Re: Wigan vs roosters
Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 10:42 pm
We were always going to struggle against a Roosters side packed with stars but to have the best chance we needed to be aggressive in defence and flawless in terms of errors. The start was an absolute disaster and I feared the worst at that point.
It's early days, but a worry for me is that our line speed and overall aggression in defence seems to have disappeared over the off-season. In the early stages they just didn't look fired up and let the Roosters walk all over us. Thankfully thanks to a little bit of a flare up we found some aggression and came back into the game.
I thought Sean O'Loughlin was outstanding as you'd expect. Sarginson had one of his best games and deserves huge praise for his defensive effort because he's been criticised quite a bit for that aspect of his game. Williams was mostly good and I thought Bullock once again showed why he could be the signing of the season.
However, there were far too many areas where we struggled. Our long kicking game was non-existent. That's not really a surprise but it's frustrating that we didn't get to see what Sammut could add. It was back to the bad old days with Leuluai. Losing Tomkins is another blow to our kicking game because Hardaker's kicking is poor.
On the subject of Hardaker, there are some promising signs there but at times he was poor and looked nervy. He was lucky not to cost us on a couple of occasions and if we don't find a bit more creativity in the halves we could struggle because he doesn't seem to have much ball playing ability.
Farrell was dangerous in attack but hearing he could be out for quite a while with a torn bicep is a blow. Yes, we may have been dodgy in defence on that side but that was mostly to do with Leuluai, Gildart and Davies. The prospect of having Isa fill in is worrying because he's just a passenger in most games and adds nothing.
We really needed more from the front row. Flower was fine but Clubb may as well have not been there. I know he suffered a concussion in one game but overall he's offered nothing at all this season and has barely been able to play a decent amount of minutes. Navarrete didn't impress either so there's definitely room for improvement there. Dare I say Tautai might be worth another shot to see whether we can get a bit more out of him under Lam than Wane.
Tom Davies looks to be having a tough start the season. You can never fault his effort but he's becoming error prone and a little bit shaky with kicks (not that he could have prevented Tupou's try). Marshall seems to be doing a little bit better. Hopefully Manfredi will return soon but if not surely Davies might be under a bit of pressure from Forsyth (playing on the wing for Swinton and seems to be impressing), Brown or even Mullen.
Gildart struggled, which is a surprise given how he looked pretty solid defensively for England. He could be one of those players who has a difficult start to the year after playing in the international games. A few years back when we have about 5 or 6 playing for England they all started the season in poor form. These things can happen but hopefully he finds form again soon.
Leuluai put some good shots in when defending in their half but he was exposed for pace several times tonight. That's probably one of the reasons why he was earmarked for a return to the hooking role and I'd love to see that happen sooner rather than later, as for all the effort Powell puts in he just doesn't have enough about him to cause teams problems.
Overall it was a decent effort after the shambolic start, but we were still our own worst enemy and needed a performance were everyone was on top of their game to really trouble the Roosters and sadly that wasn't the case.
It's early days, but a worry for me is that our line speed and overall aggression in defence seems to have disappeared over the off-season. In the early stages they just didn't look fired up and let the Roosters walk all over us. Thankfully thanks to a little bit of a flare up we found some aggression and came back into the game.
I thought Sean O'Loughlin was outstanding as you'd expect. Sarginson had one of his best games and deserves huge praise for his defensive effort because he's been criticised quite a bit for that aspect of his game. Williams was mostly good and I thought Bullock once again showed why he could be the signing of the season.
However, there were far too many areas where we struggled. Our long kicking game was non-existent. That's not really a surprise but it's frustrating that we didn't get to see what Sammut could add. It was back to the bad old days with Leuluai. Losing Tomkins is another blow to our kicking game because Hardaker's kicking is poor.
On the subject of Hardaker, there are some promising signs there but at times he was poor and looked nervy. He was lucky not to cost us on a couple of occasions and if we don't find a bit more creativity in the halves we could struggle because he doesn't seem to have much ball playing ability.
Farrell was dangerous in attack but hearing he could be out for quite a while with a torn bicep is a blow. Yes, we may have been dodgy in defence on that side but that was mostly to do with Leuluai, Gildart and Davies. The prospect of having Isa fill in is worrying because he's just a passenger in most games and adds nothing.
We really needed more from the front row. Flower was fine but Clubb may as well have not been there. I know he suffered a concussion in one game but overall he's offered nothing at all this season and has barely been able to play a decent amount of minutes. Navarrete didn't impress either so there's definitely room for improvement there. Dare I say Tautai might be worth another shot to see whether we can get a bit more out of him under Lam than Wane.
Tom Davies looks to be having a tough start the season. You can never fault his effort but he's becoming error prone and a little bit shaky with kicks (not that he could have prevented Tupou's try). Marshall seems to be doing a little bit better. Hopefully Manfredi will return soon but if not surely Davies might be under a bit of pressure from Forsyth (playing on the wing for Swinton and seems to be impressing), Brown or even Mullen.
Gildart struggled, which is a surprise given how he looked pretty solid defensively for England. He could be one of those players who has a difficult start to the year after playing in the international games. A few years back when we have about 5 or 6 playing for England they all started the season in poor form. These things can happen but hopefully he finds form again soon.
Leuluai put some good shots in when defending in their half but he was exposed for pace several times tonight. That's probably one of the reasons why he was earmarked for a return to the hooking role and I'd love to see that happen sooner rather than later, as for all the effort Powell puts in he just doesn't have enough about him to cause teams problems.
Overall it was a decent effort after the shambolic start, but we were still our own worst enemy and needed a performance were everyone was on top of their game to really trouble the Roosters and sadly that wasn't the case.