Match thread: Championship Round 14. Featherstone Rovers v Toulouse. Saturday 10th June 2023.

[Andrew Vause]

1 hour ago, J Phil Loxton said:

Yeah when you dissect the game there wasn't that much to worry about. Halls non pass cost us six points without doubt. Look at Toulouse's two debatable tries early doors. One was a yard forward the other more than iffy.  Hall had some difficult kicks but one of them I think at 18-18 should have gone over and didn't Lockwood drop a pass under the sticks in the act of scoring. It's fine lines as you point out and I'm saying we won 32-24 Add to the fact that they should have had a red card NOT yellow then between us POR we can justify in over turning the scoreline

I can't see the 'not too much to worry about' scenario Phil sorry. We were abject for a lot of the game if we're talking scenarios of what could have happened on another day Hally's grubber goes dead and Briscoe is in touch which gives us only 8 points. 

Hopefully it was 'a bad day at the office' but there was enough evidence to suggest that it might not be. Hopefully it will serve as a kick up the culo for the boys. The one caveat to this though is Toulouse will improve and will have Catalan Dragons players available next time we meet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Monkeymagic22]

22 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

I can't see the 'not too much to worry about' scenario Phil sorry. We were abject for a lot of the game if we're talking scenarios of what could have happened on another day Hally's grubber goes dead and Briscoe is in touch which gives us only 8 points. 

Hopefully it was 'a bad day at the office' but there was enough evidence to suggest that it might not be. Hopefully it will serve as a kick up the culo for the boys. The one caveat to this though is Toulouse will improve and will have Catalan Dragons players available next time we meet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly how I see it, the Sheffield and also Batley and Bulls matches being other examples of matches when we underperformed or alternatively aren’t as good as we think we are. 

I’ve no idea wether it relates to the coaching or maybe the players not being good enough?. All I’d say is, if things don’t change we won’t be going up.

[sentoffagain2]

   If Hall had passed instead of have the ball taken off him it would have been a try under the sticks and 20-18 lead for us.But every time Toulouse were in our half they played with more pace than us and they looked dangerous.With Toulouse playing uphill second half and Fev having the measure in the forwards we should have kicked deep more.Kick Into touch 15m from the  line and keep them pinned down well inside their half.Not high kicks into the air as they have the speed to be dangerous from broken play.Up to the coaches to explore a slightly different game plan.

[J Phil Loxton]

1 hour ago, Andrew Vause said:

I can't see the 'not too much to worry about' scenario Phil sorry. We were abject for a lot of the game if we're talking scenarios of what could have happened on another day Hally's grubber goes dead and Briscoe is in touch which gives us only 8 points. 

Hopefully it was 'a bad day at the office' but there was enough evidence to suggest that it might not be. Hopefully it will serve as a kick up the culo for the boys. The one caveat to this though is Toulouse will improve and will have Catalan Dragons players available next time we meet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine and POR's post before it were meant with tongue in cheek. There's plenty to rectify and learn from in every game even when you win. Thankfully it's not my job and we will have to see what happens against the improving Broncos. As I've said before we need to be able to combat these teams that rely on slinging the ball about because it was evident we didn't tire them out initially.

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, J Phil Loxton said:

Mine and POR's post before it were meant with tongue in cheek. There's plenty to rectify and learn from in every game even when you win. Thankfully it's not my job and we will have to see what happens against the improving Broncos. As I've said before we need to be able to combat these teams that rely on slinging the ball about because it was evident we didn't tire them out initially.

In all honesty can anyone see  us competing in SL if we were to go up ?  I don't want to sound defeatist but they are all far better then any Championship team we compete with. Iam just interested to know what others think especially the sensible ones on here.

[Michael Bates]

3 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

In all honesty can anyone see  us competing in SL if we were to go up ?  I don't want to sound defeatist but they are all far better then any Championship team we compete with. Iam just interested to know what others think especially the sensible ones on here.

No, we'd perform similarly to Wakefield this year. Leigh this season have been the ultimate exception to the rule. If we (or to be fair, whoever) go up, we / they'll get battered every week.

That doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't go all out to be promoted and be absolutely thrilled if / when we do.

Edited June 13, 2023 by Michael Bates

[Fevrover]

2 minutes ago, Michael Bates said:

No, we'd perform similarly to Wakefield this year. Leigh this season have been the ultimate exception to the rule. If we (or to be fair, whoever) go up, we / they'll get battered every week.

That doesn't mean to say that we shouldn't go all out to be promoted and be absolutely thrilled if / when we do.

I want to go up or whats the point of it all, if we don't this year imo i don't we ever will, hope iam wrong though.

[Monkeymagic22]

7 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

I want to go up or whats the point of it all, if we don't this year imo i don't we ever will, hope iam wrong though.

The current team wouldn’t beat Wakey in my opinion, but I’d assume that we would make a few signings with the additional money received. Might be harsh, but I don’t think this team would win more than a couple of matches.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Having watched the game back again and made a few notes, it remains one of the stranger games I've watched as we did a lot right but our two glaring areas of weakness made all the difference.

We made over 300m more than Toulouse did over the game, and were on the right end of the penalty count by a whopping 12 against 1. We also didn't have an outrageous number of errors (I made it seven, which included two kicks dead for 7-tackle sets and a pass into touch). There are some games that we won earlier this season where we made double that amount of errors.

This really underlines firstly our lack of creativity given our territorial dominance, but probably more importantly our defensive weakness, both of which we have already commented on, but it also shows how well Toulouse played. I think we had six or seven sets in a row inside their 30m and only scored at the end of them in the first half. As everyone has commented, the club will be doing everything it can to improve our options at half back.

We still have the basic raw materials in place to be the best team in the division in my opinion, but those two big areas of weakness cost us dearly on Saturday and it's whether or not we can improve those two areas that might dictate how we fare at the business end of the season. Better to find out now than then I guess is the positive way of looking at it.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by The Phantom Horseman

[Michael Bates]

I've just watched the highlights and have a few thoughts on the back of it. Obviously losing Ford early on led to Wildie and Jones having to do big minutes not in their usual roles. Wildie had a few uncharacteristic misses in defence in the last 15 or so leading to a couple of tries. We defend so narrow, I don't know why. It works against the majority of teams in the league because there are few sides that actually spread the ball about, but against the likes of Halifax, Sheffield and now Toulouse, it costs us when it's 2 or 3 on 1 out wide. 

Edit: Seems like Chan wasn't sent off as the report from one of the touch judges sounded like he thought it was a high shot, not a headbutt. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Michael Bates

[sentoffagain2]

     Penalty count like that and supporters near me behind the sticks were complaining about the referee who i thought was ok.He might have missed a forward pass for one of the Toulouse tries but they bombed two chances before that.For me when they are on the field i would have back rowers Davies and Hardcastle sliding across in defence as inside centres.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Just a sidenote but Tiaki Chan picked up a 2-game ban for his head butt, which was assessed as a grade D (would have been a longer ban prior to this season's new, lighter punishments). I agree with those who say he was fortunate not to get a red and it probably would have been in a game with a video ref. Not that that's the lesson to take out of the game, of course.

 

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

     Penalty count like that and supporters near me behind the sticks were complaining about the referee who i thought was ok.He might have missed a forward pass for one of the Toulouse tries but they bombed two chances before that.

If we ever get a 12-1 penalty account against us this forum will go into meltdown! But I agree generally Grant had a good game, though I'm sure Toulouse would disagree.

I did think there were a couple of decisions that he perhaps wasn't going to give and the crowd helped make his mind up (or the touch judge's mind), but most of the penalties we were awarded just looked the correct decision. I agree that their first try looked a forward pass but for me that's on the TJ, not the ref. We had one late tackle/shoulder charge that was missed (on Marion by Lockwood) but otherwise I think our low penalty count was down to good discpline, it's just a shame we couldn't defend out wide!

[POR]

3 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Just a sidenote but Tiaki Chan picked up a 2-game ban for his head butt, which was assessed as a grade D (would have been a longer ban prior to this season's new, lighter punishments). I agree with those who say he was fortunate not to get a red and it probably would have been in a game with a video ref. Not that that's the lesson to take out of the game, of course.

 

 

 Strikes – Head butting – makes full contact with Head of opponent. Grade D Penalty Notice: 2 Match Penalty Notice and £125 Fine

Grade D  now  2-3(and fine)  last year 3 – 5