Says it all really. Don't care what people say about the number of close games lost, we rea just not at the races defencively

The coach must bear some responsibility for this - it has been a failing during all his seasons with us but something that Noble has always done well

In the future we will have the best defence in the league.

It's been a problem since day one. Especially the right side which seems to be especially vulnerable. Players seem unaware of which way to move and are caught out by dummy runners. It's either down to poor decision making and technique or the players simply don't know what they're doing.

I never realised Sykes was so weak in defence until this year. When he connects he hits hard but he misses so many.

[url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1=2009&hp1=26&hs2=2009&hp2=254&stat=tries&season=20093 a game. Keef just the one.[/url

Indeed. And having just had a quick look I can't find a centre with a worse defensive record this season.

Oh and Keef has made seventy more tackles as well... Sykes is missing one in four...

On a more positive note, nice to see BJ still in second place for try assists. Not bad for a guy playing out of position

And a player some think we should offload

But I can find two other players in our team, who worryingly (and perhaps predictably) play down the same defensive side. If we go on missed tackles as a percentage of tackles made, then Sykes is at a 20% miss ratio (223 tackles, 46 missed.) We also have Paul Deacon missing 20% (50 missed from 245 made) and Sherriffe missing 35% (24 missed from 72 made). Jeffries also misses around 20% of tackles.

When you consider that the top of the missed takle count stat wise for the league is Scott Murrell on 76 missed tackles which looks bad, but we need to consider that this is from 689 made, meaning he only misses 11%. By the same measure Senior only misses 5% two of our top performers are Lynch who only misses 6% and Nero only misses 9%.

Having that much liablity down one flank is not sustainable, no wonder teams always seem to stroll in down that side. It needs addressing....but I'm not holding my breath.

Although they may be getting used to their partnerships, maybe it would be good to try Nero + Sheriffe and Sykes + Tadulala. This way both sides have at least one good tackler.

This is exactly what I would try.

Well the current combo is not working on defence thats for sure. Menzies and Nero into the , Sykes and Jeffries into 6 and 7? Maybe try Rinaldi at 7 when hes back too, I struggle to see the benefit of keeping Deacs in the side at the moment.