saddleworth Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 22 hours ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said: Couldn't agree more. I doubt anyone really expected us to win there before the events of the last week or so and even with those it hasn't changed things much in terms of their relative strength. I suspect they and Toronto are at least a good step ahead of everyone else. On the brightside, we arguably did better than the supposed 'best part time team in the country'. Bad example,LTS. More negative thoughts, ie: "no one really expected us to win over there, being a step ahead along with Toronto". From what I saw of Toronto against the Rams, definitely overrated on this performance. Exceptional fitness, as to be expected, pulled them through. For goodness sake get into their ribs and yes, give away a penalty or two, but at least let them know you are there. How would the team react if our fans had stayed away due to them "not really being expected to win". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Horseman Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 1 hour ago, saddleworth said: From what I saw of Toronto against the Rams, definitely overrated on this performance. There have been a few comments on here suggesting Toronto are a bit overrated but to me they're comfortably the best team in the league on the evidence so far. They have conceded just four tries in five games, three of those four came from kicks and two of the three came from flukey deflections. They didn't play very well against a very commited Dewsbury team yesterday but still managed a win from an impossible-looking position in conditions that always prove a big leveller - they made very heavy weather of beating Siddal in the Cup in the mud a couple of years and only drew at Barrow in another mudbath last year. They will probably lose somewhere along the line but I'll be surprised if they don't finish top with a bit to spare, though whether they blow it in the play-offs as they did last year remains to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Tonks Sidestep Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 2 hours ago, saddleworth said: Bad example,LTS. More negative thoughts, ie: "no one really expected us to win over there, being a step ahead along with Toronto". From what I saw of Toronto against the Rams, definitely overrated on this performance. Exceptional fitness, as to be expected, pulled them through. For goodness sake get into their ribs and yes, give away a penalty or two, but at least let them know you are there. How would the team react if our fans had stayed away due to them "not really being expected to win". If only I had £5 for every game I've been to that I've not expected us to win....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Horseman Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 On 3/4/2019 at 8:14 AM, Michael Bates said: The second incredibly poor first 20 minutes of the season. Against Batley it didn't cost us, today it put us out of the game. Surely the coaching staff and players were aware Widnes would be fired up and shoot out of the blocks, we looked like we were still in bed. I think we gave up as soon as Watson made the error on the first tackle. Very disappointing. I've said it on a couple of occasions we're very slow when we try to pass the ball around, the majority of our tries are close range barges over the line, we didn't break the line at all in the first half yesterday. After some discussion of where Tom Holmes fits in the side, I think he walks in wherever he wants to. On an artificial pitch the defensive line speed really needs to be sharp but ours wasn't, watching the game on RoversTV the ball carrier seemed to have bags of room for most of the game and if the initial contact isn't until he's taken seven or eight strides downfield then he is going to win most of the collisions and get on the front foot. We couldn't get the ball in those early stages, by the time the score was 22-0 we had only had one set. The whole thing reminded me very much of when we got hammered at Widnes in the 8s a couple of years ago, they didn't seem to be doing anything special but scored with ease. Agree that we lack fluency in attack and there seemed to be misunderstandings between Ase Boas and his colleagues on a few occasions on Sunday. Bussey (who again was a good summariser and didn't sugar coat anything) commented about the need to take the ball forward before passing to hold the defence and that seems to be a weakness in Ase's game. I had thought he was steadily improving prior to that game but it's not hard to see Holmes as a significant upgrade when he's fit. Not many positives, Dan Smith was great and played for 80 minutes (Lockwood is our skipper but went off after 25 mins and didn't return until about 15 minutes into the second half). Coops brought a bit of energy and Turner went well again but that was about it. Widnes are clearly still a very good team if they can hang on to most of their players, they put 40 past Halifax and scored 36 at Toulouse, I can only see Toronto beating them at their place. We need to bounce back and show that we're still a candidate for the top 5, there probably isn't a huge amount between six or seven sides outside the likely top two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Phantom Horseman Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 Talking of half backs, we seem to be facing some of our old ones on an almost weekly basis. Brambani 4 weeks ago, Ridyard 3 weeks ago, Craven last week, Thackeray coming up this week...then later this month not only will we face Paul Sykes at Dewsbury but possibly also Liam Finn, who has just signed for the Rams from Newcastle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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