And the worst coach's decision of 2015... : Sat Oct 03, 2015 3:46 pm
....goes to James Lowes, for deciding to try and kick a difficult penalty to equalise the scores with 4 minutes left.The very best outcome possible from that decision was that Bradford go level, but they'll then get the ball back on their ten metres, and they've struggled to get into Wakefield's half, so a Wakefield drop-goal is the most likely outcome.
The most likely outcome, given he hasn't got a top-rank kicker (Addy had already missed one from a similar position), is a miss, in which case he either gets the ball back on his own 30m, with only enough time for one more set (what actually happened), or Wakefield catch it in-goal, and run out the clock before giving Bradford the ball back deep in their own half for the final set.
Whereas Bradford had Wakefield rocking when that penalty was conceded, and with 4 minutes to go had finally got a set of 6 within 30m of Wakefield's line. Take the tap, and you either score in that set, or if you don't, you've still got time for a final set after you've done your last defensive set trying to force an error from Wakefield, who'll be panicking, trying to run the ball out from their own line.
It had to be the tap. The kick was a terrible, terrible decision of someone not fast enough to weigh up the probabilities. A draw wasn't possible in that game. He had to take the chance of a win, but instead, he took a remote chance of trying not to lose.
Bad call. Gutted for Bradford. Wakefield continue to survive to perform their traditional role of making up the numbers in the top flight competition.