Re: Bottlers : Sat Apr 22, 2023 12:10 pm  

I suppose the term is thrown at those who are favourites to win but lose. Thankfully it happens a lot in sport ... which makes it fun. Used a fair bit in "tip tap" ... so I keep away from it.

Re: Bottlers : Sat Apr 22, 2023 12:29 pm  

matt_wire wrote:

Ah yes the mighty Salford! The last two games were the true acid test and we've blown it. True adversity and we couldn't match either for intensity or desire. Powell had no answers on his post match interview. If we've been outmatched in intensity now, God help us in September.

What about Catalans? We've just about played each side with our new squad and Powell is still learning about the players and who can be relied upon when the chips are down, or who can fill in certain positions. It's not a 6 month process and it certainly isn't a process which one can expect to master after playing everyone just once in 3 month's of competitive games. You can't just buy a team and expect them to just win 10 out of 10 opening fixtures, especially without any props.

When our props are back, the space will open up for our backs again and our brand of rugby is a million miles better than under Price (please don't say you'd rather Price).

Anyway Matt-wire, any solutions? Get a new coach in and new players, then sack them when they lose and repeat the process until we're eternally unbeaten?

Most of us are disappointed with Thursday, but let's not forget the positives so far and put things into perspective; we don't want this forum turning into an embarrassing, spoilt, moan-athon like Redvee.

Re: Bottlers : Sun Apr 23, 2023 7:58 pm  

There's an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong in the ruck, and letting a lot of high kicks hit the floor (very poor from Dufty) against Wigan and Saints, and put it right. These games do not define our season, and we'll have another similar series of games coming up - St Helens (H) 7/7 Wigan (A) 14/7 Cup Semi 22/7. I'll be disappointed if we cannot get back to making the hard yards, and being more competitive than we have been in the last two games. Should we make the cup semi's, ours will come off the back of two hard difficult fixtures, which would be a concern. A cup run and then the playoffs will be what ultimately defines our season, which are along way into the future.

Re: Bottlers : Sun Apr 23, 2023 9:06 pm  

MorePlaymakersNeeded wrote:

There's an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong in the ruck, and letting a lot of high kicks hit the floor (very poor from Dufty) against Wigan and Saints, and put it right. These games do not define our season, and we'll have another similar series of games coming up - St Helens (H) 7/7 Wigan (A) 14/7 Cup Semi 22/7. I'll be disappointed if we cannot get back to making the hard yards, and being more competitive than we have been in the last two games. Should we make the cup semi's, ours will come off the back of two hard difficult fixtures, which would be a concern. A cup run and then the playoffs will be what ultimately defines our season, which are along way into the future.

The Saints and Wigan are not important.
We need to manage our pack better than we have this last 4/5 weeks.
We need to be going in to a semi final with a full complement of props….
Then we manage selections again ahead of the final.
We cannot afford to go into those 2 games as we have the last 2, and would have next week, but for the international.

Powell has dropped a right bollox. When you know you have players who are more likely to get banned than others but are vital, you don’t play them. You make sure they play in the game you need them too.

Re: Bottlers : Sun Apr 23, 2023 10:34 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

The Saints and Wigan are not important.
We need to manage our pack better than we have this last 4/5 weeks.
We need to be going in to a semi final with a full complement of props….
Then we manage selections again ahead of the final.
We cannot afford to go into those 2 games as we have the last 2, and would have next week, but for the international.

Powell has dropped a right bollox. When you know you have players who are more likely to get banned than others but are vital, you don’t play them. You make sure they play in the game you need them too.

Can you please expand (not literally as we don't want fois gras Rubber Duckie). I think we had 3 players banned: Vaughan, Philbin and Dudson. Vaughan's ban was ridiculous and unpredictable. Philbin isn't a dirty player so unpredictable again. Dudson I think had a ban last year for similar, so are you suggesting he shouldn't have played Dudson in the Catalan game? I'm a bit confused by this. Are you saying he shouldn't have played Philbin or Vaughan in their cited games to avoid bans? If so, then I'm struggling who he could play at front row for the Catalan game and those games before.

Re: Bottlers : Tue Apr 25, 2023 5:39 am  

We’ve always been able to beat Wigan and Saints, had a good run at both recently, it’s always been Hudds away, Wakey away games like that we’ve dropped daft points, the fact we have a no go forward due to a freakish injury situation plays a large part as well. Amazing progress from last year.