Match thread: Championship Round 9: London v Featherstone. Sunday 16th April 2023.

[marklaspalmas]

7 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Just basing it on the number of mistakes I’ve seen in matches to be honest. Wouldn’t think training was relevant in working this out. It’s a limited sample with Evans, but I’d struggle to think he was worse under a high ball. I like Briscoe, always give 100%, finishes well, and takes it in hard, but too many handling errors. Any way, each to their own view on this, but obviously only Longies view really counts.

I'd pretty much agree with that, and add a couple more things. Firstly, Briscoe is a master at bringing the ball away from AHB for good yards and also winning the odd penalty. That's a big part of a winger's game.

It would be interesting to see a sprint off. Perhaps Evans has a yard of pace on both Briscoe and Gale?

[Monkeymagic22]

32 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

I'd pretty much agree with that, and add a couple more things. Firstly, Briscoe is a master at bringing the ball away from AHB for good yards and also winning the odd penalty. That's a big part of a winger's game.

It would be interesting to see a sprint off. Perhaps Evans has a yard of pace on both Briscoe and Gale?

Gale has been great this year, less mistakes and really stepped his form up a level. It’s definitely the No.1 winger at this stage.

[jamescolin]

Evans looked slow to me.

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

I'd pretty much agree with that, and add a couple more things. Firstly, Briscoe is a master at bringing the ball away from AHB for good yards and also winning the odd penalty. That's a big part of a winger's game.

It would be interesting to see a sprint off. Perhaps Evans has a yard of pace on both Briscoe and Gale?

I really hope Luke gets his confidence back soon,he's a good player and is going through a rough patch,who hasn't at work?

[sentoffagain2]

1 hour ago, jamescolin said:

Evans looked slow to me.

   James he pulled a muscle in his groin that's why he looked slow.He is quicker than Briscoe .

[The Phantom Horseman]

47 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

I really hope Luke gets his confidence back soon,he's a good player and is going through a rough patch,who hasn't at work?

I think it's a really difficult decision for the coaching team.

When he's on form, Luke's overall contribution is of a top-end Championship winger. He's not especially fast, but he finishes well, carries strongly in yardage and wins penalties.

He's had a mini-spate of errors lately and it's a tough decision whether you keep playing him in the hope he'll tough it out, or take the view that having depth means you should drop players when under-performing.

As mentioned above, Evans looked to be struggling with an injury in the last game which gives Luke the chance to earn his place back.

I think we have 3 good wings and I don't think it's easy choosing between them. Gaz has been in really good form and is probably our no 1 right now, having looked set to be no. 3 at the start of the season.

[Fevrover]

20 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think it's a really difficult decision for the coaching team.

When he's on form, Luke's overall contribution is of a top-end Championship winger. He's not especially fast, but he finishes well, carries strongly in yardage and wins penalties.

He's had a mini-spate of errors lately and it's a tough decision whether you keep playing him in the hope he'll tough it out, or take the view that having depth means you should drop players when under-performing.

As mentioned above, Evans looked to be struggling with an injury in the last game which gives Luke the chance to earn his place back.

I think we have 3 good wings and I don't think it's easy choosing between them. Gaz has been in really good form and is probably our no 1 right now, having looked set to be no. 3 at the start of the season.

Yeah agree but end of the day Longy will know how to handle him.

[sentoffagain2]

   I would pick Briscoe over Evans but after Luke made a few mistakes Sean did the right thing giving him a rest.He is a strong finisher near the line and probably better suited to Joeys flick passes.

[jamescolin]

2 hours ago, sentoffagain2 said:

   James he pulled a muscle in his groin that's why he looked slow.He is quicker than Briscoe .

That is answer that fits the situation I had observed. Cheers

[The Phantom Horseman]

Be interesting to see if Lacans plays, it's only last week that our head of medical was suggesting "in terms of a return we're looking early May." It certainly seems that hamstring injuries are amongst the most unpredictable in terms of recovery time, both Davies and Aekins returned much faster than had initially seemed likely.

[POR]

14 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Be interesting to see if Lacans plays, it's only last week that our head of medical was suggesting "in terms of a return we're looking early May." It certainly seems that hamstring injuries are amongst the most unpredictable in terms of recovery time, both Davies and Aekins returned much faster than had initially seemed likely.

 

I think when it comes to returning players medical staff quote the maximum time they think a player will be out rather than saying two weeks and it ends up being four so for me bringing lacans back into the fold would suggest he is fit to play but whether he does i guess will be down to SL

[The Phantom Horseman]

On 15/04/2023 at 10:42, The Phantom Horseman said:

Be interesting to see if Lacans plays, it's only last week that our head of medical was suggesting "in terms of a return we're looking early May." It certainly seems that hamstring injuries are amongst the most unpredictable in terms of recovery time, both Davies and Aekins returned much faster than had initially seemed likely.

No Lacans, Taylor and Moors still missing, and now Bussey joins the absentees. Real bare-bones stuff again this week, again, any win will do.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

19 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

No Lacans, Taylor and Moors still missing, and now Bussey joins the absentees. Real bare-bones stuff again this week, again, any win will do.

Moors announced as 18th man, so presumably fit to play?

Bussey pulled out this am due to illness according to Long.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Les Tonks Sidestep

[Monkeymagic22]

Any win will do today. Never think we as effective with Wildie in the half’s and Jones doing long stints. But get through this match and then we’ll have a few weeks to get some bodies back.

[The Phantom Horseman]

20-0 at half time. Solid display, Caleb Aekins has probably had his best game for the club. His 80m try owed a lot to some woeful tackling but he has played very well throughout.

Vete has actually gone ok in his spell so far.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

2 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

20-0 at half time. Solid display, Caleb Aekins has probably had his best game for the club. His 80m try owed a lot to some woeful tackling but he has played very well throughout.

Vete has actually gone ok in his spell so far.

22-0?

[Monkeymagic22]

32-0, much better than I thought it would be.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Solid 40-10 win. Fewer errors than in some of our recent games. Aekins clear man of the match for me. Joey played well until limping off, looked like his habitually sore hamstring (yet another one), hopefully nothing too serious.

[sentoffagain2]

   Yes a good win i had us winning by 26 .so 30 points is above that.Keighley supporters said Toulouse are the best team he has seen at their ground this season on yesterdays performance.I think our team is capable of beating them home and away.Wakey are a disgrace to Sl  0 points again for the 5th or 6th time but i am pleased for Leigh it shows with the right finance a promoted Championship team can perform better than the dead wood.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

22-0?

Oops!

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

3 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Oops!

I'd looked at the Beeb website....not that they ever get things wrong.

[elppaxr2i]

Thought we tackled well for majority & they offered little offensively but it was 2 poor tries to concede - another try conceded direct from a scrum too 

Aekins had his best game for me - only took 9 games to finally utilise him offensively like leigh did last year

We wouldve taken 40-10 pre match with our paper thin squad - 3 weeks off now to rest up and get some bodies back

Edited April 16, 2023 by elppaxr2i

[Wolfey Rovers]

Great win, now with much needed rest. Potentially having MK, ford, lacans, springer and Taylor by Sheffield! 

Hankinson hopefully isn't far off! 

[POR]

11 minutes ago, Wolfey Rovers said:

Hankinson hopefully isn't far off! 

It was posted on here 8 weeks this was week 8

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 hours ago, Wolfey Rovers said:

Hankinson hopefully isn't far off! 

 

1 hour ago, POR said:

It was posted on here 8 weeks this was week 8

The update from Aaron Scholes 10 days ago suggested it has been a slow process - "Chris hasn't been able to do a lot in the last few weeks as we try and let that heal, we need to make sure the spine's healed properly before we can try and get some load into him and get him back on the field", that sounds like he might still be some way off a return.