Quote: The Chair Maker "The Wigan cup match will i think give us a good indication of our competitiveness when in a real do or die situation.
At the time of the Wigan league match i had suspicions that we may fall flat due to it being the third big game on the bounce.
This is of course what happened with Wigan completely dominating the game and Saints looking flat and lacking enthusiasm.
I dont have concerns re the pack as they have shown they can handle other big packs despite the absence of Jammer. My issue is that we still lack the pace to score from any distance in the three quarters.
Teams therefore know that if you employ a good kick chase game and then have a blitz defence against Saints when they are in their own half, that Saints offensive capabilities are neutralised, because even if Saints get the overlap, they are unlikely to go more than 30 metres before getting caught.
Saints are still dangerous because we are very good round the ruck area, with Roby scooting and the forwards being skilful and mobile. Starting with Daniel Anderson we built a team around this method and it has served us well over the years. However to some extent i think we have built sides solely along those lines, to the detriment of overall game flexibility, and this is what i think has caught us out in the grand finals, especially when playing against sides with a more balanced overall game which values the importance of pacey threequarters.'"
Our pack can hold its own but I dont think it can out bully and dominate certain packs this year which IMO will be problem next week.
I agree, we are to dependant on winning games round the ruck so if teams can contain roby we have trouble breaking teams down.