Slow play the ball

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catman
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 9:21 am

Slow play the ball

Post by catman »

The biggest difference between the two teams yesterday was the speed of the play the ball. Saints , especially Roby had a fast PTB and this allowed them to get a roll on and dominate. We on the other hand were dog slow and our driving forwards were sitting ducks taking the ball up and they got nowhere fast.
It was clear from the outset that saints were looking to dominate at the PTB they were getting plenty men in the tackle, rolling us on our backs and slowing us down. This has been done to us equally effectively by Wakefield and Warrington in the last few weeks and we seem to have no response.
When a side is trying to slow you down you need to do three things
1. Get on your front in the tackle on the first and second plays it doesn't matter how many yards you make, just avoid being turned turtle and get up before the defence are set.
2. Get in the refs mind about lying on, if the opponent's get three or four in the tackle we should be saying 'come on ref get em up' and if we can knock an arm away as they are getting up so much the better this shouldn't work but it's amazing especially at Super League level how many penalties can be 'milked'.
3. Run in pairs, don't make your driving forwards sitting ducks, put doubt in the defences mind and don't let them get extra men in the tackle. It's much easier to get a quick PTB when you are tackled by two than if you have got four men on top of you.
We also need to stop teams getting a roll on against us. We simply need to get more men in the tackle and put the attackers on the deck, stopping off loads and quick play the balls. Last week Fifita and Pauli Pauli ripped us apart due to the simple fact we couldn't get them on the deck. We need to get our opponents down get men on top and put the ball carriers on their back. The simple way to ensure this is hard graft and if we can do it we may start making some progress. We have some talented players but at the moment they are not showing their abilities as we are always on the back foot.
doc
Posts: 1795
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:08 pm

Re: Slow play the ball

Post by doc »

catman wrote: Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:59 pm The biggest difference between the two teams yesterday was the speed of the play the ball. Saints , especially Roby had a fast PTB and this allowed them to get a roll on and dominate. We on the other hand were dog slow and our driving forwards were sitting ducks taking the ball up and they got nowhere fast.
It was clear from the outset that saints were looking to dominate at the PTB they were getting plenty men in the tackle, rolling us on our backs and slowing us down. This has been done to us equally effectively by Wakefield and Warrington in the last few weeks and we seem to have no response.
When a side is trying to slow you down you need to do three things
1. Get on your front in the tackle on the first and second plays it doesn't matter how many yards you make, just avoid being turned turtle and get up before the defence are set.
2. Get in the refs mind about lying on, if the opponent's get three or four in the tackle we should be saying 'come on ref get em up' and if we can knock an arm away as they are getting up so much the better this shouldn't work but it's amazing especially at Super League level how many penalties can be 'milked'.
3. Run in pairs, don't make your driving forwards sitting ducks, put doubt in the defences mind and don't let them get extra men in the tackle. It's much easier to get a quick PTB when you are tackled by two than if you have got four men on top of you.
We also need to stop teams getting a roll on against us. We simply need to get more men in the tackle and put the attackers on the deck, stopping off loads and quick play the balls. Last week Fifita and Pauli Pauli ripped us apart due to the simple fact we couldn't get them on the deck. We need to get our opponents down get men on top and put the ball carriers on their back. The simple way to ensure this is hard graft and if we can do it we may start making some progress. We have some talented players but at the moment they are not showing their abilities as we are always on the back foot.
That is the reason Waney was so keen on the wrestling training. It was used not only to train the players how to get an opponent on their back but also how to get an opponent off you to get a quick play the ball. You don't hear much about the wrestling pit these days.
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