Re: Whitehaven (H) : Sun Feb 05, 2023 7:49 pm  

I think dddooommm has summed it up pretty well. I think the two missed friendlies showed as we looked a but undercooked. For a side that is pretty much newly put together, I don't think it was a bad performance.

Ref was awful and we ended up on the back of some tough calls which also stopped our momentum. Two tries disallowed and from where I was stood both looked fine, so will be interesting to look back at the replay.

Holmes looks a great addition, Rogers was immense in the pack, as was Lawrence. I also was very pleasantly surprised with Blackmore who was a handful coming out of our own half.

York had a disappointing start today. I work in York and a lot of their fans were pretty concerned with the squad, even before today's loss. Hopefully build on today's result and go get another two points next Monday.

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Sun Feb 05, 2023 7:57 pm  

What a change to see them win at home. I agree with what dddoommm is saying. I thought Lawrence, Holmes, Lilley and Thompson were outstanding. What a difference to last season. Early days but the effort and commitment put in was 100%.

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Sun Feb 05, 2023 8:20 pm  

RagingBull wrote:

Could be a week for all you know

Yep hence I said worst case 3 months
With Walkers history it's usually longer term .

[Bullseye]

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 06, 2023 10:19 am  

First half was a bit of an arm wrestle but the middle hour of the game we were pretty dominant. Things then went a bit scrappy.

Holmes and Lilley stood out in the backs. Holmes's performance reminded me of Dave Watson. Losing Walker was a blow but Holmes looked assured under the high kicks and seemed to always beat the first man on the kick returns.

Thought Thompson, Lawrence, Rogers and Butler did well in the forwards.

Some negatives for me were the amount of errors we made. At one point in the first half we failed to complete a set 5 times in a row. We gave a few needless penalties away too. On the right side Arundal seemed a bit unsure of himself in defence. In attack he could've scored twice if he'd got a lower body position.

Attitude wise the side was unrecognisable from the end of last year. However, one swallow doesn't make a summer. York will be a tougher game.