steve wrote:
I stood and clapped the team off the pitch tonight as I have done at every game (apart from Catelans). It is not the players on the pitch that are the issue, its the fact that we have a group of palyers who are not on the pitch despite the fact that we desparately need some new bodies. The kids are exhausted they have been stretched too far too soon, the seniors are nackered because they are working harder than they should be and are now making mistakes. We need someone to stop what is happening and make a difference - I dont know where that is comming from. I'm not Panicing...
Not having a go at you or anyone on this board, but there were those around us that really were talking as though we were in the position of Wakefield and our recruitment was appalling.
We had no half backs, zero. Each week we are having new combinations, so in terms of directing people around the park it's changing each week and today we looked as though we lacked direction and kept getting overloaded on Meli's side. That with Gardner, Ashe and Meli all moving around and chopping and changing, just gave Huddersfield and brough something to run at.
Having said that, apart from letting brough have a free run the first half was fairly solid. If Graham had passed the ball a little earlier it could have been 6-6 and who knows. As it was the 2nd half ran away. But unlike huddersfield we cannot rotate our hookers, we can't rotate our props properly. And we where even short in the 2nd row department.
We had makinson and armstrong on the bench 2 young backs. It was always going to be a tough ask. Maybe TP could have played, but maybe Royce is thinking, we have this 3 weeks of CC / Huddersfield / CC. If we lose to Huddersfield we are 2 point behind the top spot, why rush players back for this period. Better to let them get back at the right time with less chance of a repeat injury.
Next SL game we could have back, Lomax, Clough, TP, Flannery, Gaskell, Wheeler, Scott Moore.
That will give us a real half back pairing, It will give us 4 props, it will give us a chance to rotate Roby, It will allow wilkin to move back into the pack and possibly give meli a rest, as tonight he looked like he needed to be spelled as his mind had gone by the end of the game.
It's not just who we have out, but that others are having to play 70 - 80 minutes week after week and play in positions leaving gaps elsewhere.
I'd rather drop 2 points today and get fully fit players back in 2 weeks, than put Flanney on today to pick up a bigger knock, the same for other possibles, we need them back for a run of matches not one off's