31 Jul: CCSF1 - Leeds Rhinos v St Helens KO 8pm

[Exiled Wiganer]

On which basis Wire are nailed on for the treble! Great to see such confidence - I assume you are not reading as much into the last time you played HKR because on that basis you'll be watching an all Yorkshire final....

[GeordieSaint]

What cost you the game lass was Luke Walsh.

I disagree even though Walsh is a liability in defence. Whilst Saints were incredibly resilient, I thought the lack of aggression in the first 30mins was a real undoing. We allowed Leeds to run at us allowing them to dominate the tackle and in attack, we play with no depth giving us very little momentum. When Vea and Savelio ran with depth and conviction, it allowed us to play on the front foot for a while; we than caused Leeds problems.

I really think Cunningham has his tactics wrong and have said the same all season. 3 drives and a kick isn't going to work against a proper RL side like Leeds, as it didn't against Souths. Am I right in saying Cunningham is in charge of attack with Long in defence? That needs to change immediately in my opinion as we are offering very little in attack for large periods. To me, the jury is still out on Cunningham.

[Dave T]

On which basis Wire are nailed on for the treble! Great to see such confidence - I assume you are not reading as much into the last time you played HKR because on that basis you'll be watching an all Yorkshire final....

To be fair, I don't think CiderWire was displaying arrogance, just questioning why it looks like Leeds will have an easy win in the final when one of the teams still in the comp have done the double over them this year.

[chuffer]

It wasn't walsh's fault that Leeds were able to offload at will all through the first 30mins. I suppose the only way saints could have nullified that would have been better line speed and gang-tackling, but tbh I don't recall saints looking that shabby, it just seemed that Leeds were on fire at point. Walsh's kicking was ineffective due to the pressure and poor field position. When Saints' pack managed to get the team up field there were fatal dropped balls on the line from lms,masoe and someone else I think

[glossop saint]

Brilliant game, brilliant coverage, shame about the result.  Well done Leeds, I thought that is was the quantity and quality of their offloads that made the difference last night, there will be very few teams to stop them if they play to their potential in the big games, as Leeds unfortunately often do.

 

I thought that Savelio had another tremendous match, he just seems to get better and better.  I'm glad that Saints have managed to keep hold of him for another couple of years but I am afraid to say I don't think british rugby league will see much more of him after that.  Percival again had a good game as well.

 

As for the coverage, I thought it was tremendous.  I do really enjoy the live BBC coverage, it has a good mix of insight, humour and explaning for new viewers.  One sour note would be the report on BBC breakfast this morning.  I'm not a fan of the usual sports presenter but this covering guy was patronising (explaining that Leeds were in the blue, Peacock scored a great try despite being really old and about to retire) and said that Warrington were playing Hull this afternoon.  Obviously no knowledge of RL if he can't differentiate between 2 top flight clubs in the same city, which is incredibly poor for a sports reporter on what is one of the BBC's flagship weekend news programmes.  

[thundergaz]

Great game. Leeds are a class act when they throw the ball about it was a joy to watch. They were the best team by a mile last night until they had a 15 min blip. Tiredness maybe? But overall a very entertaining game for a neutral.

[cookey]

Terrific game,great entertainment,well referreed,super production from the BBC,with intelligent,articulate commentary/analysis - very refreshing.

 

If Sky don't get the message that their stale production and illiterate analysis is desperately out of date,they never will.An enthusiastic presenter,who doesn't commentate,a literate analyst who knows the modern game and doesn't merely randomly shout out forward pass and a professional commentator,who actually does research and doesn't just read out notes provided for him.

 

Well done the players,RFL and BBC,shame on you Sky Sports.

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Well, that was a very satisfactory way of spending a Friday evening - fingers crossed that this lunchtime's offering will be as good. Also, the BBC's matchday coverage is now streets ahead of Sky's outdated sreechfest, can anything be done about it?

[CiderWire]

To be fair, I don't think CiderWire was displaying arrogance, just questioning why it looks like Leeds will have an easy win in the final when one of the teams still in the comp have done the double over them this year.

Thank you Dave, for being the voice of reason and understanding. It is difficult to convey the context of a statement via the written word so I hope rather than immediately condemn and make sarcastic comments folks might take a moment to consider the wording more closely.

'IF' Wire beat KR Leeds will not blow them off the park for the reason you and I alluded too. It WILL be a great game though as I'm sure it will also be a great game if KR get to Wemberleeeeee

[Futtocks]

Agreed on the quality of the match and that the BBC have come from (a long way) behind to overtake Sky when it comes to match coverage. 

 

And on prime time Friday night TV, too!

[Cherry and White]

Chris Irvine ‏@Chrisirvine 6m6 minutes ago

Last night's semi on BBC started at 500k viewers and rose to 1.3million - around 400k more than usual.

[GeordieSaint]

Chris Irvine ‏@Chrisirvine 6m6 minutes ago

Last night's semi on BBC started at 500k viewers and rose to 1.3million - around 400k more than usual.

Isn't that as big as the final?

[Dave T]

Isn't that as big as the final?

Pretty sure we have been hovering around the 1m for recent finals. Was up to 2m for the England games in the RLWC.

[Saintslass]

Chris Irvine ‏@Chrisirvine 6m6 minutes ago

Last night's semi on BBC started at 500k viewers and rose to 1.3million - around 400k more than usual.

Gareth Walker said the TV ratings were 1.3 million for last night's game, a 69% increase on the semi final last year.

[MrFussy]

What cost you the game lass was Luke Walsh, without doubt the worst defender I have ever witnessed playing for a top class team in 50 years of watching RL, full credit to Brian Mac for targeting this weakness, please watch the game again and take note of Walsh he is a liability to the rest of the team in this department, when games are tight as this one he will lose you more games than he wins.

I would also go as far to say that this halfback combination with Burns is the least effective I can remember Saints ever employing.

That's a heck of a big call considering some of the pairings we've put out over the last 5 or 6 years, often consisting of players who aren't halfbacks at all. I'm guessing you might be discounting some of them though given that the players didn't really fit the description? That being said this pairing has certainly been underwhelming so far. I was full of optimism, as I suspect a lot of saints fans were, at finally having two natural halves again after years of trying to fit square pegs in round holes. I suppose for now it's just a case of hoping that their chemistry improves. We're going to have to look at doing something with Walsh in defence as we can't have a repeat of last night. I remember Brisbane used to use Tonie Carroll almost as a bodyguard for Darren Lockyer, with his job being to intercept the traffic that came his way. It might be worth looking at something similar.

 

Congratulations to Leeds anyway. A fine performance with some scary intensity at times and a superb offloading game. The best team won.   

[BBR]

Another example of an RL fan complaining about people being positive about the game. Very strange.

It looked and sounded good on TV.

Don't be so daft. Yes was a good atmosphere but by saying is a huge crowd when there are huge gaps implies that our normal crowds must be worse.

[Padge]

Thank you Dave, for being the voice of reason and understanding. It is difficult to convey the context of a statement via the written word so I hope rather than immediately condemn and make sarcastic comments folks might take a moment to consider the wording more closely.

'IF' Wire beat KR Leeds will not blow them off the park for the reason you and I alluded too. It WILL be a great game though as I'm sure it will also be a great game if KR get to Wemberleeeeee

 

If you start reading and considering the stuff posted then you'll take all the fun out of it. 

[Padge]

Don't be so daft. Yes was a good atmosphere but by saying is a huge crowd when there are huge gaps implies that our normal crowds must be worse.

 

Great crowds for cup semi-finals they were not, they have followed the trend of the last few (nay many) years of being a small event for the faithful.

[Aldo1980]

That's a heck of a big call considering some of the pairings we've put out over the last 5 or 6 years, often consisting of players who aren't halfbacks at all. I'm guessing you might be discounting some of them though given that the players didn't really fit the description? That being said this pairing has certainly been underwhelming so far. I was full of optimism, as I suspect a lot of saints fans were, at finally having two natural halves again after years of trying to fit square pegs in round holes. I suppose for now it's just a case of hoping that their chemistry improves. We're going to have to look at doing something with Walsh in defence as we can't have a repeat of last night. I remember Brisbane used to use Tonie Carroll almost as a bodyguard for Darren Lockyer, with his job being to intercept the traffic that came his way. It might be worth looking at something similar.

 

Congratulations to Leeds anyway. A fine performance with some scary intensity at times and a superb offloading game. The best team won.   

 

I was baffled when Saints signed Travis Burns and have yet to be convinced otherwise.

 

Defensively, Walsh is suspect but is a class act with ball in hand and has a great kicking game, but i'm still not sure what Burns contributes other than to be a niggly, aggressive mini-McIllorum.

[Bod]

I was baffled when Saints signed Travis Burns and have yet to be convinced otherwise.

 

Defensively, Walsh is suspect but is a class act with ball in hand and has a great kicking game, but i'm still not sure what Burns contributes other than to be a niggly, aggressive mini-McIllorum.

I think it was Nathan Brown who wanted Burns and then decided to leave.

[redjonn]

I disagree even though Walsh is a liability in defence. Whilst Saints were incredibly resilient, I thought the lack of aggression in the first 30mins was a real undoing. We allowed Leeds to run at us allowing them to dominate the tackle and in attack, we play with no depth giving us very little momentum. When Vea and Savelio ran with depth and conviction, it allowed us to play on the front foot for a while; we than caused Leeds problems.

I really think Cunningham has his tactics wrong and have said the same all season. 3 drives and a kick isn't going to work against a proper RL side like Leeds, as it didn't against Souths. Am I right in saying Cunningham is in charge of attack with Long in defence? That needs to change immediately in my opinion as we are offering very little in attack for large periods. To me, the jury is still out on Cunningham.

 

 

Its a fairly standard routine with saints kicking early on the tackle count, particularly early in the game. One could almost say predictable.   It doesn't seem to change no matter how the defending team cope.   It cried out not to give possession too soon to Leeds when they where in the purple patch at start.   Yet they seemed to keep too early kick orders which didn't help Saints in catching breath when needing to go through an attacking tackle routine to keep a defensive structure whilst not expanding panic energy until Leeds blew themselves out and a more familiar game pattern returned..

 

The early kicking just played into Leeds at that stage.

[southstand loiner]

Its a fairly standard routine with saints kicking early on the tackle count, particularly early in the game. One could almost say predictable.   It doesn't seem to change no matter how the defending team cope.   It cried out not to give possession too soon to Leeds when they where in the purple patch at start.   Yet they seemed to keep too early kick orders which didn't help Saints in catching breath when needing to go through an attacking tackle routine to keep a defensive structure whilst not expanding panic energy until Leeds blew themselves out and a more familiar game pattern returned..

 

The early kicking just played into Leeds at that stage.

i think saints would have been better to have kicked low and long towards touch in those early periods and in fact all night to disrupt leeds attacks and slow them down . putting the ball in the air to that back 3 is just plain daft  you know there going to return it with interest most of the time

[back to the future]

That's a heck of a big call considering some of the pairings we've put out over the last 5 or 6 years, often consisting of players who aren't halfbacks at all. I'm guessing you might be discounting some of them though given that the players didn't really fit the description? That being said this pairing has certainly been underwhelming so far. I was full of optimism, as I suspect a lot of saints fans were, at finally having two natural halves again after years of trying to fit square pegs in round holes. I suppose for now it's just a case of hoping that their chemistry improves. We're going to have to look at doing something with Walsh in defence as we can't have a repeat of last night. I remember Brisbane used to use Tonie Carroll almost as a bodyguard for Darren Lockyer, with his job being to intercept the traffic that came his way. It might be worth looking at something similar.

 

Congratulations to Leeds anyway. A fine performance with some scary intensity at times and a superb offloading game. The best team won.   

They look like complete strangers

BTW how many games did Burns  and Walsh play together at Penrith

[Futtocks]

From the brand new ‏@BBCRugbyLeague  Twitter account: 1.3m tuned in to see @leedsrhinos beat @Saints1890 in last night's semi-final on @BBCTwo. A 69% increase on 2014!

 

Will there be more weekday evening Cup ties in future, I wonder?

[Exiled Wiganer]

I was baffled when Saints signed Travis Burns and have yet to be convinced otherwise.

 

Defensively, Walsh is suspect but is a class act with ball in hand and has a great kicking game, but i'm still not sure what Burns contributes other than to be a niggly, aggressive mini-McIllorum.

Not sure what McIllorum has done to be criticised by comparison with an underwhelming Saints half back. It's one thing to be outplayed by hookers in games he doesn't take part in, but this seems a bit of a stretch...