Re: Leeds V Wigan
Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 12:34 pm
It's good to beat Leeds, particularly at Headingley where we have such a poor record. Even when Leeds aren't playing well we generally struggle. We've struggled there under Wane plenty of times. So for that reason I think there are more positives to take from tonight. Also, while our win over Rovers didn't fill me with confidence either it's worth considering they only lost to Wire by 6 points in the cup the week before.
Ultimately the main goal at the moment is to make sure we win this run of games against teams closer to us in the table and at present we're 2 from 2.
My biggest concern though is still our pack. Clubb had his best game of the season in my opinion. Even ignoring that try his work rate was much more like what we would expect from a senior prop.
That's where the praise for our middles ends though. Even though Lam praised O'Loughlin's first half performance it was nowhere near his best game for us and he's not playing with the consistency that he used to. Bullock, Navarrete and Partington were ineffective and barely got involved. Smithies has a great work rate but he got exposed significantly a couple of times in defence (which is to be expected of an 18 year old). Once again most of our hard work and carries were coming from Farrell, Isa, Sarge and Gildart and when our props did try to trouble Leeds down the middle they were dealt with very easily.
We already proven this year that we can beat weak teams by relying more on our outside backs. Having Faz in the back row means we can now play a bit more of Wane's style of attack where the effective carries come more from the back row - but a team drags us into a forward dominated contest I still think we've got a big weakness.
Ultimately the main goal at the moment is to make sure we win this run of games against teams closer to us in the table and at present we're 2 from 2.
My biggest concern though is still our pack. Clubb had his best game of the season in my opinion. Even ignoring that try his work rate was much more like what we would expect from a senior prop.
That's where the praise for our middles ends though. Even though Lam praised O'Loughlin's first half performance it was nowhere near his best game for us and he's not playing with the consistency that he used to. Bullock, Navarrete and Partington were ineffective and barely got involved. Smithies has a great work rate but he got exposed significantly a couple of times in defence (which is to be expected of an 18 year old). Once again most of our hard work and carries were coming from Farrell, Isa, Sarge and Gildart and when our props did try to trouble Leeds down the middle they were dealt with very easily.
We already proven this year that we can beat weak teams by relying more on our outside backs. Having Faz in the back row means we can now play a bit more of Wane's style of attack where the effective carries come more from the back row - but a team drags us into a forward dominated contest I still think we've got a big weakness.