Quote: Offside Monkey "Quinlan?
It appears that Leeds know how tro beat Saints. Conversly, we don't know how to counter their play.'"
The notion that we're suddenly facing novel and magical tactics for which there is no answer is completely and utterly misplaced. Saints used a very similar strategy under Millward whenever we faced Bradford's big pack.
Fortunately for Millward his tactics paid off. But there were many times when we were absolutely hammered by the Bulls.
You have to remember that any team, no matter how good, that enters the field with the aim of offloading as often as possible early in the game is taking a risk. All it needs is for one or two players to briefly switch off and fumble the ball and you can be eight, maybe twelve points down in ten minutes.
What Saints need to do is INCREASE that risk - on every tackle. You do this by putting people in their faces and playing ... for want of a better expression ... nasty. At Warrington I counted TWO genuinely hurtful tackles which we inflicted upon the opposition (one by Burns on JJB, the other by Mose on Peacock). That's just nowhere near good enough given the forward resources we have available. If you know the opposition is putting all its energy into getting ahead in the first twenty then you have to be prepared to not just match that energy but exceed it. Once Leeds hit the 20th minute in front they've stolen the initiative and sans some catastrophic collapse - the game, too. But it's an entirely different question if you ride out the early onslaught because then you use the weight of your opponent's expectations against him.
Far too often we just seemed to REACT to one of their forwards turning and then offloading instead of PROACTIVELY employing the double strategy of attacking the ball carrying arm and pressurizing the likely receiver. By doing so you ratchet up the risk of a dropped ball or some other mistake on every play. Building pressure and controlling the initiative are the keys to winning big games. In three games we've barely said hello to either. As stated - they are the team taking risks. I can't say whether Cunningham and company feel that provided we just stay in line and watch the distances between each other sooner or later Leeds will have an off day - but if they do they are nuts. We have a massive pack. It's about time we started using it to tee-off on the ball carrier. If he wants to dump off a pass - make him pay for it. No player likes getting hit in the act of releasing the ball because they are leaving themselves wide open. In the event of him making the pass - we should already be tracking the likely receiver (this is where the guys doing video analysis earn their corn) and putting pressure on him, too.
As for kicking - you put it down the tram lines. Even if it's only 20m that's far, far better than kicking it down the throat of the back three which keeps the ball in play - further tiring us out. If our kickers aren't confident enough going long then tap it out short. Each time our lads get a nice rest, we take the steam out of the game and time ticks away.
Closer to the line I'd only be thinking of one thing - another set. Indeed, early in the game I'd be quite happy to sacrifice the opportunity for penalties or even four points just to keep them dropping out from behind the sticks. Indeed, the number of times I would keep going for repeat sets there'd be people angrily telephoning SL over [i"conduct not within the spirit of the game"[/i
There'll be a few old men blowing bubbles in their side defending our pack on their goal line for eight or nine sets in a half.