Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:35 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

We can do it, we saw Wilkin ghost through in the first 20 on good Friday, LMS today etc, we just don't run those lines often enough to create space on the outside. Whether they don't run those lines because they're not good enough or whether KC is actively encouraging it not to happen I don't know. Admittedly, when it does get outside in space we see things like Dawson's forward pass today, but it just doesn't happen often enough.

We're putting ourselves in a position to attack often enough, we just can't break down the last line - to me it's all about the structure of those sets, and that all comes down to coaching.

Or the players ain't good enough to break the goal line defence down. KC made a comment a few weeks ago saying how much of better player Walsh is now than 2yrs ago as he don't throw passes everywhere. So maybe it's bit of KC style and a bit of us not having the skills to score.

One thing for sure, we won't score long distance tries these days haha

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:39 pm  

St pete wrote:

Or the players ain't good enough to break the goal line defence down. KC made a comment a few weeks ago saying how much of better player Walsh is now than 2yrs ago as he don't throw passes everywhere. So maybe it's bit of KC style and a bit of us not having the skills to score.

One thing for sure, we won't score long distance tries these days haha

I'm getting seriously concerned for KCs mental health. So Walsh is better now than when he was a shoe in for man of steel before he broke his ankle?

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:43 pm  

Saint Simon wrote:

I'm getting seriously concerned for KCs mental health. So Walsh is better now than when he was a shoe in for man of steel before he broke his ankle?

That's what he said. Can't recall which game it was after now but he said it

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:44 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

It's getting chicken and egg now - are the players not good enough and thus this is why we're playing this way, or are we playing this way and it makes a lot of players look not good enough?

I think on the whole, the team is good enough, and with a settled spine they may just start to look better. There's no doubt we look better with Theo at 6, and with some game time under his belt, and some threat returned to the centres, we might start to look better.

Good performances from Thompson, Walmsley, Amor, Savelio and Walsh today

I think KC needs to let the players off the leash instead of holding them into this conservative style of rugby, once Lomax, Percival, Swift and Vea are back in the side our game needs to open up. Fages is starting to ask questions when he takes the line on and will find the gaps the more he plays, hopefully he gets the no 6 shirt from now on.

Its now looking that the standard of Superleague is getting below par these days, so our lack of pace and creativity is not killing us to be residing at the bottom end of the league table.

Our next home game v Hull will be a another big test that can go the same way v Wigan, lets hope the players can apply a bit more constant pressure into the game plan and play with a bit more style.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 5:47 pm  

Judder Man wrote:

I think KC needs to let the players off the leash instead of holding them into this conservative style of rugby, once Lomax, Percival, Swift and Vea are back in the side our game needs to open up. Fages is starting to ask questions when he takes the line on and will find the gaps the more he plays, hopefully he gets the no 6 shirt from now on.

Its now looking that the standard of Superleague is getting below par these days, so our lack of pace and creativity is not killing us to be residing at the bottom end of the league table.

Our next home game v Hull will be a another big test that can go the same way v Wigan, lets hope the players can apply a bit more constant pressure into the game plan and play with a bit more style.

Hull can't defend so we should put points on the board

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:27 pm  

St pete wrote:

Or the players ain't good enough to break the goal line defence down. KC made a comment a few weeks ago saying how much of better player Walsh is now than 2yrs ago as he don't throw passes everywhere. So maybe it's bit of KC style and a bit of us not having the skills to score.

One thing for sure, we won't score long distance tries these days haha

I don't doubt it's a mix of both - the ball dies with SMD very often, and Dawson ruined 2 2on1 chances and Peyroux ignored another today.

Things like having Turner move out of the centres and losing Percival has left us with no threat out wide

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:31 pm  

Magic Superbeetle wrote:

I don't doubt it's a mix of both - the ball dies with SMD very often, and Dawson ruined 2 2on1 chances and Peyroux ignored another today.

Things like having Turner move out of the centres and losing Percival has left us with no threat out wide

I'd put JT back in centre where he belongs. Awful defence but good with ball

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:51 pm  

It was a game we should have won with a bit more ease, but nonetheless I thought it was a marked improvement. The attack wasn't clicking but I thought we had much better shape off the ball and we went easy on the early kicking. We looked like we wanted to attack more. Hopefully we'll get some continuity in the key positions and the attack will get better.

The defence was better - moving Walsh to the right made a difference - but Dawson and Owens were still a catastrophe waiting to happen. Every time the ball went their way one of them came flying in, regardless of whether Widnes had numbers or not. Thankfully Widnes didn't exploit it.

Thompson was outstanding, and the difference between him on Friday and him today tells me that he's an out and out prop and should not be picked in the back row again. He gets caught out when he gets isolated by quicker players on the edges, but slugging it out in the middle he's excellent.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:05 pm  

Widnes managed to make us look better today.

Re: Saints Squad away at Widnes : Mon Mar 28, 2016 7:42 pm  

We should have murdered Widnes, but our inability to break down their defence very nearly cost us. I'm glad we took the 2 point when we did, otherwise we would have been there all day.

Our defence wasn't really tested either so I'm not sure about that yet, but the tries we conceded were soft.

Overall, glad of the 2 points, but there is still loads of room for improvement.