Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 8:46 am  

rubber duckie wrote:

no pal. i'll be very relieved when we can come up with a hb partnership that played as well as R&B did when we virtually had no pack.
Castleford were in this game far too much for me to agree the win was convincing.

I think Bridge is far and away our best stand off and he seems to me to enjoy playing there more than centre. He seems to gain an extra yard of pace somehow.
Where I disagree is in your comments about the pack. I thought the pack played the best they have this season when R&B were the half backs. I am not convinced that Ratchford is the answer at half back though. Although a very good athlete and deceptively strong, he has limited tactical awareness and a tendency to try and beat the team on his own, thereby being caught too often in possession.
It is perhaps churlish to criticise after such a big win but I think the way we gave away possession in the first half, a full Castleford side would have been out of sight by halftime. Unless we improve greatly, talk of the Grand Final is pie in the sky.
Having said that, given the loss of key personnel last year, I do not think this season has been as bad as I feared and I remain optimistic about the future.

[Winslade's Offload]

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:35 am  

I think for me you put your finger on it when you say that a 'full Castleford side would have been out of sight by half time'. That is the concern - we had a virtually first choice team pick. And it is not necessarily players being out of form or having a bad day. That happens throughout the year to most sides. You can not legislate for it and simply have to accept it. But something feels 'wrong' about the team. Is Asotasi affecting team spirit with his lethargic displays ? Or is the constant changing of playing positions unsettling the players ? Do the younger players need more structured plays (until they get older and wiser) ? We seem to have lost that enthusiasm and enjoyment that was a big factor of our play a couple of seasons ago, and that certainly affected my mood in the South stand where the crowd was very, very quiet. The only highlight that got people talking was the bit of magic from Rhys Evans when he made the try saving tackle. In contrast, for the first hour at least, Cas seemed a bundle of energy. Sure they made plenty of mistakes and gave away tries and yes, they didn't look a polished side, but they played for one another and were a bundle of energy.

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:44 am  

Winslade's Offload wrote:

I think for me you put your finger on it when you say that a 'full Castleford side would have been out of sight by half time'. That is the concern - we had a virtually first choice team pick. And it is not necessarily players being out of form or having a bad day. That happens throughout the year to most sides. You can not legislate for it and simply have to accept it. But something feels 'wrong' about the team. Is Asotasi affecting team spirit with his lethargic displays ? Or is the constant changing of playing positions unsettling the players ? Do the younger players need more structured plays (until they get older and wiser) ? We seem to have lost that enthusiasm and enjoyment that was a big factor of our play a couple of seasons ago, and that certainly affected my mood in the South stand where the crowd was very, very quiet. The only highlight that got people talking was the bit of magic from Rhys Evans when he made the try saving tackle. In contrast, for the first hour at least, Cas seemed a bundle of energy. Sure they made plenty of mistakes and gave away tries and yes, they didn't look a polished side, but they played for one another and were a bundle of energy.

This is what is worrying me at the moment, we were lucky it was cas reserves as they had out first team pegged back in the first 20-30 mins, we hardly touched the ball and when we did it was to give them another set! We defended well but we cant keep on giving teams this sort of start as teams like Leeds & Wigan will blow us away like we used to do!

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 9:54 am  

Winslade's Offload wrote:

I think for me you put your finger on it when you say that a 'full Castleford side would have been out of sight by half time'. That is the concern - we had a virtually first choice team pick. And it is not necessarily players being out of form or having a bad day. That happens throughout the year to most sides. You can not legislate for it and simply have to accept it. But something feels 'wrong' about the team. Is Asotasi affecting team spirit with his lethargic displays ? Or is the constant changing of playing positions unsettling the players ? Do the younger players need more structured plays (until they get older and wiser) ? We seem to have lost that enthusiasm and enjoyment that was a big factor of our play a couple of seasons ago, and that certainly affected my mood in the South stand where the crowd was very, very quiet. The only highlight that got people talking was the bit of magic from Rhys Evans when he made the try saving tackle. In contrast, for the first hour at least, Cas seemed a bundle of energy. Sure they made plenty of mistakes and gave away tries and yes, they didn't look a polished side, but they played for one another and were a bundle of energy.

We didn't just lose world class players last year. Some of them were world class leaders. When you replace them with players still developing and highwaymen like Asotasi, what can you expect. Like you, I worry what effect a waster like Asotasi has on the rest of the players. Westwood being dropped for lack of effort is so out of character but you can only spend so long urinating against the wind.
On the plus side this season has seen us blood some young players, which I think is TS's long term plan, and most of them have stepped up to the plate and acquitted themselves well.

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:27 am  

There are a number of players not playing well at the moment. We dodged a Bullet on Friday night.
Monaghan's comment about GOB in his post match interview were interesting. Something like GOB had been brought in to calm things down and prevent us from playing panic rugby.
I thought Higham was a bit off the mark in defence and attack.
There are a few things where the execution is just not there and these errors are from experienced players. Like Terry O'connor said, I would love to see what Warrington would do to a team if they had a higher completion rate.

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:09 pm  

fez1 wrote:

I see Joel got caught out on his wing .... again.....
Thought it was Ormsby and Riley that that happened to.

Same against Leeds....

Maybe the way we play but frustrating when that happens.

To be fair it was a forward pass and a great finish

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:21 pm  

Surely people aren't that naive to expect a seamless transition after losing the players we did in the close season?

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:56 pm  

getdownmonkeyman wrote:

Surely people aren't that naive to expect a seamless transition after losing the players we did in the close season?

You'd be surprised..

[Uncle Rico]

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:09 pm  

getdownmonkeyman wrote:

Surely people aren't that naive to expect a seamless transition after losing the players we did in the close season?

Naïve is one thing, but, with the exception of Briers and I'm not convinced we didn't have enough prior warning given his form and fitness last year, this is a team that the club planned to have in place this year.

It was never going to be seamless because of the quality that we lost, but, perhaps holding on to one or two an extra year so that that team could win the GF might have backfired. Succession planning is part of the job and we may finish in the top 4, we may yet make a good go of it in the play offs and we may all think that this has been a good year when the final hooter sounds. I hope so, but, one thing is for sure whatever happens we will be in a similar situation over the next couple of years as Monaghan, Wood, Waterhouse, Higham, Westwood and even Asotasi hang up their boots.

Re: Tonights Game V Castleford : Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:07 pm  

Uncle Rico wrote:

I hope so, but, one thing is for sure whatever happens we will be in a similar situation over the next couple of years as Monaghan, Wood, Waterhouse, Higham, Westwood and even Asotasi hang up their boots.

I agreed with you in every way, until you included asotasi. Personally I hope he does the decent thing and either retires or moves on at the end of the season. I would love him to prove me wrong, but his effort when 80 minutes from wembley was the final straw for me.