Offside Monkey wrote:
We beat a very tough team last night. The result in istelf is an acheivement.
Our three props were awesome as was Roby.
Our defence was solid. It must have been 60 minutes before they even managed a clean break and could only really trouble our line with kicks. Nice to see Gaskell getting stuck in and dumping a couple of players and Wilkin showed not only a lot in the tackling department, but a lot of intellegent addtion to the defending interms of bossing the tacklers peeling off a la Wigan.
Armstrong was good apart from his one clanger. I don't imagine he'll be retained next year, but whoever picks him up could get a gem imo.
I think the problem holding back our attack is that were not comfortable with a lot of our options, so always seem to look for the same runners, compared to Wigan at the mo who seem to be able to use them all with equal proficiency.
I like Moore now. I think he adds a lot to the team despite the odd penalty or mistake. I don't think he's got the temprement to make a Hooker or Half, but in a supporting role he offers a good variety of plays.
Ashurst and Dicko gave good accounts of themselves.
Agree with virtually all of that. It was a great effort from a depleted pack, and I was pleasantly surprised by the contribution of Ashurst. Clough is going to really shine next year in the absence of Graham, I reckon; let's just hope he can stay fit.
Having said that, I thought Huddersfield's half backs made it a little easy for our defence. Brough and Brown were reluctant to take the line on and were generally playing way too deep. In fact, their attack reminded me of ours last week.
Scott Moore still frustrates the funk out of me, though. I think he's definitely found his home in the back row, and his aggression and enthusiasm are refreshing, but he guarantees the opposition a couple of free sets and a good 50 metres of penalty territory every time he plays. He piggy-backed Hudds out of their own 20 with a totally unnecessary penalty last night when we were closing the game down (this led directly to a try for them) and got away with a blatant flop in a similar situation a few minutes later. Similar brain farts turned the game decisively in Wigan's favour in the semi last week, as well. He's clearly a very talented player, but I wish he'd engage his brain now and again.
I'm saying he goes for a big hit, but lines it up wrong and goes too high and they end up clashing heads. I'm basing all this on a live viewing, I'll review it in more detail later.
