Sat 25th-Sun 26th Mar: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[kiggy]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I watched the Bradford v Sheffield game, Sheffield gave themselves no chance with far too many errors and penalties in the first half, I didn't think it was down to feeble tackling.

Maybe Toulouse were just worn down by Sheffield as I haven't seen the full game, maybe playing 2 games in a row on an artificial pitch took its toll, but in isolation it looks like at least 4 or 5 of the 6 tries they conceded were from desperately weak defence, certainly I don't remember them defending that poorly during their previous stints in the Championship.

 

I noted that Anthony Guidez got his first game for the seniors. Another tick in the "playing the young kids" box, missing the 3 regularly wingers, Laguerre, Schaumkel and Armitage means they will have to rely on these youngsters stepping up.

[The Blues Ox]

18 hours ago, Ragingbull said:

At least we didnt lose to a winless team at the bottom of the league. 

This actually is quite funny that you mention that as I also saw some Fax fans taking solace in the fact that Bradford got absolutley played off the park by a team that seems to have struggled with the transition to the Championship. Me personally though I'm not really fussed by the Bradford result as Ive not really considered them a main rival for a number of years now and were hoping this could be the year that changed with the huge shift in culture that has happened so far this season at bradford. 

18 hours ago, RSN said:

Barrows team on paper has massively underperformed this year and unfortunately Fax copped us actually putting a performance together. 

It didn't look like a top end team performing poorly giving a bottom end team a sniff. Halifax completed well but our pack (which has been poor yet is one of the better packs in the league) actually stood up and allowed us a foot hold in the game. 

If Barrow start completing better and build confidence we will make our way up the table. 

 

Yeah I agree Barrow are in a totally false position and won't be near there come the end of the season and its obviously a good win for them. The problem that I see with the Fax performance is the strange team selection which I think showed disrespect to Barrow and again much like the story of our season failing to show that killer instinct and bombing 3 tries that could have put the game beyond Barrow by half time. It's not the first time its happened and we did very much the same against Sheffield and London at home and could easily have lost those games as well. I think too many of our players are coasting at the moment. Again though its very little damage done and much the same as the Widnes defeat, plenty of our rivals could go to either place and lose so its really not a big deal and there is possibly a big over reaction by a lot of Fax fans but can see where they are coming from regards the performances so far.

[Griff]

2 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I watched the Bradford v Sheffield game, Sheffield gave themselves no chance with far too many errors and penalties in the first half, I didn't think it was down to feeble tackling.

Maybe Toulouse were just worn down by Sheffield as I haven't seen the full game, maybe playing 2 games in a row on an artificial pitch took its toll, but in isolation it looks like at least 4 or 5 of the 6 tries they conceded were from desperately weak defence, certainly I don't remember them defending that poorly during their previous stints in the Championship.

 

Interesting view.  First half penalties and errors were pretty even. Having said that, I wouldn't deny that Bradford were the better side in the first half.  They clearly were.

Toulouse will be OK. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Griff said:

Interesting view.  First half penalties and errors were pretty even. Having said that, I wouldn't deny that Bradford were the better side in the first half.  They clearly were.

Toulouse will be OK. 

Tubbs said after the Bradford game that the Bulls completed 15 of 18 sets in the first half and Sheffield 5 from 10 which seemed to me to back up what i'd seen, though I hadn't kept count.

You're probably right that Toulouse will be ok but I get the impression for now they are happy being just okay and relying on getting back into SL by ticking enough IMG boxes.

[Griff]

20 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Tubbs said after the Bradford game that the Bulls completed 15 of 18 sets in the first half and Sheffield 5 from 10 which seemed to me to back up what i'd seen, though I hadn't kept count.

You're probably right that Toulouse will be ok but I get the impression for now they are happy being just okay and relying on getting back into SL by ticking enough IMG boxes.

Sure. I was thinking about the 18 and the 10 and the number of back to back sets, a result of not just errors but penalties, set restarts and having to kick off a lot. But everyone has a view and my view doesn't invalidate yours.

[tim2]

Meanwhile, on Fev's increasingly hallucinagenic Twitter account

 

[Griff]

1 hour ago, tim2 said:

Meanwhile, on Fev's increasingly hallucinagenic Twitter account

 

Is that their next home game ?

[tim2]

40 minutes ago, Griff said:

Is that their next home game ?

Not sure, there are only 2 league rounds before the Fev-Sheff game!

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 hours ago, tim2 said:

Meanwhile, on Fev's increasingly hallucinagenic Twitter account

 

Whether or not you find it amusing, it's probably more smart than hallucinagenic. The club's two previous tweets prior to this are currently sitting at around 1,500 and 1,700 views respectively, whilst this was published two hours later and is already sitting on 11.5k views.

With 1.5 points available from IMG for digital, including 0.6 points just for total engagements, maybe they're not on the magic mushrooms after all.

[tim2]

4 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Whether or not you find it amusing, it's probably more smart than hallucinagenic. The club's two previous tweets prior to this are currently sitting at around 1,500 and 1,700 views respectively, whilst this was published two hours later and is already sitting on 11.5k views.

With 1.5 points available from IMG for digital, including 0.6 points just for total engagements, maybe they're not on the magic mushrooms after all.

I haven't worked out if this is brilliant or cringemaking, but it's certainly weird. If IMG are driving "engagement", they'd better be prepared for more of this kind of thing.

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 minutes ago, tim2 said:

I haven't worked out if this is brilliant or cringemaking, but it's certainly weird. If IMG are driving "engagement", they'd better be prepared for more of this kind of thing.

I think most teams will go clickbait-tastic when they catch on that getting maximum points for digital and engagement is the equivalent of averaging half a dozen places higher in the league table.*

"Check out our 'players' wives in swimsuits' feature - you won't believe how skimpy some of them are!"

*obviously a wild guess as we don't really know the details

[Tommygilf]

52 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Whether or not you find it amusing, it's probably more smart than hallucinagenic. The club's two previous tweets prior to this are currently sitting at around 1,500 and 1,700 views respectively, whilst this was published two hours later and is already sitting on 11.5k views.

With 1.5 points available from IMG for digital, including 0.6 points just for total engagements, maybe they're not on the magic mushrooms after all.

Agreed

[Daft old hooker]

2 hours ago, Griff said:

Is that their next home game ?

Yes Sheffield are Fev’s next home game 

[gazza77]

59 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think most teams will go clickbait-tastic when they catch on that getting maximum points for digital and engagement is the equivalent of averaging half a dozen places higher in the league table.*

"Check out our 'players' wives in swimsuits' feature - you won't believe how skimpy some of them are!"

*obviously a wild guess as we don't really know the details

You've already seen the next SARL article I take it?

Edited March 28, 2023 by gazza77
Typo

[The Phantom Horseman]

3 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

You've already seen the next SARL article I take it?

SARL have provided so much discussion/ridicule on social media that based on their IMG points they are currently forecast to be one of the 12 SL clubs in 2025.

[Griff]

21 minutes ago, Daft old hooker said:

Yes Sheffield are Fev’s next home game 

Ehhhh - if only they had a cup tie or summat to fill the void.

[Daft old hooker]

47 minutes ago, Griff said:

Ehhhh - if only they had a cup tie or summat to fill the void.

It’s ok gives us chance to rest some injured players, sounds like Mark K is hoping to be back around the Sheffield game. Also will save me some brass instead of all these expensive finals days