15 Mar: SL: Castleford Tigers v St Helens KO 3.30pm

[Adelaide Tiger]

Just watched the game.  Cracking performance from Cas.

Enjoyed watching the build up with Kammy especially when they caught him out by asking him to comment on the try.

Kammy, the only bloke who’ s enthusiasm could make an RU game rise to the level of mediocre

[Saint Toppy]

14 hours ago, snapski said:

We were steady, but not ruthless. Saints just niggly. That’s not the coach, its the players and their attitudes. 

No that's the coach.

I said on here a few weeks ago that if Woolf continues down the path he is then he wont be here long term. He's going down the Cunningham route of a forward domination tactic and has brought in NRL style tactics of trying to wrestle too much.

Its resulting in the forwards doing the vast majority of the work leaving them knackered in the 2nd half of games, while the backs are hardly getting a sniff of the ball, and when they do its not off the back of the forwards having laid a good platform going forward in yardage. Its also resulted in them conceding a lot more penalties, leaving them a lot more defending to do in their own half.

McManus isn't a chairman to make knee-jerk reactions so I can't see a mid-season sacking, but if this type of performance continues all year then I doubt Woolf will be here in 2021

[snapski]

1 hour ago, Saint Toppy said:

No that's the coach.

I said on here a few weeks ago that if Woolf continues down the path he is then he wont be here long term. He's going down the Cunningham route of a forward domination tactic and has brought in NRL style tactics of trying to wrestle too much.

Its resulting in the forwards doing the vast majority of the work leaving them knackered in the 2nd half of games, while the backs are hardly getting a sniff of the ball, and when they do its not off the back of the forwards having laid a good platform going forward in yardage. Its also resulted in them conceding a lot more penalties, leaving them a lot more defending to do in their own half.

McManus isn't a chairman to make knee-jerk reactions so I can't see a mid-season sacking, but if this type of performance continues all year then I doubt Woolf will be here in 2021

Fair comment. You see much more of Saints than I do. 

[Old Frightful]

11 hours ago, snapski said:

Fair comment. You see much more of Saints than I do. 

Perhaps you should have stood behind the posts yesterday.

[Chris22]

On 15/03/2020 at 19:06, hullste said:

Saints deservedly well beat but I don't think either sin bins were correct. Both Cas players stayed down to make it look worse than it was and yet were absolutely fine to carry on, Lees was also clearly off the shoulder and into the head whereas Makinson caught a high shot flush in the head from Milner yet got straight up. I think the reaction of the injured?? players influenced the refs decision. 

I've thought about this too. Whilst Roby and Lomax (our captain and vice) are both fantastic, neither of them legitimately questioned the referee yesterday.

The second LMS was sin-binned, I would have expected Lomax to ask why McMeeken wasn't sin-binned for a trip on Grace just a minute earlier. I also would have expected him to ask why Milner wasn't sin binned for a high shot on Makinson in the first half (and later why Richardson wasn't sin-binned for a high shot).

He should, as you say, have suggested it was because our players got straight back up and didn't make a fuss, and the Castleford players stayed down. I'm not suggesting he should have acted aggressively, nor even that any of the above is true, but there was an opportunity to apply pressure and we missed out.

Whilst our captain and vice captain are absolutely critical to the team and I wouldn't swap them for the world, it's where having someone like LMS or Walmsley, a more confident, confrontational character to speak with the ref would help. 

[Barry Badrinath]

10 hours ago, Chris22 said:

I've thought about this too. Whilst Roby and Lomax (our captain and vice) are both fantastic, neither of them legitimately questioned the referee yesterday.

The second LMS was sin-binned, I would have expected Lomax to ask why McMeeken wasn't sin-binned for a trip on Grace just a minute earlier. I also would have expected him to ask why Milner wasn't sin binned for a high shot on Makinson in the first half (and later why Richardson wasn't sin-binned for a high shot).

He should, as you say, have suggested it was because our players got straight back up and didn't make a fuss, and the Castleford players stayed down. I'm not suggesting he should have acted aggressively, nor even that any of the above is true, but there was an opportunity to apply pressure and we missed out.

Whilst our captain and vice captain are absolutely critical to the team and I wouldn't swap them for the world, it's where having someone like LMS or Walmsley, a more confident, confrontational character to speak with the ref would help. 

The ref probably would have replied, well I should have penalised you for the high tackle on Richardson in the first ten minutes, or the high tackle on trueman, also coincidentally within the first ten minutes.

 

Sometimes you get them sometimes you dont, but regardless of the cas players staying down, matty Lees running in recklessly (and high tackling a fullback on a kick) isnt a new thing, it's his whole MO, and lms can have no complaints, he made no attempt to tackle to kicker, he was just trying to strike him and went too high.