Was taking the 2s in the WCC a mistake?

[cpwigan]

I am torn on this as it has worked in previous WCCs but in the modern era I think you lose so much in terms of momentum, field position, burning the energy of the opposition for the 2 points.

[Big Steve]

Against a defence that we already knew to be the meanest in the NRL (as they proved in the 2nd half) I don't think it was a mistake. We got the points on the board and remained in the game right up to the last minute.

As many people have posted, although St George looked marginally the better team, Wigan came very close to taking it to golden point regardless of injuries or missing players.

They scored their tries when we gifted them easy possession in our 20, we lost possession a couple of times in the last 10 mins when we really looked to have them under pressure.

If we hadn't taken the two points i'm not sure we would have been in position to put pressure on them at the end.

[gpartin]

Good field position in attack is everything and if you get repeat sets early on then teams will tire in the second half and gaps will appear in the defence. The fact Carmont scored a great individual effort slightly covers up the fact that Deacon's decision to go for goal the second time was totally stupid imo. We hardly had any sets which started in their half and we're more than capable of scoring tries when they do. Most of the tries they scored came from penalties or handling errors resulting in them starting a set in a decent position.

[exile in Tiger country]

The first one to make it eight nil was a mistake IMo, St George didn't, at that point, know what had hit them.

[josie andrews]

The first one to make it eight nil was a mistake IMo, St George didn't, at that point, know what had hit them.

I thought that, but was blasted down by someone saying "but we'll get the ball back & two points".

I replied" we could have had six, cos we were right on their line, they were then on the back foot, & THEN we would still get the ball back"!!!

[cpwigan]

The first one to make it eight nil was a mistake IMo, St George didn't, at that point, know what had hit them.

I thought that, but was blasted down by someone saying "but we'll get the ball back & two points".

I replied" we could have had six, cos we were right on their line, they were then on the back foot, & THEN we would still get the ball back"!!!

Exactly Josie

You do not get many chances v teams like St George so when you do, you need 6 points not 2 points.

[platt-warrior]

But with top defensive sides like St Geo IMO you have to take the opportunities to take points on offer.Remember we spent a
large section of the 2nd half camped on their line without result.

[DaveO]

I am torn on this as it has worked in previous WCCs but in the modern era I think you lose so much in terms of momentum, field position, burning the energy of the opposition for the 2 points.

I think it was a mistake when we went 8 points up. At that point we had them on the rack early in the game and it certainly gave them breather.

I am usually quite keen to take the two and possibly for the first time ever I mentioned to my son this was a mistake.

I was genuinely surprised we went fit the two at that stage given how the game was going at the time.

[gpartin]

Remember we spent a
large section of the 2nd half camped on their line without result.

yes but its been shown time and time again that if you force teams to endure long periods of pressure early on they become much less able to deal with it towards the end of a game. Against such strong opposition when you're given an opportunity to keep them defending their line I think its foolish not to and we clearly had the upper hand at that point. The reason we didn't score later on was due partly to this and partly to the fact we were very flat in attack meaning that on the occasions the ball got to the wings they had no space to score because we left it too easy for them to mark us man for man, it was nearly always passed by the centre rather than from further infield. We needed much more variation in our attack to create confusion in the defence as they did to us but had they been kept under pressure earlier when we had the chance I feel it could have been a different story.

[gpartin]

Just to add, I think the fact we went for goal and the poor passes and mistakes we made are linked in that we weren't particularly confident that we were as good as them and were a bit overawed by the occasion.