle.

Easy to say in hindsight. When the 19 was announced I agreed with him being dropped. Did not realize what the Leeds game had took out of us.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:48 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

I just think it was a mix of players out of match practise and knackered. In terms of picking a side, maybe it was a mistake not to pick LMS. Everyone who came in where previously injured and so would not be running at 100% were as LMS was banned so still should have been training at full throttle.

Easy to say in hindsight. When the 19 was announced I agreed with him being dropped. Did not realize what the Leeds game had took out of us.

From Bolognese

LMS had an injury so wasn't risked

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:55 pm  

Bolognese??????

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:57 pm  

bewareshadows wrote:

Bolognese??????

One of my sauces.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Tue Apr 08, 2014 6:37 am  

We were poor through most, although the opening and closing 10 mins were good.

Roby had a poor game, which sums it up, throwing a couple of bricks at Walmsley and the knock on at the PTB.

A lot of Walsh's attacking kicks were poor too, which seems like it wont happen too often.

Most of all, we let Huddersfield dictate the speed of the ruck throughout most of the game. It lead to a higher penalty count for them, but meant that through most of the game we were quite easy to read.

Following his dream game against Leeds, Hohaia has gone back to type. He's got one move which, to be fair, worked for our first try, but fails to bring much to the table. Although he did give us one lovely long kick which sat in the in goal.
I'd love to see Charnock given a run out.

I think if we'd have played LMS, that bit of X factor he has might have spurred us into action a bit quicker.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:30 am  

I'm more pleased with the whole attitude of Saints. We seem to have learnt again how to play badly and win.
We'll play well in most games, but every team will have an off day, like we did on Sunday. To do that and win against a quality side like Hudds, shows class

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:19 am  

Saint Simon wrote:

I'm more pleased with the whole attitude of Saints. We seem to have learnt again how to play badly and win.
We'll play well in most games, but every team will have an off day, like we did on Sunday. To do that and win against a quality side like Hudds, shows class

Agreed.

Re: How did we actually play against Hudds? : Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:26 am  

Saint Simon wrote:

We'll play well in most games, but every team will have an off day, like we did on Sunday. To do that and win against a quality side like Hudds, shows class

I'm with Nathan Brown on this one. We got lucky. Had Ferres not been sent off I don't think we would have won.

It concerns me that we saved our worst performance so far for the knock out game, the pressure game. If we repeat that against Leeds in the cup then I don't think we will get anywhere this season. However, I'm still hoping that it was just a one-off. Sure, we will lose games, but if we are going to hope for silverware this season then our players have to be capable of playing their best rugby in the pressure games, when it really counts.