27 Jul: CCSF2: St Helens v Halifax KO 4.30pm (BBC)

[Harry Stottle]

42 minutes ago, yipyee said:

What job does Grix do?

 Not a clue, I should imagine you are posing that question to tell me he only plays rugby league, if you want to be so pedantic what do the other 16 team members from yesterday do apart from their RL part time jobs?

[GUBRATS]

13 hours ago, Bod said:

Sadly for most I know it's the travel cost that stops them attending the final.

Generally under 40 quid for a coach seat to Wembley , not a cheap day for a full family , but still not a fortune 

[Phil]

4 hours ago, yipyee said:

He had his hand on the ball with downward pressure before he lost control? 

The ref talked through what he saw...

It hardly made a difference to the scoreline

As a Fax fan I thought it could have been called either way and I would have accepted it 

[dkw]

6 minutes ago, Phil said:

As a Fax fan I thought it could have been called either way and I would have accepted it 

I think that's it, it was a 50/50 call that went with the ref's call. I think he did let it go but probably got a touch as it hit the deck so can see why it was given but would equally have understood If it wasn't. 

[Bulliac]

Decisions come and decisions go but Fax, without getting the best of the calls, did the championship proud, imo. The view of the Saints staff, arms folded and frowning faces, just before half time, was the picture which spoke a thousand words. Well played.

[Trojan]

6 hours ago, yipyee said:

He had his hand on the ball with downward pressure before he lost control? 

The ref talked through what he saw...

It hardly made a difference to the scoreline

It made no difference to the scoreline  but he lost control of the ball before he grounded it.  'Fax gave a good account of themselves, but never looked like scoring a try.

[Phil]

6 minutes ago, Trojan said:

It made no difference to the scoreline  but he lost control of the ball before he grounded it.  'Fax gave a good account of themselves, but never looked like scoring a try.

Yeah, I would have liked to get over the line 

[henage]

Shame Halifax made more than a few mistakes with ball in hand during the 1st half . Enjoyed both games . Good atmosphere on TV 

[Lounge Room Lizard]

I thought he knocked on but the Match Officials thought otherwise. Thats the way Sport,not just Rugby League is. Decisions are made on the field by people who see things from a different viewpoint and under alot of pressure, especially from Fans and the media. I can understand in this instance on why a Try was awarded. I suggest people Ref a game and see how hard it is to make a decision on the run and under pressure. Match Officials are humans and will make mistakes just like players and Coaches etc make mistakes. But often when you look closely Match Officials are often correct in the decisions made. I thought the Officials yesterday had a good game and contributed to why I feel it was a good game to watch for most people. Well done the Match Officials.

What I liked about my team yesterday was that they played as a team and made a team work hard for the win. They gave 100% and thats all any fan can ask of players. I also liked how they tried different methods like short kickoffs and played open Rugby and not afraid to pass the ball around. No we didnt score a try, but I thought we was very creative compared to St.Helens. Maybe with a bit more composure and luck we could have grabbed one. We forced St.Helens to drop out on a couple of occassions for example.

[Lounge Room Lizard]

1 minute ago, Lounge Room Lizard said:

I thought he knocked on but the Match Officials thought otherwise. Thats the way Sport,not just Rugby League is. Decisions are made on the field by people who see things from a different viewpoint and under alot of pressure, especially from Fans and the media. I can understand in this instance on why a Try was awarded. I suggest people Ref a game and see how hard it is to make a decision on the run and under pressure. Match Officials are humans and will make mistakes just like players and Coaches etc make mistakes. But often when you look closely Match Officials are often correct in the decisions made. I thought the Officials yesterday had a good game and contributed to why I feel it was a good game to watch for most people. Well done the Match Officials.

What I liked about my team yesterday was that they played as a team and made a alleged far superior team in St.Helens, work hard for the win. They gave 100% and thats all any fan can ask of players. I also liked how they tried different methods like short kickoffs and played open Rugby and not afraid to pass the ball around. No we didnt score a try, but I thought we was very creative compared to St.Helens. Maybe with a bit more composure and luck we could have grabbed one. We forced St.Helens to drop out on a couple of occassions for example.

 

[The Blues Ox]

To hold the likely SL champions 2-2 after half an hour was an amazing effort and still be in the game after 60 was just as good. I never expected a performance like that and wish we could have performed somewhere near that in the league this season. On the ref I thought he had a great game and watching the game back looks like he got most things right. You will always have the 50/50's that can go either way but I thought he did a good job. The "controversial" Saints try I thought was just a try, the ball just hitting the turf before he lost control and I thought he controlled the speed of the game well in that it was probably not quite at the pace of a top level SL game but was quick enough that Fax had to raise their game to not concede penalty after penalty for slowing Saints down.

[Saint Toppy]

Fax can be really proud of their efforts in that game. While I don't think the overall result was ever in doubt as Fax never troubled the Saints line all game they made Saints work a lot harder for the win than most anticipated. Fax played well above where they have been playing week in week out and Saints were well below where they've been most of the year, but that's often the case in cup games regardless of the teams taking part.

Saints tried to play dry weather rugby in the 1st half, pushing the pass far too often. They changed tactics for the 2nd half and played up the middle, dominating Fax all over the field. While it didn't lead to the flood of points most expected due to a combination of Fax dogged defence and Saints continued errors, they were comfortably ahead. 

It was a fairly slow, scrappy game full of errors (from both teams) which really suited Fax. That combined with their total effort for the full 80mins kept it interesting.

In the end a win is a win and Saints have achieved their goal. They're maybe 1 win away from winning the hubcap (depending on Warrington's upcoming results), they've made the final of the CC and they're 80mins away from the GF. For Fax they can take great heart from that game and they could use that to really pressurize the teams above them for the rest of the Championship season 

[Futtocks]

I was on holiday while this was on and could only follow the semi-finals with occasional score updates.

So while I'm very late to the party, I'm watching the match right now (despite knowing the result).

Tremendous, gutsy performance by Halifax. Really enjoying the buzz.