TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:
A tough lesson in how to win a match ugly.
I think what annoys people (certainly me) is how Leeds won the game goes beyond acceptable ugly if you get my drift.
At the end of the day the scores where within a point and we had a break that looked like it was try time and Leeds cheated to stop it. So whatever went before, penalties by us, missed chances of drop goals or whatever, we had earned the right to win the game with one score if the chance to do so fell our way. It did but we were prevented from doing so not by great defence or even an error on out part but by cheating and that is what is unacceptable IMO.
TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:
Agree Dave, however i've got to say if we had been the ones doing it and won i wouldn't have complained as i would just put it down to being part of the game !
I can honestly say, hand on heart, if we had done that to win I would not be crowing about it. Not suggesting you would be or are but I'd be very sheepish about it and certainly would not be justifying at as acceptable gamesmanship.
Think the true reality of the squad we have shone through last night.
Loads of Bottle, but no winning mentality.
Inexperience is how I view it. When some senior players go off we lose a lot of shape and composure. I also don't think we can discount playing most of the game with 16 men went against us.
I think a lack of experience cost us to be honest. Joel is a great athlete but his marbles have tendency to go missing. Lets remember as well Joel was our most experinced 2nd rower last night and he's not much more than a kid himself.
I remember seeing Will Greenwood interviewed about the yawnion world cup win and the one thing that stood out was he said Woodward told them they have to be good enough to take luck out of the equation. If a bad decision goes against you or the bounce of a ball, you have to be good enough that it doesn't matter.
the reason i say this is if we hadn't started to give away penalties or drop the ball in our own half then these decisions wouldn't matter. We let Leeds back in when we should have buried them. the only people to blame are ourselves.
sheepsteeth wrote:
the reason i say this is if we hadn't started to give away penalties or drop the ball in our own half then these decisions wouldn't matter. We let Leeds back in when we should have buried them. the only people to blame are ourselves.
It's fine to acknowledge your own failings and indeed its important to do so but its daft for those running the game not to acknowledge that what went on at the end there is not acceptable.
We lost to Hudds at home after Brown prevented a certain try by holding back a player without the ball.
When did this sort of foul play become something teams need to overcome as well as the legitimate play of the opposition? We can't win every game by 10 or 20 points so such things have no effect on the outcome.
Perhaps we should have taken the Leeds winger out before he got the ball to score?
TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:Certainly didn't work with Lockers there,
Joel at centre, George on wing , pat to FB
The question should be aimed at MM as surely he wasn't expecting Deacon to do the full 80 ?
Maybe not, but he would have expected more than 8. Deacon's leaving the pitch was the defining moment IMO. We lost our best tactical kicker and our kicking game after that was pitiful!
TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:
It certainly limited our options that's for sure, maybe deacon of the bench may have been a better option ?? what you reckon ?
Deacon on the bench instead of Micky Mac was an option because when Riddell goes off TL could go to 9 and Deacon's kicking could pin the opposition down more for a while.
However for this to work it would need Sam at 6 otherwise we would have zero pace in the half backs.
TWO EYED WARRIOR wrote:Certainly didn't work with Lockers there,
Joel at centre, George on wing , pat to FB
The question should be aimed at MM as surely he wasn't expecting Deacon to do the full 80 ?
Maybe not, but he would have expected more than 8. Deacon's leaving the pitch was the defining moment IMO. We lost our best tactical kicker and our kicking game after that was pitiful!
It certainly limited our options that's for sure, maybe deacon of the bench may have been a better option ?? what you reckon ?
I didn't like going into the game with 4 forwards on the bench, 2 of them being Micky Mac and Chris Tuson. I would have had either Charnley or Marsh on there. I would still have started with Deacon though. 12-0 till he went off!