KaeruJim wrote:
Yes but you would be up for the first game of the season surely? How much of a response can we really expect?
We can win the game against Wigan, but with the front row issues we have, we cannot afford to play slack, drop off tackles etc. High completion rates, high skill and good kicking game would help.
I think they were up for the game against Warrington. At this stage of the season I'd be willing to forgive some of the failings we saw because they are a new team, with a lot of new combinations and a new coach (cf. Warrington at the same point last season). And like it or not, I bet a few players were probably guilty of reverting to type when the chips were down in the first half... It might take a bit of time to get 2018 out of the system.
I'm not sure what kind of response we can expect. At the least they need a different approach to being competitive around the ruck and being less passive in the collision, on top of the things you mention. I think we should be able to expect these things to be better with the players at our disposal, never mind these two extra rawboned props everyone keeps going on about us missing. The issue should be whether we can be competitive around the ruck
consistently over 80 minutes against the bigger teams with the weaker pack at our disposal, not whether we can do it at all... Let's see.