Best performance from our lads for a long time. We were the better team IMHO for most of the match. The only times we were not were when it probably mattered the most - letting them through for a couple of relatively easy tries (but our defence was generally very very good all night otherwise) and, especially, not having something special to get the points when close to their line.
I was apoplectic about Bridge's forearm smash at Ben. Could not understand why it was not a straight red. Don't forget, I am still very very bitter about Bradley being red-carded for something allegedly similar in his last game in 1998 when it transpired he had no case to answer, so you will never get an objective opinion from me on an action like Bridge's! I have read that the attack was to the chest not the neck, as it appeared to be at the game watching the screen half a mile away. If it was, maybe - just maybe - that saved him. But if it was a brain fart (does Bridge possess a brain, after some of his previous off-field antics...?) then I just wish some of our own players' brain farts in recent times would have been so leniently dealt with.
Wire's first try was surely off the mother of all forward passes? Even Leeds might have struggled to get away with that one. The rest of their tries seemed OK. My only issue was why Hallibut did not go to the screen for the possibility of a double-movement (it wasn't - he kept his arm off the ground and scored a good try as a result) when he did for our no-tries, and we had one chalked off because of a foot in touch a single frame (how many naonoseconds is that?) before the ball was grounded. I suspect we would have had two tries awarded had the game not been on TV.
I could not understand why we had Samut' try disallowed, although I have read an explanation elsewhere that I suspect is the truth of it.
I did not think Hallibyut had a lot of help from at least on e of his TJ's tonight. On 60 mins I thought he was having a reasonable game, although I think his failure to penalise some actions could have led to a brawl before the end. Credit to the players on both sides for avoiding that - that last quarter was intense and could have gone badly wrong.
Langley was very very good tonight I thought, and Diskin showed more of the form that he showed in his past life at Leeds. Can't fault the effort all round though, just that little bit lacking still in the execution near the line. But we made good yards and really stuck it up the Wire, and they didn't like it. Got rattled and made mistakes, even allowing for the temporary loss of Briers.
Presume Tom came in for Scrutes, who I presume was given understandable leave of absence at short order tonight. Well done for backing up like that.
If offered a loss by 13 and not a lot between the sides before the match, with our injury list I suspect most of us would have taken it. Well-deserved standing ovation at the end. I expected another pummeling. Instead, I saw a hell of a lot of grounds for renewed hope. An excellent defensive effort. A team that played the full 80 and still had some gas in the tank at the end. And an all-round effort second to none. I'd have much preferred a win unlooked-for, and maybe Gale and Ollie and Purtell would have made the difference near the line, but losing like that is going to make a few more around the game revisit their "written-off" assessments.
Well done lads.
