Well other than yourselves i have not see another forums fans complaining their backs can't do this, so again which fans?



Well not tonight, but i can come back tomorrow if you like

I enjoyed most of the games last year, there was plenty of skill on show too.

However we won't create half backs who can create anything against decent defences unless they continue to play against decent defences, and that includes the slowing of the ruck. That was the whole idea of this change in tack, anyone who expected skills to increase over the course of one season were deluding themselves, this was always going to be a slow process.

At last. Some common sense from a Saints fan.

Bravo sir bravo.

Hallelujah.

im a Wire fan, one of the best games i can recall is Saints v Wigan Lancashire cup final pies won 5-4 i stood with my aunt who is a pie fan. one of the best games i watched.
Rugby League is one of the few games were i enjoy a low scoring game there is just more tension on and off the field, it's great

If you are talking about defensive skill, yes there was, if you are talking about attacking skills, ingenuity etc, then I'm lost.

Which games did you actually enjoy then? Even the Wigan Championship Play-Off Semi-Final bored me to tears and that should have really been exciting, especially when you consider how close it was.

I can think of the Leeds games, the two Warrington games and Bradford at home in a strange kind of way. Apart from that, I see a sea of boredom, two dozen unforced handling errors per game and a hundred plough over the line tries due to a tidal wave style pressure.

In terms of all the Saints fans I know, off RL Fans, Redvee and anywhere else, you, Mike Mc and the Chair are about the only ones I know of who are happy with the stuff the game is producing at the moment.

As has been said elsewhere, the NRL and the National Leagues are significantly more entertaining to watch, so there is hope. Maybe with a few more attack minded coaches we can get some entertainment back but, at the moment, Super League is a dire. dire spectacle and your Potters, Morgans and Browns are just helping to kill it as a spectacle.

For years, snobbish RL fans on here slagged football off for being boring and defensive, whereas League was all about attacking, enterprising play. Now, it's football managers who are putting attack ahead of defence and entertaining the public whereas Rugby League is all about defence and throttling the life out of a game with anything else being a bonus.

Rugby League is now your negative sport and Super League is the Italian National Team of the Rugby League world

Exactly.

Those wanting to see more skill in the game need to recognise this. Change won't happen overnight. We've had the 10m rule for over a decade and in that time PTBs have got quicker until this season. As a result halfbacks have gradually become less skilful over here because they don't need the skills to open a set defence.

When the likes of Pinner, Holding etc were playing it was with defences 5m apart and with much slower PTBs. This made them more skilful as they couldn't rely on a quick PTB to break the defence. Bring back tight defences and players will develop ways to break defences again, but it'll take time.

If we persevere with the change we will hopefully see more skilful players but it will take time. Simply changing back to quick PTBs won't create better players, it'll just take us back to watching RL become a game between whoever can grab the most easy yards and get a roll on, in my view thats dull and not RL.

I totally agree with DD after watching league for well over 50 years i,m getting to the point where i find it hard to watch the "modern game", the only fans who are not complaining about the boring stuff being served up this last season are the fans from clubs who quite frankly have profited from this "slow um down" crap we see on a weekly basis . lets get back to quick exciting rugby ASAP.

let me guess who your club is. giants? leeds?

I think the little note in my sig is a HUGE clue and no it's not Benidorm

Yup.

Not garnering much support from fans of other clubs so far this viewpoint is it?

Got to agree with all that.

That is why my argument has always been that Rugby League has been boring for three or four years and not just this year.

The slower play-the-ball has made the game even more boring but, hopefully, in the long term, that might help address the issues.

The discovery that the quick play-the-ball and the scoots from dummy half were far more effective than passing the ball about was the single most defining moment that turned the game from being the entertaining spectacle it was to the game we have got now.

Whilst it won't be admitted by some, Daniel Anderson's tactic of employing James Roby the way he did, had a significant impact on taking the flair out of Super League, across the board.

Any move to inspire a more 'skillful' game needs to be carefully thought about, which the RFL single-handedly fail to do on just about everything.

I concur that the PTB were favouring attacking teams and gave rise to the boring 'scoot,' but the game has been slowed to a ridiculous extent.

Finding the balance between the right emphasis between attack and defence is dificult. The failure to change or acknowledge that there are other factors that dictate the style of a game has also led to the dour dish served up this year.

Worse still a culture has evolved around negative rugby plough it down the middle and hope to use inovative skullduggery to outlast the opposition. As D.D said, many coaches will go for the NRL of the 80's and lock themselves into an arm wrestle. Just about every team runs the same moves.

Essentially this has boiled down to the return of holding down, and wrestling moves that belong in the Olympics. I am all for physical defence being rewarded, but not cynical manoevring to reducde flair and enterprise.

The worst blight has been the return of flopping - the worst sight being Paalesina almost belly diving onto a ball carrier after he had no involvement whatsoever in the tackle.

The interchange rule remains whereby 'the 10 minute men' trot on and off the field - it may lead to an overtly physical match, but it does nothing to help creative rugby. A team will rarely tire and given that the PTB is now so slow, creates a toxic mix.