Acid test : Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:46 am  

Much has been published on this forum about us going down the pan this early on in the season.Players ability,skill and fitness brought into question.I think the start we got 5 from 5 has got peoples juices going and expectations started running high.Personally I think we are still smarting from last season and possibly the season before that.Our confidence still seems a little fragile and we struggle to play with any flair or expance and have gone back to a siege mentality.The knock on effect that this has is the young talent we have like, Briscoe, Houghton and Burnett who have a future, is this could damage any prospect of International hounors . This weekend is an ideal opportunity for the lads to put things right,a convincing win over Salford will hopefully set the tone for the rest of the season.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:00 am  

We've gone back to playing dull one man rugby and it doesn't work.

The first few weeks we gave teams something to think about.

We have a team full of powerful and elusive players yet we choose to play behind a forward pack that is one of the lightest in the league.

It worked the first few games against teams that were in poor form themselves but now as the season is into gear we'll get found out.

I think this current form is down to poor tactics from the coaches rather than poor form from the players.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:16 am  

KNOCK OFF NIGEL wrote:

I think this current form is down to poor tactics from the coaches rather than poor form from the players.

See I find that hard to believe.

Agar saw how we played against Bradford at Odsal which was probably our best performance scoring 36 points away from home and could have had more. Then at home to Cas he says to the players don't do that again? I just don't believe that for one minute. I could understand him saying that against Quins due to the conditions but not against Cas.

Cas defeat appeared to be maybe getting too confident and also Cas playing really well, still better goalkicking would have won us the game. Quins was a just a poor performance alround.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 8:54 am  

PAUL M wrote:

See I find that hard to believe.

Agar saw how we played against Bradford at Odsal which was probably our best performance scoring 36 points away from home and could have had more. Then at home to Cas he says to the players don't do that again? I just don't believe that for one minute. I could understand him saying that against Quins due to the conditions but not against Cas.

Cas defeat appeared to be maybe getting too confident and also Cas playing really well, still better goalkicking would have won us the game. Quins was a just a poor performance alround.

I agree to an extent ,however against Cas we seemed to implode ,we stood off in defence ,we took wrong options and a few set plays didn't come off.But I still think our mental state has taken a battering from the past couple of seasons,we seem to struggle in a tight battle .

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 10:13 am  

PAUL M wrote:

See I find that hard to believe.

I dont, i think our tactics have been shocking for the last 2 games and only just above average for the first few games, we just seemed to play the teams when they hadnt hit their straps yet.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 11:23 am  

I put the Cas defeat down to us thinking we are something we're not i.e. throwing miracle passes out and trying to wow the crowd before getting a plaform built first (do i sound like Agar and Sharp!!)

The Quins game was totally different in that we didn't have a clue in attack and we didn't vary the sets enough to creat any confusion in their defence, this may be down to restricted tactics of the coaches, the conditions or simply the fact that we didn't get a platform from winning the forward battle.

I'm still confident of a good(ish) season...but my opinion on Rich Agar is still open i'm afraid....lets hope he proves many of us wrong.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 12:06 pm  

Wollagong Way wrote:

I put the Cas defeat down to us thinking we are something we're not i.e. throwing miracle passes out and trying to wow the crowd before getting a plaform built first (do i sound like Agar and Sharp!!)

I agree entirely. And I think what we saw at Quins was a reaction to the way we tried to play against Cas, with Agar/Sharp insisting on a more conservative style of play. Trouble is we went too far that way.

I know that there are many things that determine the outcome of a game, but I think that you can point to 2 moments in the 2 defeats that indicate our attitude in those games. Thorman's pass to Briscoe after we had scored against Cas, was too risky a play for me and indicated an over confidence. kicking the penalty against Quins, when they would have been facing a third consecutive set of six if we had taken the tap, was too negative.

There's got to be a balance, and I think that we achieved that at Bradford.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:22 pm  

yello-belly wrote:

I agree entirely. And I think what we saw at Quins was a reaction to the way we tried to play against Cas, with Agar/Sharp insisting on a more conservative style of play. Trouble is we went too far that way.

I know that there are many things that determine the outcome of a game, but I think that you can point to 2 moments in the 2 defeats that indicate our attitude in those games. Thorman's pass to Briscoe after we had scored against Cas, was too risky a play for me and indicated an over confidence. kicking the penalty against Quins, when they would have been facing a third consecutive set of six if we had taken the tap, was too negative.

There's got to be a balance, and I think that we achieved that at Bradford.

Spot on.

Althought the Thorman pass to Briscoe was a set move practised all week on the back of right winger Dixon taking the kick off and Evans the right centre flying in. Had Briscoe taken the pass we may have been 12v0 up in under 5 mins. I dont mind Hull taking risks to some extent, it is all about balance.

The Quins simply played the strong wind advantage to perfection with their long kicks dead and forty twenty effort. We needed a lead at half time and should have ran the penalty IMO.

I think most of the negativity is because last year is still fairly fresh in the memory and any signs of a repeat gets people thinking the worst!

[Kosh]

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:04 pm  

knocker norton wrote:

I think most of the negativity is because last year is still fairly fresh in the memory and any signs of a repeat gets people thinking the worst!

And we have a winner.

: Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:07 pm  

Is the answer Litmus paper?