If the coaching staff cant get a grip of this it's all over...o it is

To be honest, with regard to the kick offs, it depends more on the players getting a grip on the ball.

Professional players shouldn't need to be coached in how to catch the ball, or indeed the importance of catching it, that really should be done, as mentioned previously, in the under eights.

To be honest, I'm certain they can all catch a ball - whether they have the confidence to catch it or are frightened of making mistakes is maybe another. matter.

If i see a player get under a ball, in a reasonable position, but then spill it cos he's ing bricks, then I can accept he may have lost his confidence.

But when i see a kick-off find its way dead, with mystified players looking at each other as to how did that happen, then it is not a confidence issue, it is a crap play issue.

I am not saying a brilliant kick or a swirling wind or a freak bounce can't catch a team out but when none of the above apply then it is just a cockup, and it isn't lack of confidence, it is to me players just not doing their job. For whatever reason.

Kicking the ball dead from kickoffs is slightly different, it is trying too hard to do a killer kick, basically aiming the ball to land in a narrow gap within centimetres of dead. It is a high risk strategy and, even by the law of averages, you will get 50% of such efforts one side of the line or other. Given that even if you do get the ball "on target", there is still every chance a defender will catch it in play, or catch it with a foot dead, it seems to me to be too high risk a strategy to bother with.

And all that apart, can anyone remember the last time we tried one of these and it paid off? I can't.

I don't think we've tried an awkward kick-off all season. All of our kick-offs go harmlessly to the scrum half or whoever is directly under it.

Why were these scrum halves often standing in the crowd behind the posts?

I mean all of our kick-offs are same - just kicking to the same area of the pitch all the time.

But they're not, they are much more exciting than anyone else's kickoffs as we all wait with bated breath as to whether or not we can manage enough precision to land the ball within the available 2500 sq.m.

our kick offs against Huddersfield at Odsal seemed to keep them guessing. maybe it was just them?

We need more practice at short kick-offs as well. Those two we did were terrible.

As teams generally only try short restarts when they're chasing the game, practice should be available most matches.

We got plenty of chance against Wigan, IIRC but we continued the policy of kicking it to exactly the same bloke standing in the same place on the goal line.

So, repetitive accuracy must be at least a start .. right?

So why always the left side? It'll either be caught, or will bounce with a chance of going into touch or we'll kick it straight out on the full.

Why not down the centre? Those same 3 options above PLUS

- bonus option of hitting the posts!

At the very least it'll improve our chances from 1:3 kicking out on the full to 1:4!!











[size=50Say it really fast to yourself, it'll be fine.....[/size