Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 10:56 am  

Trojan Horse wrote:

Exactly, a lucky bounce off a crossbar was the difference.

I said as soon as the ball was passed to Max it should have gone left to Russell. Max was under all sorted of pressure to get that kick away.

But you know what. The players should all be praised after that. We will beat many teams playing like that this season. Keep it up because it’s working.

That small centre of ours didn’t look bad against Gildart did he

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 11:13 am  

I got that lost in the game and the way we were playing last night, I actually forgot the players that we were missing. What is really pleasing is no matter who is on the field, we are playing very much the same, perhaps not as clinical and definitely miss a bit of punch in the front row but it`s a sign of a very well coached side and more so a sign of quality outside of our first choice 17. Years gone by, if we were missing 7 or 8 first team players, we would be getting well beat by most sides.

I can`t help but think if we were as close to KR were to full strength last night, we would have been a good 10 points better than them.

On a side note, how good are we to watch with the ball?

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 11:20 am  

I went into the game and with the players missing that we had I was hoping that we would give it our best and keep the score respectable but came away thinking we could have won that, regarding Hargreaves, what a waste of money he’s proved so far, I’m 64 and could make more yards, they should have kept Storton, what a signing he’s been, outstanding

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 11:39 am  

I was unsure how dropping into the Championship would be for us but it's really improved our expansive rugby. Our movement of the ball along the line has been superb so far.

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 12:11 pm  

Pat Bateman wrote:

That small centre of ours didn’t look bad against Gildart did he

I’m glad you’ve finally jumped fully on board the Oli Pratt Train. Lads a real talent.

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 12:37 pm  

https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/new ... ngs-988083

https://www.alloutrugbyleague.co.uk/new ... ngs-988083

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:32 pm  

Butcher wrote:

Gutted. I thought the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game, but wondered if we might just nick it at the end. Rovers defended really well and found a way to win, but we can learn a lot from that. Some impressions from the game (not conclusions about players, before anyone jumps on):

Jowitt really is top drawer - potentially international class. Just thinking about a thread on here with @AnotherCasFan, in which they were sure Niall Evalds was a better player than Jowitt. You only have to put them against each other like tonight to see the difference. If Reece Walsh had thrown that ball to Johnstone you'd never hear the end of it. And what did Evalds do on the ball? Where was he during Oli Pratt's try? Jowitt was fantastic start to finish, barring a wayward kick. But he's got enough credit with me to miss a few of those.

Walmsley isn't physically strong enough. He made some great runs in the second half, but if there's ever a body in front of him he gets whacked then dragged backwards. He's a superb finisher and drier weather will suit his game better, but so much of Super League is grunt and 'arm wrestling', and he just physically isn't powerful enough.

What an athlete Oli Pratt is. The kind of player you look forward to watching each week. Caused them problems all night.

Hall did Hall things but was apparently chucking up in the toilets at half time.

Not much to learn about TJ is there. They contained him to making hit ups all night, aside from his try which he took well.

Lino needs Trueman. He defended well tonight and he looked okay on the ball, but his kicking just wasn't good enough.

On that showing, Olly Russell isn't up to it. He looked just like he did at Huddersfield - steady and toothless. Plus a couple of daft moments in the first half - a ball steal and a dead ball kick - that put us under pressure. I haven't written him off after one competitive game, but we need better than that.

McMeeken and Pitts worked their arses off again. Look forward to seeing the stats again, but they're carrying our middle so far.

Doyle was steady. Defended well, passed accurately, didn't make any mistakes, but also never threatened Hull KR, who had two very threatening hookers in their team.

Uele did okay but definitely won't be skittling defenders like he did in the championship. Quick play the balls though.

Storton took some monster carries in the second half.

Honestly barely noticed Croft. Didn't do anything wrong, and I know a lot of fans really love him but for me he's just filling a gap at the moment.

Thought Vagana went okay. Still too slow to retreat and a few gaps opened up around him which fast teams will punish, especially in summer.

Similar for Faatili. He's got plenty of potential but let's be honest, at this level he's not going to replicate what we've seen on his highlights reel.

Harvey Smith looked good out of dummy half, but I'd like to see him use his speed and run more. There were a couple of chances for him to do that but he played it safe and passed to first receiver. I also don't think he won one collision in defence and that worries me.

Overall that didn't feel like our game to lose. We're down on troops and still staying all the way with proven Super League teams, and that's what good teams do. We'll be alright, but we need a rest and a handful of our starting side back fit. After that we'll be grand. More confident next Saturday.

I agree that Jowitt has looked really good in his first two games , and was better than Evalds yesterday . However , at the time of writing Evalds was a proven SL FB , Jowitt had performed well at SL level but not to the standards we have seen from Evalds in the past .

That said , if he continues to improve then he will be right up there with the best of them , but it is still early days . Perhaps I didn't give him the recognition he deserves , and although I don't think you can judge someone on a season in the Championship , he has certainly improved considerably and looks the real deal at the moment . Good luck to him in the future (except against Cas of course )

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:35 pm  

PS , his pass to send Johnstone in for your first try was sublime

[PopTart]

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:37 pm  

Watched it back on tv now.

So many players had great moments in the game.
I think it's the thing Powell mentioned, that we are a good team. As a team we kept supporting each other.
It wasn't without mistakes but every time it happened someone popped up to support.
Add to that the slickness of the passing when we were attacking and the fact that we had a number of 'next player up' players in the team, Powell has built a really tight unit of players.
That will stand us in good stead for tougher days.

Individually
Jowitt was mostly outstanding. His pass for Johnstone was world class in my opinion. His tackle to stop Burgess was outstanding too. His drop out for Tom and his fielding of the kick where he had his foot over the line really shows his Super League quality. Shame he couldn't keep hold of Lewis for the try and the kick out on the full.

Pratt really showed his skills. It hasn't been mentioned but he was playing on the right rather than his usual left. Many can't actually do that. He did it and looked outstanding. Sky will be talking about him every game now. Walmsley needs to work out how to get available for a pass when he makes those half breaks if he stays on the right.

Pitts made 50 tackles and only missed 1. That alone is outstanding but his leadership on the field can't be underestimated.

I like the Croft/Vagana split too. Croft does a lot of hard work and then Vagana comes on and really shook them around when he was hitting the line.

McMeekan playing 80 minutes is ridiculous in today's game. He was good value when others would be getting tired but it will be good when Atoni and Rodwell come back to ease the strain.

Re: Hull KR at home this Thursday evening : Fri Feb 21, 2025 1:51 pm  

PopTart wrote:

McMeekan playing 80 minutes is ridiculous in today's game. He was good value when others would be getting tired but it will be good when Atoni and Rodwell come back to ease the strain.

It will be interesting to see how DP handles McMeekan when we get some forwards back like you say. I’d love him on the field for the full 80 for his leadership and influence every game but it just isn’t going to happen. Personally I’d play him for the first and last 30mins of the game so he gets a decent break at half time and comes on firing till the finish!

Seriously looking forward to getting some of the big guns and strike players back to see how get on.