Quote Bullseye="Bullseye"I thought we had done enough to win at 22-16 up with 11 mins to go to win but we blew it a bit. Sure, we didn't get the rub of the green in anything from the ref but our inability to close the game out cost us. Our start to the second 40 mins was predictably slow and we let a crucial soft try in. The sin binning was probably justified but I didn't think it had a massive influence. In the end we lost it up front where we lacked the size in the pack to compete for the full 80mins. There was hardly anything at all between the sides though.
Some observations
1. I'd like to see the challenge on L'Estrange again as it looked a bit late and a shoulder charge.
2. Amazing to see not one offside at the PTB or scrum with both sides stood offside all afternoon. Does this rule no longer apply?
3. Does the flop rule no longer apply either?
4. Someone should tell Leon Pryce how to be gracious in victory.
5. Henderson is a world class whinger.
I thought most of the team had good games. We missed L'Estrange after he got taken out.'"
Agreed Bullseye, while Bentham did us no favours we should have been out of sight and still cannot believe we lost that game. I'm sick of taking an early lead, looking comfortable and then switching off and letting a team back in. I think just about all the other top 8 teams would have kicked on and put Catalans to bed by the hours mark.
Think Cummins got his tactics horribly wrong today. Apparently he put Sammut on the bench for his performance last week. I was at that game, now while Sammut wasn't brilliant, he certainly wasn't the worst player on the pitch. Gale was very poor and was responsible for two of our to opening tries last week. So don't understand why he singled out Sammut.
Langley, never has, never is or never will be a second rower. He just cannot pass. Put him in the middle and let him work. He didn't have a bad game today but there were a couple of times where we had an overlap and is inability to pass cost us.
Finally what do we do in video sessions. Every week we seem to start well, let the opposition back in, panic and lose the game. It all well and good having character and effort (although that should be a given) but to get in the top 8 you need to use that thing in between the ears and control the game. This is where Gale and Sammut earn their money, sadly they haven't done it yet again. If Gale had have kicked into touch against Widnes instead of a fancy kick from outside of the boot and Sammut had have booted the ball in to touch instead of chipping it straight into Whiteheads hands, then maybe we would have 4 extra points. Not good enough from the half backs.
It was a good effort today, tough, hard game, but if we want to get into the play offs we need to be smarter and more clinical. Can't keep blaming the referee (As bad as he was, certainly needs to answer the late shoulder charges from the Dragons players)
