Midland Hurricanes away

[graham fisher]

The first of which I hope will be our last five games of the season starts with Midlands away. I never take the opposition or result for granted but if the players turn up it should be a resounding win. I’ll be following from afar whilst also keeping a close eye on the Hunslet vs Doncaster game. It looked like we picked up one or two injuries on Friday night in what was a very physical battle,hopefully with the extra two days will help,definitely out is Jordan who failed his HIA.

Midlands 6

Rams 48

Fts Restall

Mom Graham

Edited June 27, 2023 by graham fisher

[horbury ram]

Officals for Sunday

• Referee: L. Bland
• Reserve Referee: L. Collins
• Touch Judge 1: R. Apsee
• Touch Judge 2: R. Davies

Strangely exactly the same ref for the home fixture,against the hurricanes, at the start of the season

[Blind side johnny]

I will also be absent, once again.

As Graham has said it should be a straightforward game for us but when have any truly been so.

Good selection and application and we should come home with the points.

Canes 12 - 36 Rams

FTS: Graham

[graham fisher]

On 27/06/2023 at 13:01, graham fisher said:

 I’ll be following from afar whilst also keeping a close eye on the Hunslet vs Doncaster game. 

Hunslet have brought another player in on loan from Halifax, I believe that's 5 loan players now. 

[Wakefield Ram]

56 minutes ago, graham fisher said:

Hunslet have brought another player in on loan from Halifax, I believe that's 5 loan players now. 

Let's hope they can beat Doncaster

[Crown Flatter]

It must be difficult to select the seventeen out of the 21 named for the Hurricanes clash: not wishing to denigrate our opponents, but it’s a game we ought to win.

Does Liam slot in a couple of fringe players in the squad, or go for the strongest available? Here’s what I think:

Restall; Gabriel, O’Connor, Greensmith, Whiteley; Sykes, Littlewood; Beckett, Butterworth, Maher; Garside, Graham; Collinson,

subs: Davies, Day, Morris, Walker. 18th man: Summers. 

This leaves out  Carr, Turner, Dixon who I think will be rested and Day will come on at sometime for Butterworth, who won’t enjoy coming off, but needs a bit of a rest.

 I think we will be too strong for the Hurricanes, but we must improve our discipline: we must, certainly in time for those two very tough away games.

Midlands 10-42 Dewsbury 

FTS: O’Connor

MOM: Graham

Att: 685

 

[NickD]

16 hours ago, graham fisher said:

Hunslet have brought another player in on loan from Halifax, I believe that's 5 loan players now. 

Does that do any good though?  Upsets the regulars and unless they're at all the training sessions it doesn't even help the patterns of play.

Does show that they believe they are still in the game mind.   That league position of theirs is probably misleading given that they've had to play the top three teams away ......certainly ran us close.

[Crown Flatter]

Workington might still have some say in end of season results. They are at Oldham on Sunday so will probably lose, but last three matches are Donny (H), Us  and Hunslet (H). They also play Rochdale (H), Crusaders (A) and Cornwall (A).

[Blind side johnny]

On holiday sitting on a balcony overlooking a rainforest, sweating more on the outcome of this match than because of the humidity.

It sounded like a very fortunate outcome for us, once more. Either every official is biased against Dewsbury or our discipline is in need on improvement. 

Hunslet got a great result against Doncaster today, which might help us. However we do have to play them away and I have painful memories of some adverse results there. It is looking like another "interesting " end to the season.

[STEVE P]

I'm also in stickier climes at present. Couldn't believe the score when I looked at half time, then we caught up and let them get ahead another twice.

Next week I'm going to wait until the end before looking. I can't stand the tension.

[Crown Flatter]

41 minutes ago, STEVE P said:

I'm also in stickier climes at present. Couldn't believe the score when I looked at half time, then we caught up and let them get ahead another twice.

Next week I'm going to wait until the end before looking. I can't stand the tension.

We are seven points clear, so you don’t have to worry for the next couple of weeks. 
 

I must admit to walking away with wobbly legs today. Much as I want Dewsbury to win, I believe the better side lost. They were dominant for about 60 minutes and played well considering their heavy defeat last week. 

[RugbyPowelly]

We’re doing well with results and I know that ultimately that’s all that matters. But many of our performances have let us down and several time we’ve won as the worst team. 
 

I do believe that fortune favours the brave and so winning in these situations is a plus. However somethings need a lot of work.

I was at the game and saw us get away with a lot today. Our defence is poor at times and I think our forward pack all need to be doing more. I won’t single anybody out but some of the more established players are lacking and need to improve.

I know this is picky with us not losing in the league so far and we are clearly the best team in the league, but I’d rather focus on improvement than high five about rather lucky wins. 

[graham fisher]

1 hour ago, RugbyPowelly said:

We’re doing well with results and I know that ultimately that’s all that matters. But many of our performances have let us down and several time we’ve won as the worst team. 
 

I do believe that fortune favours the brave and so winning in these situations is a plus. However somethings need a lot of work.

I was at the game and saw us get away with a lot today. Our defence is poor at times and I think our forward pack all need to be doing more. I won’t single anybody out but some of the more established players are lacking and need to improve.

I know this is picky with us not losing in the league so far and we are clearly the best team in the league, but I’d rather focus on improvement than high five about rather lucky wins. 

I wasn’t at the game today so I appreciate your unbiased view. I’ve said it on numerous occasions that when we play,let’s say the weaker teams that we tend to go down to their level,no disrespect intended,rather than go on the field like we are playing one of the better teams. Look we have a target on our backs with us been the favourites for automatic promotion so we’ve got to be able to handle it because if we go to Hunslet with the same mentality then we will get well beaten.Anyway we got the points and still unbeaten.

[Crown Flatter]

Phew! How did we get away with that win? Seems like it was Oldham and Cornwall again.

The Hurricanes played well, led by their halves, Stead and Hookem and their forwards responded and tries resulted. We gave away something like 14 penalties and won five, so our discipline is wayward, although some decisions may have been dubious, like being penalised for wheeling the scrum. How does the referee determine who was at fault? Stead converted two of the three at goal. The one missed resulted in a drop out that fell short of the 10 metre line, thus giving him another chance which was converted. Their first try by Horner and converted by Stead came on three minutes, but Greensmith managed to get over a little later. Sykes couldn’t add the extras against a strong wind. With Midlands getting two more tries and adding those penalties, half time arrived with Dewsbury trailing 16-4.

We needed a response: some followers suggesting we’d come good and win by 12, others (like me) not so sure. We pulled back the deficit to draw level with a typical Sam Day try when Sykesey was in the bin for (I understand), a shoulder charge. After his return we scored a really marvellous try: Midlands lost the ball very near our line, picked up by whom I know not, darted through the defence, drew the opponent, passed and on we went with Carr finishing it off, giving Sykes a fairly easy conversion

Then we managed to knock on in our 20 and they scored another six and confidence must have been down again. Sykes’ kick off was a beauty, going dead, but bouncing first. From the resulting raid, Greensmith went over for his second, conversion was good. All square again until a Stead drop goal put them in front again at 23-22nwith little time remaining. A final push came for a victory and Ronan Dixon finished off a move for Sykes to convert.

Besides losing the penalty count, we had to drop out three times to their one, so you can see hoe determined our hosts were.

Phew again, a decidedly uncomfortable 28-23 victory.

[graham fisher]

3 minutes ago, Crown Flatter said:

Phew! How did we get away with that win? Seems like it was Oldham and Cornwall again.

The Hurricanes played well, led by their halves, Stead and Hookem and their forwards responded and tries resulted. We gave away something like 14 penalties and won five, so our discipline is wayward, although some decisions may have been dubious, like being penalised for wheeling the scrum. How does the referee determine who was at fault? Stead converted two of the three at goal. The one missed resulted in a drop out that fell short of the 10 metre line, thus giving him another chance which was converted. Their first try by Horner and converted by Stead came on three minutes, but Greensmith managed to get over a little later. Sykes couldn’t add the extras against a strong wind. With Midlands getting two more tries and adding those penalties, half time arrived with Dewsbury trailing 16-4.

We needed a response: some followers suggesting we’d come good and win by 12, others (like me) not so sure. We pulled back the deficit to draw level with a typical Sam Day try when Sykesey was in the bin for (I understand), a shoulder charge. After his return we scored a really marvellous try: Midlands lost the ball very near our line, picked up by whom I know not, darted through the defence, drew the opponent, passed and on we went with Carr finishing it off, giving Sykes a fairly easy conversion

Then we managed to knock on in our 20 and they scored another six and confidence must have been down again. Sykes’ kick off was a beauty, going dead, but bouncing first. From the resulting raid, Greensmith went over for his second, conversion was good. All square again until a Stead drop goal put them in front again at 23-22nwith little time remaining. A final push came for a victory and Ronan Dixon finished off a move for Sykes to convert.

Besides losing the penalty count, we had to drop out three times to their one, so you can see hoe determined our hosts were.

Phew again, a decidedly uncomfortable 28-23 victory.

According to League Express the penalty count was 4-1 in Midlands favour.

[SUPERSTUD]

Been a while since we have come firing out of the blocks from minute one. Why? Doncaster at home was the last time and IMHO we went on to win it convincingly. Coaching staff need to find a way to fire this group up. At times appear to be going through the motions.

[Crown Flatter]

19 minutes ago, graham fisher said:

According to League Express the penalty count was 4-1 in Midlands favour.

I must have been at a different game, or perhaps I didn’t go and guessed!

[graham fisher]

25 minutes ago, Crown Flatter said:

I must have been at a different game, or perhaps I didn’t go and guessed!

I wasn’t getting at you. Perhaps the reporter was at a different game

[Crown Flatter]

12 minutes ago, graham fisher said:

I wasn’t getting at you. Perhaps the reporter was at a different game

I know you weren’t. Lately I have been disappointed with some LE reporting. Take the try finished by Lewis Carr: there no reference to the quality and length of that try. 
 

I could have been wrong with my count, but I doubt by that margin. 

[Therein73]

IF it was a ratio of 4 to 1, then it could have been 12 vs 3 or 16 against 4......... which sounds more likely IMO 

[graham fisher]

55 minutes ago, Therein73 said:

IF it was a ratio of 4 to 1, then it could have been 12 vs 3 or 16 against 4......... which sounds more likely IMO 

Lee in his interview said that it was 7-1 against us in first half. 

[Crown Flatter]

2 hours ago, graham fisher said:

Lee in his interview said that it was 7-1 against us in first half. 

Looks like I might be closer than the LE reporter.

I have now referred to my updates sent to someone unable to be at the match and at HT my note indicated we were 9-1 down  and at full time, 13-4. 
 

That’s it, my comments finished on this aspect you will be pleased to know.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Crown Flatter

[Heckler]

We could have done with this yesterday:

League One club holds first talks with council to make “absolutely massive” stadium move – TotalRL.com | Rugby League Express | Rugby League World

Edited July 3, 2023 by Heckler

[graham fisher]

2 hours ago, Crown Flatter said:

 

I have now referred to my updates sent to someone unable to be at the match and at HT my note indicated we were 9-1 down  and at full time, 13-4. 
 

 

We seem to get hammered nearly every game in the penalty count. Is our discipline really that bad?

[Crown Flatter]

51 minutes ago, graham fisher said:

We seem to get hammered nearly every game in the penalty count. Is our discipline really that bad?

Finny said in his interview that he will have to take a look at that. Whether it be  dubious decisions from the referee, or our own misdemeanours, the discipline does need sorting.  Big games coming up could prove costly if we fall foul of the officials.