Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:51 am  

I couldn't go last night so can't really comment on the game but I was very wary of Cas before the game.

I will say that the individual improvement of players has been pretty awesome and in turn the potential of the squad has improved massively IMO which is no real surprise to me because of CS's track record in Aus.

However, he's still a rookie as a first team coach in terms of setting game plans etc. but smashing the top of the table one week and then losing to the bottom of the table team the next means the erratic nature of our performances seems to have continued on from previous seasons.

Hopefully CS will be able to narrow the gap between our good and bad performances and we'll move up the table.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:55 am  

chas1hkr wrote:

If devolping youth is playing the likes of latus and murrell in front of younger players then he's not doing his job,too many people on here who think our players are better than they really are.Also when the under 20's get beat by as many as they did last night then there is not much coming through,probably more morgan's fault than sandercock.Transition is just an excuse as other clubs have new coaches as well and they are all not struggling,our neighbours unfortunately being one of them.At the end of the day injuries should affect your cohesion in attack,but we have no problem,we just have a defence with more holes in it than a string vest and that should have been put right by now.Wrong appointment IMO.

I thought Murrell had a good game at 6 for us last night, as he did against Huddersfield last week. Fair enough if we have a Lomax or Gaskill in the 20's play them, but to the best of my knowledge we don't.
I noticed in an earlier post Murrell was one of the players listed to go at the end of the season, I would suggest that his utility value alone would make him well worth retaining.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:57 am  

chas1hkr wrote:

If devolping youth is playing the likes of latus and murrell in front of younger players then he's not doing his job,too many people on here who think our players are better than they really are.Also when the under 20's get beat by as many as they did last night then there is not much coming through,probably more morgan's fault than sandercock.Transition is just an excuse as other clubs have new coaches as well and they are all not struggling,our neighbours unfortunately being one of them.At the end of the day injuries should affect your cohesion in attack,but we have no problem,we just have a defence with more holes in it than a string vest and that should have been put right by now.Wrong appointment IMO.

You're entitled to your opinion but I think you're over reacting.

Youth results aren't particularly important, it's whether we get a through put to the first team that's important. Now, let's also understand that a good hit rate is probably only about one player coming through every other season and our academy is only just past the fledgling stage.

Transition isn't an excuse, it's where we are.

We need and should give Sandercock until at least the middle of next season, no club ever succeeds by changing the coach every six months.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:00 am  

Another point about youth is bringing them through in the correct way, let's play them all, see them get smashed and then ruined for the rest of their careers, that'll work!

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:04 am  

Think I said in the predictions it could be a 4 point swing either way. A couple of big moments in the game. When at 28-22 up, you went for goal with still 20 minutes to go. Whereas you were breaking through our defence at will. I think you only got down our end once after that. In contrast, with 13 minutes to go, 2 points down, we opted not to kick to tie the game. He who dares....

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:05 am  

chas1hkr wrote:

If devolping youth is playing the likes of latus and murrell in front of younger players then he's not doing his job,too many people on here who think our players are better than they really are.Also when the under 20's get beat by as many as they did last night then there is not much coming through,probably more morgan's fault than sandercock.Transition is just an excuse as other clubs have new coaches as well and they are all not struggling,our neighbours unfortunately being one of them.At the end of the day injuries should affect your cohesion in attack,but we have no problem,we just have a defence with more holes in it than a string vest and that should have been put right by now.Wrong appointment IMO.

So we have no youth coming thru' - playing the likes of Latus/Murrell over no one, is hardly not doing your job. Just on that, Latus never played and Murrell had a solid game, hell he even made a try assist break.

Part of Sandercock's remit was to oversee our entire youth set up. He can't do that within a few months .... He's not a miracle worker (your words)

chas1hkr wrote:

Looks a decent coach,the only thing that worries me is that we may only sign 1 more player on top of those already signed,is this bloke a miracle worker because he will have to be if we only sign 1 more player.

chas1hkr wrote:

If we really want to challenge in the future,then we need some quality over and above what has already signed otherwise the new coach will need to be a miracle worker.Dont think we have got one player who would get in warrington or wigan's team,people may disagree but its the truth.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:10 am  

Towns88 wrote:

Think I said in the predictions it could be a 4 point swing either way. A couple of big moments in the game. When at 28-22 up, you went for goal with still 20 minutes to go. Whereas you were breaking through our defence at will. I think you only got down our end once after that. In contrast, with 13 minutes to go, 2 points down, we opted not to kick to tie the game. He who dares....Rodney

Fair point. Stick or twist.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:16 am  

Towns88 wrote:

Think I said in the predictions it could be a 4 point swing either way. A couple of big moments in the game. When at 28-22 up, you went for goal with still 20 minutes to go. Whereas you were breaking through our defence at will. I think you only got down our end once after that. In contrast, with 13 minutes to go, 2 points down, we opted not to kick to tie the game. He who dares....

I don't know if you were the Cas fan stood next to us (with blonde daughter) because if not he made the exact same point, we actually let Cas off the hook by doing this as we were really pressurising their line at this point.

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:33 am  

Dudley wrote:

Towns88 wrote:

Think I said in the predictions it could be a 4 point swing either way. A couple of big moments in the game. When at 28-22 up, you went for goal with still 20 minutes to go. Whereas you were breaking through our defence at will. I think you only got down our end once after that. In contrast, with 13 minutes to go, 2 points down, we opted not to kick to tie the game. He who dares....

I don't know if you were the Cas fan stood next to us (with blonde daughter) because if not he made the exact same point, we actually let Cas off the hook by doing this as we were really pressurising their line at this point.

I thought this was the big moment in the game as you say, I thought that Rovers would have almost certainly scored given the fragility of our defence in that period of the game.
I did feel it was an unusual match really, as I felt both teams combined spells of great attacking rugby with silly mistakes and poor defence, with quite a lot of inconsistency throughout the match. I was hugely impressed by (I forget his name, number 20, Cox I believe?!) and the ever impressive Dobson. I remember seeing the young second row play in the 9s tournament not long back and thought he looked decent, glad to see he's made it into the first team.
On a final note, just seeing what Sandercock has said about the "turning point" of the game, I'm really suprised by this, as I thought the player could have/should have been penalised for a voluntary tackle, as did a couple of Rovers fans next to me, so I find that one puzzling. Having said that I'm sure once you get game breakers like Blake Green, Ben Galea etc back you'll go up a notch.
Best of luck for the rest of the season!

Re: vs Castleford : Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:43 am  

Dudley wrote:

I don't know if you were the Cas fan stood next to us (with blonde daughter) because if not he made the exact same point, we actually let Cas off the hook by doing this as we were really pressurising their line at this point.

hahaha no. No love child for me just yet. It was a strange game at times. late in the second half, when we kicked twice on the last tackle from one side of the field to the other, then eventually got 6 more from it. A sign of 2 teams who struggle defensively.