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Match thread: Championship Rd1. York v Featherstone Rovers. Monday 31st January 2022.


marklaspalmas

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  We always looked in control and it was a good work out.All the forwards put a shift in but Bussey was stand out with Locky,Morgan Smith and Davies showing up well.Jones gives that quick go forward when he came on something that despite his hard work Wildie dosn't have.Pickersgill showed  how to join the attacking line at the right time and was good ,something we lacked with Walker.Both tries York scored were poor defence on our part and we will have to be more clinical against Leigh.Hall's kicking was very good but i thought apart from a couple of breaks he only had a so so game in the centre.Holmes will have a sore backside this season from sitting on the bench if he does not improve on that display.Thompson was stand out forward for York and i would love him in our pack.As for Jessies injury he was carrying the ball loosley and good last ditch defence forced it out.Although the pitch marking were a disgrace more lines than i used to get in detention when at school.Looking forward to Leigh and if we improve 30% + we will win.

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7 minutes ago, POR said:

WHAT about the TACKLE? 😲

 

Tremendous he turned him at right angles.Thought Morgan had a very good game.9 seems to be his position though as he does lack a bit of pace for the halves.However i think he does have a better go forward than Wildie,hope Chizzy is back for the Leigh game.

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A few random thoughts...

We didn't look as disjointed in attack as we had at times in our two friendlies, perhaps partly down to playing Championship opposition rather than SL but also I thought Pickersgill looked slick chiming into the attacking line. he also cleaned up very well defensively from kicks, a really good start from him. We know his perceived weak area is tackling and he might need more of that next week.

I think Wildie is perhaps more suited to be a "starting nine" than our two hookers from last year, both Parata and Jones are great guys to have as impact players off the bench against tiring defences. Wildie is less flashy than either but he's very solid defensively and organises well. Fifty minutes of Wildie and then 30 of Jones each week could be a very good combo and also only uses 1 interchange.

I've already mentioned Bussey but once again he showed that for such a solidly-built player he's able to play big minutes, think he was on for about an hour before he finally came off. With Kopczak out he's going to be a vital player for us, I really think he's under-rated. He scores tries, he defends well, he passes well, and he's so hard to bring to the ground in the tackle which means he gets lots of quick play-the-balls.

Every time you think Lockwood might be reaching the end of the line he comes back to confound you, another captain's knock from him last night and his development as a ball handler near the opposition line has been amazing, if you'd said two or three years ago that he would be racking up the try assists people would have laughed but it's happened time after time over the last year or so.

McDermott faces some tough decisions notably at half back. Will he bring Chissy back next week and if so who does he drop? Holmes again wasn't at his best in the first half with two attacking kicks that went out on the full (though he did create a goal line drop out with one excellent kick and chase), but he went better in the second half and we looked good down that left hand side. Smith played very well though and I'd say he might just edge it, especially as Chisholm's preferred position is on the left hand side.

McDermott has options as to who to replace Jesse with on the right edge. Johnny D is one obvious option, Helliwell is another, but there's also the option of playing Leilua there, either inside or outside Hardy.

Gaz Gale obviously had a scratchy day, dropping two kicks. He's normally better than that under the high ball and hopefully his team mates will rally round him and he'll bounce back.

On to next week, I'd say from yesterday's performance that we will be too strong for most Championship teams again this year but how good Leigh are we'll find out next week!

 

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4 hours ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  We always looked in control and it was a good work out.All the forwards put a shift in but Bussey was stand out with Locky,Morgan Smith and Davies showing up well.Jones gives that quick go forward when he came on something that despite his hard work Wildie dosn't have.Pickersgill showed  how to join the attacking line at the right time and was good ,something we lacked with Walker.Both tries York scored were poor defence on our part and we will have to be more clinical against Leigh.Hall's kicking was very good but i thought apart from a couple of breaks he only had a so so game in the centre.Holmes will have a sore backside this season from sitting on the bench if he does not improve on that display.Thompson was stand out forward for York and i would love him in our pack.As for Jessies injury he was carrying the ball loosley and good last ditch defence forced it out.Although the pitch marking were a disgrace more lines than i used to get in detention when at school.Looking forward to Leigh and if we improve 30% + we will win.

I agree especially about the pitch marking.

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Great performance and that smith tackle brought back great memories of the 1983 cup semi final at leeds against bradford when my all time favourite rovers player peter smith did a brilliant tackle right next to our line to defy bradford a try as the commentator referred to him scything him down if my memory serves me right. Ellery Hanley eat your heart out UTR

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2 minutes ago, eltel said:

Great performance and that smith tackle brought back great memories of the 1983 cup semi final at leeds against bradford when my all time favourite rovers player peter smith did a brilliant tackle right next to our line to defy bradford a try as the commentator referred to him scything him down if my memory serves me right. Ellery Hanley eat your heart out UTR

Morgan's Grandad to boot ( pardon the pun lol).

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48 minutes ago, lingaro said:

You don't isgn the world best centre and play him in the second row. 

Leaving aside the fanciful "world's best centre" stuff, a return to the position where he played as a junior has been mooted for some time, and was something that was on the radar as a possibility when we signed him.


https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/nrl/joey-leilua-makes-a-bid-to-move-from-centre-to-second-row/news-story/fe36931c96c649751d7391a0fb21a350

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16 minutes ago, haskey said:

If he will do us a job in the second row,  why not.

Because even without kopps and jsl we still have 12 forwards and two hookers more than enough for 6 starters ad 4 subs

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43 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think and hope Joey will be fantastic for us and he's an amazing signing, but do you seriously believe that he's the best centre in the world right now?

I really don't care but he's probably the best centre in FEV and that's all that matters 🤣

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My words FWTAW.  If York are going to be one of the top teams in our division, well I can only say that it's a sad indication of how our division is. They were truly awful. You have to take your hats off to York fans if they can get that enthused over that 'Isle of Wight' week in week out, then they have stronger constitutions than I. 

We were average last night in the first half and maybe 70% after the break. Had Morgan not made that terrific tackle the game could have possibly been oh so different, we got a pen and scored after that tackle, although the opposition as mentioned were 'Jimmy White' IMHO. 

 

We need another prop, because Kopsczak is a huge miss, Choo Choo is a brilliant lad and Locky has stepped up like he did v Cas all those years ago but they need more bif as back up. 

Does anyone know why Ferres wasn't playing, someone said Covid but he was commentating on radio. 

Gaz G was great last year but struggled last night, hopefully only a blip.

Briscoe got one touch in an attacking position and scored. The right hand side flank was starved of the ball, 2 of the 3 times it received it we scored, the other time Smith threw into touch. 

Bussey was immense, what a servant this lad has been, he's still only 28 ish , so looking at the current squad he's still between 8 to 18 years left. 

Hally brilliant, after getting his mandatory pass to the linesman out of the way. 

Smith good, Holmesy struggling a bit. 

Pickersgill okay but the facsimile of Walker and previously Mendieta if people remember him. 

Jones made some good incisions from dummy half as did Davies and I personally thought that they were the major part of the momentum shift our way. 

Moors quiet game but potential and suspect dislocation injury to JSL which if true could be at least 2 weeks. 

Josh H steady at centre. 

Decent performance overall and a win is a win, but our boys will have to raise the game v Leigh as they will be an echelon higher than York. 

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Andrew Vause said:

Pickersgill okay but the facsimile of Walker and previously Mendieta if people remember him. 

Yep remember him Andrew.  I think he played for Valencia in the Champions League Semi v Leeds.  Someone with a similar name played for us a few years back lol....... (Actually I thought he had potential - shame it didnt work out.....)

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8 hours ago, RobLambert said:

Yep remember him Andrew.  I think he played for Valencia in the Champions League Semi v Leeds.  Someone with a similar name played for us a few years back lol....... (Actually I thought he had potential - shame it didnt work out.....)

THINK that was french scrum half Rémy Marginet who played for us  around 14 /15 and i think he scored   a few tries and kicked some goals

9 hours ago, Andrew Vause said:

We need another prop, because Kopsczak is a huge miss, Choo Choo is a brilliant lad and Locky has stepped up like he did v Cas all those years ago but they need more bif as back up. 

DON'T forget AV we got the aussie prop 6' 2'' Ben Mathiou who's supposed to be flying in this week

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27 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

The original post was about James Mendeika, who like Pickersgill and Walker was a skinny full back (or centre) who played for us in the Andy Hay era.

I realised that PH  after I posted but didn't bother changing it cos I really liked Remy🤣

Talking of james M  PH didn't he score a boat load of tries❓

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10 hours ago, Andrew Vause said:

My words FWTAW.

 

Good post and agree with most of the above, a couple of  comments...


I thought we deserve a bit of credit for making York look poor with our energy and physicality especially in defence, time and time again York were driven backwards in the tackle after the first impact. Although a big part of York's problems stemmed from the fact that they only had one recognised half back (and he's not the most mobile), they weren't able to muster enough go-forward for half backs to play off anyway. They had a big pack but they didn't "play" big and I thought we did an excellent job of neutralising the likes of Pauli Pauli (who we gang tackled every time) and Matongo.

Lockwood had a breather for the last ten minutes of the first half and the first seven minutes of the second half, and whether by coincidence or not the time when he was off the field was probably our wobbliest spell. We had Trout and Field as our middles at that time (along with Bussey who was terrific but had been on the field for a long time) and as you suggest we lose something when we don't have at least 2 of our best three middles on the field (Kopczak, Bussey and Lockwood).

Connor Jones came on when the game was won at 24-6 and I like the idea of using him like this against tired rivals, as I mentioned earlier in this thread. In the first half of last year everyone raved about Parata as he used to come on in the second half after Jones had played in the first half, and I suspect Wildie will do the donkey work this year before Jones comes on to exploit the gaps.

Pickersgill is very skinny isn't he, I think he's a bit more incisive in the way he links up in attack than either Walker or Mendeika though and I would imagine he was cherry-picked by our current team manager/assistant coach whose knowledge of the full back position is beyond doubt.

I don't know the answer to your Ferres question but it's possible he could have had Covid a little earlier but still been at the game, Connor Jones was present at the Wakefield friendly for instance. How Ferres is used this season remains an interesting question as he has played both middle and edge  this year in the friendlies.

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