Toulouse this week.

[spanishknight]

BUMP down to earth with a bump

[Fax Knight]

Unfortunately we were second best today by a considerable amount. To a team with only 15 fit players. Forwards out-muscled and a clueless attack. Apart from the interception we never looked like scoring. Add in a host of stupid penalties and it resulted in a very poor afternoon. The team is not firing at all at present. 

[Peter G.]

That was so disappointing. I've said so many times over the years that its not the losing but how you lose. Our discipline was non existent at times but even this was overshadowed by our appalling end of sets.  We couldn't even boss a team who only had 15 players for most of the match and a half fit fullback.

A lot of sorting to do Fordy.

 

[Dog forever]

8 minutes ago, Peter G. said:

That was so disappointing. I've said so many times over the years that its not the losing but how you lose. Our discipline was non existent at times but even this was overshadowed by our appalling end of sets.  We couldn't even boss a team who only had 15 players for most of the match and a half fit fullback.

A lot of sorting to do Fordy.

 

Agree with everything you say there Peter G. Toulouse lost 2 of their halves really early on. York should have capitalised on that. Ends of sets were shocking.  Looked like a few X s/l players were just after another pay day, especially Cuthbertson. But having said that you beat a very poor London side and a mediocre eagles. There will be a lot of tough matches ahead, no easy games no more. I'm tipping fev to go up, they are a class act now.still think York will finish in top 6 tho.

[georgeb1]

A lot of very interesting comments on here tonight ,  I personally don't think we were that bad , Toulouse were a far superior team whose coach did a wonderful job of exploiting our weaknesses , hopefully James and the squad will learn an awful lot from this , a long way thankfully to go yet

[YCKonstantine]

1 minute ago, georgeb1 said:

A lot of very interesting comments on here tonight ,  I personally don't think we were that bad , Toulouse were a far superior team whose coach did a wonderful job of exploiting our weaknesses , hopefully James and the squad will learn an awful lot from this , a long way thankfully to go yet

Think your comment is the most interesting.

[Dog forever]

54 minutes ago, Shadow45 said:

Despite having "100's" of Super League appearances in the team, we are playing a very naive game. Too many errors, penalties and wrong choices. 

You have to appreciate that York are not a SL side. The x SL players are playing in the championship for a reason, because they are no longer sl standard.  If they were they would be in SL.  Simples.

[AB Knight]

That was as poor as I’ve seen York play since I started going to matches in 2016.

Tony Rea (can’t believe Sky don’t have him signed up) spoke a lot of sense about our last play which was awful and constantly passing wide where we were outmuscled each time. I don’t think we’ll get a better opportunity to beat TO - they were 2 players down, I think they’ve only had 1 warmup game and overall I thought the ref was very fair, certainly can’t say he favoured either team. Full credit to them as well, easy to say we were poor but TO are a very good team and I think they’d hold their own against the lower teams in SL.
 

But it’s a long season. Plenty of matches to go.

Positives: we ‘only’ conceded 21 points (expect to see TO put a hatful of points past teams this season). Defence on the whole has improved. Salter MOTM for me, and Porter is playing with so much more consistency this season. I just can’t help but feel we are missing a Cockayne, Murrell or Brough to help out in the halves and add some experience.

[DEANO]

Definitely no flair

[Puk]

Poor performance lacked pace ,one dimensional and discipline yet again poor have a lot to do if we are going to compete at the top end of the table

[RobertAM]

TOXIII do seem to have Yorks number. Sometimes you need a game like this to eliminate complacency so best its at the start of the season. Onwards and upwards

[RBKnight]

Disappointing performance - didn't expect TO's forwards (for whom Pellisier, Garbutt and Hansen were immense) to get on top of us as much as they did. As others have commented, we looked a little wooden ball in hand, and our last tackle options were poor.

[TheYoungBaron]

I'm a real Victor Meldrew and can moan for England. TO are a good side. They did York today. BUT I came away with more positives than negatives. I saw lads who have just started the season, took the ball in and are feeling bruised and battered. I thank them. I hate losing but it happens. Stroll on Friday against the pie eaters. Keep up the good work lads, we're behind you. UTK

[Clarence Street]

Poorest display for a long time from the Knights yet only lost 3 tries to 1. I'm  still trying to work that out.

[Stirlin]

Nikau blindingly throwing the ball over his head in the tackle a couple of times , yes he is a tough tackler and does make some yards but we are playing RL not basket ball , top games from Porter and Salter.

TO are a big powerfull unit and I thought at one point they would up a gear and put 30 points on us.

First league game 5 out of 10.

[Stirlin]

Fordy as honest as ever in his take on the game in York press.

[Fax Knight]

We really miss Cockayne and Horne - those two were the difference in a hell of a lot of tight games.  Need to get Brining and Stock fit again. 

[Stirlin]

21 minutes ago, Fax Knight said:

We really miss Cockayne and Horne - those two were the difference in a hell of a lot of tight games.  Need to get Brining and Stock fit again. 

Seconded , remember Fordy saying after we played Bulls when Chisholm was still there that Ben was all over Chisholm and never let him breathe.....'' Chisholm will be having nightmares about Ben ''  he would probably have done a similar number on J Ford , Horne was pure class and is sorely missed.

[spanishknight]

Also missing R, Dixon and S, Scott half a pack missing.

[Peter G.]

12 hours ago, Clarence Street said:

Poorest display for a long time from the Knights yet only lost 3 tries to 1. I'm  still trying to work that out.

Know what you mean John. The way we performed overall with all the errors and the brainfarts made it look as if it was a more comprehensive defeat. Yet if we had cut some of those out and attacked better we might have just scored a couple more tries and had our usual close game against Toulouse. Still beaten by a stronger side but closer. A lot of ifs and buts that Fordy will be working on.

A final thought about our misfiring attack. Against Hull and Sheffield Brendan bossed it and put in man of the match performances. Since the introduction of Cuthbo we seem to have gone through him a lot and Brendan has been quieter. Cuthbo is going to bring a lot to the team this season but maybe some things need sorting in this area. Just a thought.

[andyacko]

Plenty of talk about TO being two players down.

I'd argue they were not as important as the two we lost to injury, Kirmond and Baldwinson plus O'Hagan picked up an injury fielding a bomb on his own line when Jonathan Ford clattered him. And that contributed to him being 'quieter'.

That said, TO's bench players were superb - the energy particularly Puesch and Garbutt put in and the sheer fizz of Pelissier turned the game back their way as they were definitely rattled after 25 minutes.

And.. the amount of poor last play options, handling errors and penalties conceded contrived to take the game away from the Knights.

 In all honesty would have preferred Barcoe on the bench, but that's easily said with hindsight.

 

[georgeb1]

2 hours ago, andyacko said:

Plenty of talk about TO being two players down.

I'd argue they were not as important as the two we lost to injury, Kirmond and Baldwinson plus O'Hagan picked up an injury fielding a bomb on his own line when Jonathan Ford clattered him. And that contributed to him being 'quieter'.

That said, TO's bench players were superb - the energy particularly Puesch and Garbutt put in and the sheer fizz of Pelissier turned the game back their way as they were definitely rattled after 25 minutes.

And.. the amount of poor last play options, handling errors and penalties conceded contrived to take the game away from the Knights.

 In all honesty would have preferred Barcoe on the bench, but that's easily said with hindsight.

 

interesting that one andy , i felt thatwhen washy spelled with jubby we looked at our best . each to their own eh .

[Clarence Street]

On 04/04/2021 at 12:00, Peter G. said:

Know what you mean John. The way we performed overall with all the errors and the brainfarts made it look as if it was a more comprehensive defeat. Yet if we had cut some of those out and attacked better we might have just scored a couple more tries and had our usual close game against Toulouse. Still beaten by a stronger side but closer. A lot of ifs and buts that Fordy will be working on.

A final thought about our misfiring attack. Against Hull and Sheffield Brendan bossed it and put in man of the match performances. Since the introduction of Cuthbo we seem to have gone through him a lot and Brendan has been quieter. Cuthbo is going to bring a lot to the team this season but maybe some things need sorting in this area. Just a thought.

I agree with everything you've said there Peter but would just like to add our defence must have been really something to only concede 3tries after giving as much ball and territory away as we did. Set completions of 50 odd each half!!! I've never heard of that before! You're not going to beat anyone with those kind of figures never mind Toulouse. 

[Toby The Tram]

Took a couple of days to think about this but I'm not too worried still. 

We lost to the better side, especially once Garbutt came on for them. They're full time as well and will put more points on other sides than they did on us this season. 

Defensively I think we are sound. Listened to a podcast with BOH last week who said they've done more defensive work than attacking work in training. That clearly showed. We lacked forward movement and as Rea said, we went sideways far too many times rather than trying to make a bit of ground and getting some fast play the ball action. This is where I think we missed Brining big time. His fresh legs at the PTB really do sometimes give us the extra metres we need and put the defenders on the back foot, Toulouse rarely looked disorganised that game. 

Too many wrong decisions in attacking play also as well as too many penalties given away again. I'm sure these will be cut down over time.

To lose by 15 to Toulouse I'll take at this early stage. Sheffield Eagles in just over a week will give us a bigger picture on what needs to be done and where we are at. Christ I'd love to have Jonathon Ford in our team though. 

Much easier fixture this Friday, should allow us to put some points on the board. I've no doubt we'll be play offs come the end of the season still. 

As a side note, anyone else notice we are 2nd bottom, behind London Broncos in the table despite us having a better points difference? Attacking play could come down to it after all if the RFL are using their formulas to decide the league

[Stirlin]

 The percentage formula is being discussed elsewhere on the site but I can't be 'rsed to find it .