Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:47 am  

Paul Youane wrote:

Simmons is doing himself no favours wearing the cheap looking track-suit top for interviews. It is not a good look for a man of his age and actually gives him the look of a "skip-dipper" from the council tip.

Is it giro day Tom.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 11:49 am  

Dux wrote:

Undoubtedly the lack of an on-field leader is an issue; we're making some wrong decisions at crucial times which we wouldn't be doing if we had a genuine and experienced half-back. But I get the feeling that you could put Andrew Johns in the side and we'd still be one-dimensional - running good angles off the ball and giving the halves options should be second nature to these players, but it looks like an aspect of their game that has been sorely neglected.

We don't need Andrew Johns. A competent scrum half is the difference between losing against Catalans, Huddersfield and Bradford and winning. Turn those three games around and we are in contention. All were lost because we had no option on tackle five. We panicked, the ball was given over cheaply and we lost.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:04 pm  

Mugwump wrote:

A competent scrum half is the difference between losing against Catalans, Huddersfield and Bradford and winning.

I disagree. A competent defence was the difference between us losing to Catalans and Hudds and winning. A competent team was the difference between us losing to Bradford and Hull and winning because the whole lot of them (bar Wello against Bradford, and Hohaia with his spectacular tackle rate against Hull and Bradford) were guilty of crimes against the sport of rugby league once an individual error or two had been made. Our psychological inability to overcome an error is like a contageon in our team at present and IMO this is the primary problem (a secondary one being the unwillingness of our forwards to drive for the full 80). Once one person makes a mistake, a negative reaction ripples through the team and without Jammer there to act as a wall there is nobody to stop the ripple and overturn the chaos in the players' heads.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:27 pm  

Dux wrote:

In some areas I don't think we are as bad as people are suggesting. I don't think motivation or fitness are real issues, and our defence, while far from excellent, has been much improved in the last few weeks.

Where we are really struggling is in our attack. It's absolutely woeful. There is virtually nobody running off the ball at any time. We don't even seem to do the simple lead runner and guy round the back play anymore. We are playing with so few options that we are easy to defend against. This problem is causing a couple of issues:

1. We are failing to capitalise on decent territory earned the hard way by our forwards in the first half of games. This is resulting in a visible wave of panic going through the side that only serves make the fundamental problem worse.

2. Our forwards are running out of juice by the hour mark. I think this is being mistaken for a lack of effort or fitness, when in fact it is down to the fact that our hopelessly predictable attack means our opponents can easily put numbers in the tackle against them. They might as well have 'hit me' written on their shirts.

The lack of structure in our attack is alarming, and you have to place responsibility for that sort of thing with the coaching team.

Spot on,sorry to say it.The team is giving 100% effort but have not a clue how to put it together. Get it sorted or change the coaching team

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:28 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

I disagree. A competent defence was the difference between us losing to Catalans and Hudds and winning.

There was very little wrong with our defence against Huddersfield. Even Nathan Brown admitted as much. The problem was our repeated poor options on fifth tackle. During the last twenty minutes - when we had ample opportunity to win the game - time and time again we failed to put pressure on with tactical kicking. Indeed, our attempts reached tragi-comic levels (including a length-of-the-field, game-changing try). Against Catalans our defence was admittedly poor, but it all began because instead of trying to close the game out after half time with a solid possession and kicking strategy we repeatedly threw the ball away on early tackles giving them the impetus, which they took. A good scrum half would have taken ownership of the situation. We had none.

But, by all means, keep trying to justify your wet-dream Lomax-REALLY-REALLY-REALLY-IS-a-scrum-half fantasy, despite the fact that he has no kicking game and no long-passing game.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:42 pm  

wirefox wrote:

Spot on,sorry to say it.The team is giving 100% effort but have not a clue how to put it together. Get it sorted or change the coaching team

I would probably say 100% effort and 10% Attitude and 10% Communication. Surely its the coaching set up to ensure the latters.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:47 pm  

M@islebugs wrote:

No money plus a truly appalling recruitment and retention policy. Some of Saints decisions (starting the season without a scrum half, signing a good NRL second rower and playing him at prop) are remarkably Bradfordian.

Exactly. Like I said, it's Groundhog Day. The difference being that Saints will doubtless resolve their issues quite quickly, unlike what we had to endure.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:21 pm  

Rommel wrote:

John Kear is knowledgeable of the game and could possibly take over for the rest of the season until Eamon can sort something more permanent? Brian Noble possibly? Justin Morgan were is he?

Jesus.

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:57 pm  

Smurf wrote:

Jesus.

Yeah, if he is available, let's give him a go

Re: Royce Out ! : Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:19 pm  

Duke Eddington wrote:

:IDEA: Yeah, if he is available, let's give him a go

Might be a good option, but difficult to show the half backs how he wants them to direct the team around with holes in his hands.

But if we've got to the point where people want to even consider the likes of Kear ( ) Noble and Morgan, then we all may as well give up and go home.