Match thread: Championship Round 11: Widnes v Featherstone. Sunday 14th May 2023.

[elppaxr2i]

Yeah hes got a good offload on him from that showing however missed an easy one on one tackle when widnes made a rare break that led to bussey getting binned but that will probably be a lack of match sharpness / fitness 

Think he will be a destructive player running onto a quick ball from a few yards out, hope we try and utilise that when the opportunity presents itself

Said it would be a stroll for us at the start of this topic and a stroll it was - think Lockwood made more metres than any of the Widnes forwards put together & he only played 30 mins if that 

I know theyve no HBs but that was a really poor showing 

But onwards & upwards, 11/11 and a clean sheet - nice week off now before the bash 

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by elppaxr2i

[Phil Briscoe]

Do we see Hau as a middle or back rower? 

[sentoffagain2]

14 minutes ago, Phil Briscoe said:

Do we see Hau as a middle or back rower? 

  I would think back row his offload may do more damage playing on the edge.

[lingaro]

Centre

[RobLambert]

Koppy on commentary seemed to think back row.  Sounded like he has an offload game.  I'm liking the headband look as well.  Just needs a moustache for the full 80's look.  

[bigbaldnmad]

Very interesting listening to the full post match interview with Longy. Suggesting that Hankinson, Ford and possibly Killer may all be ready for the summer bash. Looks like there are going to be some selection headaches.

[Rovers fev]

7 hours ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Very interesting listening to the full post match interview with Longy. Suggesting that Hankinson, Ford and possibly Killer may all be ready for the summer bash. Looks like there are going to be some selection headaches.

Good news about all of them really looking forward to hankinson being back having him and hardy at centre defensively our best option 

[Wolfey Rovers]

Hank will definitely sure up our defences where we have been leaking points 

[POR]

True  about Chris H defence but I'm more interested in his ball in hand and his ability to hurt the opposition

Edited May 15, 2023 by POR

[POR]

9 hours ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Very interesting listening to the full post match interview with Longy. Suggesting that Hankinson, Ford and possibly Killer may all be ready for the summer bash. Looks like there are going to be some selection headaches.

All good news but the big question is where's killer going to play? 

But I thought  the best part was when he said our new lad holds the ball like a grape

[Michael Bates]

Hankinson and Ford walk straight back in as soon as they're fit. Kheirallah is a more interesting one. Could fill in across the backs, in the halves or at 9 for me.

[Monkeymagic22]

59 minutes ago, Michael Bates said:

Hankinson and Ford walk straight back in as soon as they're fit. Kheirallah is a more interesting one. Could fill in across the backs, in the halves or at 9 for me.

Kheirrallah, was quality for us before he got injured, but he isn’t likely to displace Aikens at fullback. If he’s back how good he is we before, he’s a match winner though, and surely has to be in the team. Maybe him and Ford at halfback?. It’s certainly a tough one.

[The Phantom Horseman]

18 hours ago, Rovers fev said:

How did arama hau go ?

He looked a bit shakey defensively at times but shaped quite well going forward and i think made 3 offloads including the one for the try.

The performance needs to be kept in context, Widnes were missing Gilmore, Amor, Lawton, Craven, Grady, Brown and Bent, that's a fair chunk of their team missing, then they lost 4 HIAs by half time. We had quite a few missing too of course but have much more strength in depth. However it was still a good performance to ensure they never looked like scoring a try and you could see by the celebrations by some of our players when the hooter went that the zero really mattered to them.

Quite amusing on the Widnes forum with one or two (not all) of their fans suggesting the 4 HIAs can't have been coincidence and must have been down to "dark tactics" from us. One of the HIAs looked to come from a clash of heads, one came from a fantastic textbook tackle by Day and Lacans, and Hatton's HIA came after he launched himself head first at Dean's legs when Dean jumped in the air to catch an errant offload.

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

He looked a bit shakey defensively at times but shaped quite well going forward and i think made 3 offloads including the one for the try.

The performance needs to be kept in context, Widnes were missing Gilmore, Amor, Lawton, Craven, Grady, Brown and Bent, that's a fair chunk of their team missing, then they lost 4 HIAs by half time. We had quite a few missing too of course but have much more strength in depth. However it was still a good performance to ensure they never looked like scoring a try and you could see by the celebrations by some of our players when the hooter went that the zero really mattered to them.

Quite amusing on the Widnes forum with one or two (not all) of their fans suggesting the 4 HIAs can't have been coincidence and must have been down to "dark tactics" from us. One of the HIAs looked to come from a clash of heads, one came from a fantastic textbook tackle by Day and Lacans, and Hatton's HIA came after he launched himself head first at Dean's legs when Dean jumped in the air to catch an errant offload.

Let's hope Griff reads this then,he's implying the 4 hia's were because we were dirty.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 minute ago, Fevrover said:

Let's hope Griff reads this then,he's implying the 4 hia's were because we were dirty.

Just replied to him, can't beat having a "debate" with the entire online Sheffield Eagles fanbase

[Fevrover]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Just replied to him, can't beat having a "debate" with the entire online Sheffield Eagles fanbase

I replied and then replied with bye,not getting into anymore lol. 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

3 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Just replied to him, can't beat having a "debate" with the entire online Sheffield Eagles fanbase

Online being the operative word....

[POR]

9 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

 Hatton's HIA came after he launched himself head first at Dean's legs when Dean jumped in the air to catch an errant offload.

And it was a beauty and he got what he deserved I think he meant to give Ryley one after he'd  just been put on report for having a go at Jack B in the previous tackle tackle

[The Phantom Horseman]

2 minutes ago, POR said:

And it was a beauty and he got what he deserved I think he meant to give Ryley one after he'd  just been put on report for having a go at Jack B in the previous tackle tackle

From what I could see the incident that went on report was after Hatton seemed to have complained to the ref about something he claimed Luke Briscoe had done. But it was hard to see what Briscoe had done, apart from push Hatton back after Hatton pushed him.

[POR]

41 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

From what I could see the incident that went on report was after Hatton seemed to have complained to the ref about something he claimed Luke Briscoe had done. But it was hard to see what Briscoe had done, apart from push Hatton back after Hatton pushed him.

To be honest it doesn't matter why he got put on report it was still in his head when he rushed into the next tackle

[lingaro]

The tackle on dean should have been a sin bin. He had a duty of care not to hit a player in the air. 

[POR]

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

3 hours ago, lingaro said:

The tackle on dean should have been a sin bin. He had a duty of care not to hit a player in the air. 

If anything it's the laws of the game that are at fault here, not the referee. It's illegal to tackle a player in the air when he is fielding a kick, but not when jumping to catch a pass/offload, as was the case here.

[POR]

37 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

If anything it's the laws of the game that are at fault here, not the referee. It's illegal to tackle a player in the air when he is fielding a kick, but not when jumping to catch a pass/offload, as was the case here.

That's true  they think from a kick the defender is a target so needs protecting  but in open play it's  just one of those things

[The Grinder]

POR,

Thanks for posting that post match interview with Kear.

Chalk and cheese the difference between this and Ashton's interview the week before.