Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:13 am  

FearTheVee wrote:

Even ignoring the fact that more often than not we play with just 16 men, Simmons use of the bench is farcical at times and undermines my confidence in him and his tactical nous.

Before anyone starts, yes he has more coaching experience than me so of course it's all IMO.

He was surprised he brought laffranchci on 2 mins into the 2nd half which is is strange as all the players just had 15/20 mins rest.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:25 pm  

The only thing I'd say about Laffranchi is he doesn't seem very big. Given that Royce seemingly brought him over as a direct replacement for Graham there's a significant tonnage disparity.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:35 pm  

St pete wrote:

He was surprised he brought laffranchci on 2 mins into the 2nd half which is is strange as all the players just had 15/20 mins rest.

Perhaps he is trying to find out how long Laffranchi will last? That and TP was injured.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 12:47 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

The only thing I'd say about Laffranchi is he doesn't seem very big. Given that Royce seemingly brought him over as a direct replacement for Graham there's a significant tonnage disparity.

Laffranchi is industrious and does okay with the ball in his hands, but he does look a little lightweight defending close to the ruck. As you say, the loss of Graham has significantly thinned out our middle, and that's on top of the loss of Cunningham the previous year. Because of the outstanding form of Roby it has been fashionable to say that we haven't missed KC, but what tends to be overlooked is that having him in the side meant effectively having a third prop - and a world class one at that - defending at the ruck.

Hopefully Perry will get into shape soon, as we could really do with a bloke of his stature in the middle.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:38 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Perhaps he is trying to find out how long Laffranchi will last? That and TP was injured.

I think he came on for flanaghan. Strange strange decision to make a sub only 2 mins after half time.

It gets worse, I'm looking forward to his next strange method.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 1:46 pm  

We just look very small across the park. There is no one with any real, genuine size to them. We must have the smallest props in the competition weight wise with the likes of Laffranchi and Clough masquerading as props and how athletic LMS is. Only TP and Perry have any real size, TP is injured and was always a backrow forward so isn't as industrious as we need and Perry is rubbish. Oh for a Paul Anderson now.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:08 pm  

Saddened! wrote:

We just look very small across the park. There is no one with any real, genuine size to them. We must have the smallest props in the competition weight wise with the likes of Laffranchi and Clough masquerading as props and how athletic LMS is. Only TP and Perry have any real size, TP is injured and was always a backrow forward so isn't as industrious as we need and Perry is rubbish. Oh for a Paul Anderson now.

I think its Paul Daniels we need.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:01 pm  

Flanagan impressed me last week. Great defence.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:41 pm  

Carlos Alberto wrote:

Flanagan impressed me last week. Great defence.

Flanagan impressed me too. I liked his attitude as well when Dureau cheated by running into him. He stood his ground and that was good. We need some more players with attitude IMO.

His stats were good for round four, insofar as stats can ever be taken as meaning much.

He made 31 tackles, missed none, with 12 carries and made 80 metres. He was on the pitch for 42 minutes.

Compare that to, say, Wilkin. He was on the pitch for 80 minutes but made 21 tackles, missed none, 12 carries and made 76 metres. He made just over half the tackles he made the previous week.

Flannery was on the pitch for 30 minutes and he made 18 tackles, missed none, made three carries and a grand total of six metres. He really isn't offering us anything in attack but he has value in defence.

Soliola was on 75 minutes and made 28 tackles, four missed, with 13 carries and 76 metres.

Roby and TP were our biggest metre makers, which from TP was astounding given that he was on the pitch only 35 minutes (he made 121 metres). Now that he is injured we are going to miss his impact.

Re: Is Simmons the right man? : Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:50 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

Flanagan impressed me too. I liked his attitude as well when Dureau cheated by running into him. He stood his ground and that was good. We need some more players with attitude IMO.

His stats were good for round four, insofar as stats can ever be taken as meaning much.

He made 31 tackles, missed none, with 12 carries and made 80 metres. He was on the pitch for 42 minutes.

Compare that to, say, Wilkin. He was on the pitch for 80 minutes but made 21 tackles, missed none, 12 carries and made 76 metres. He made just over half the tackles he made the previous week.

Flannery was on the pitch for 30 minutes and he made 18 tackles, missed none, made three carries and a grand total of six metres. He really isn't offering us anything in attack but he has value in defence.

Soliola was on 75 minutes and made 28 tackles, four missed, with 13 carries and 76 metres.

Roby and TP were our biggest metre makers, which from TP was astounding given that he was on the pitch only 35 minutes (he made 121 metres). Now that he is injured we are going to miss his impact.

I was very impressed with Flanagan and he's a big lad. I thought he run hard and was rock solid defence.

Wilkin has gone back to his old self again this year after a very good season last year. He's not getting involved and not showing the aggression he showed last year.