Hello Euclid,

I played for a few years for Lancaster University. The highlights were in winning the SRL plate in a great game against Hull Uni and doing very well in the North West Championship and North West division two where we would regularly beat the other North West Unis. We had five student internationals at one point, but alas they graduated together and then we were well beaten most weeks when in the top flight against the likes of Leeds and Leeds Met. Certainly we had highs and lows, I remember us winning 50-0 one week and then losing by more than that the week after and the embarassment of being thrashed at St Helens College which was teenage lads against 18-21 year olds. I used to be on the Bench in the main, coming on as a Prop or Second Rower.

Nowadays I run the Post Office Insurance business but earlier in my career I worked as a Data Analyst for a top ten UK building society and used to program data selections for egg.com so I am data literate to a degree and tend to really study the data from games as well as watching and also try to determine which players are critical to a team and how much contribution they make, which is why after a good few games I tend to start predicting games, though not always with success.

I like to look at the superleague.co.uk stats, for example: www.superleague.co.uk/report/9917

Also data from other sources such as Rugby League Project (which is a tad incomplete), Love Rugby League and other sites

In simple terms, most plays consist of a player making only 5 metres a drive, with no offload, a tackle occurring prior to a pass to a runner, no dummy runners and a tackle which holds down the player without penalty long enough for the defence to get back.

Where you see genuine progress upfield is when one of these variables alters, i.e. more metres than 5 will typically result in the defence struggling to re-set, an offload will start to bring players in away from the ruck and against weaker defenders, runners will create additional fatigue by involving more defenders, a quick play the ball will result in the defence struggling to re-set, penalties are massive etc.

The players I tend to not appreciate much are those who are involved in only the 'standard' play meaning that they never seem to make more than the basic 4-5 metres nor create room for the next man up.

Where I feel we struggle is in overpowering the opposition (although the new players will help) but also with game intelligence, for example if we are gifted the ball, we have a tendency to assume it is a free play or try a miracle pass when we still have 5 tackles. Both will be solved in time I feel.

Sorry for this long ramble
Cheers
Mark

Hello Euclid,

I played for a few years for Lancaster University. The highlights were in winning the SRL plate in a great game against Hull Uni and doing very well in the North West Championship and North West division two where we would regularly beat the other North West Unis. We had five student internationals at one point, but alas they graduated together and then we were well beaten most weeks when in the top flight against the likes of Leeds and Leeds Met. Certainly we had highs and lows, I remember us winning 50-0 one week and then losing by more than that the week after and the embarassment of being thrashed at St Helens College which was teenage lads against 18-21 year olds. I used to be on the Bench in the main, coming on as a Prop or Second Rower.

Nowadays I run the Post Office Insurance business but earlier in my career I worked as a Data Analyst for a top ten UK building society and used to program data selections for egg.com so I am data literate to a degree and tend to really study the data from games as well as watching and also try to determine which players are critical to a team and how much contribution they make, which is why after a good few games I tend to start predicting games, though not always with success.

I like to look at the superleague.co.uk stats, for example: www.superleague.co.uk/report/9917

Also data from other sources such as Rugby League Project (which is a tad incomplete), Love Rugby League and other sites

In simple terms, most plays consist of a player making only 5 metres a drive, with no offload, a tackle occurring prior to a pass to a runner, no dummy runners and a tackle which holds down the player without penalty long enough for the defence to get back.

Where you see genuine progress upfield is when one of these variables alters, i.e. more metres than 5 will typically result in the defence struggling to re-set, an offload will start to bring players in away from the ruck and against weaker defenders, runners will create additional fatigue by involving more defenders, a quick play the ball will result in the defence struggling to re-set, penalties are massive etc.

The players I tend to not appreciate much are those who are involved in only the 'standard' play meaning that they never seem to make more than the basic 4-5 metres nor create room for the next man up.

Where I feel we struggle is in overpowering the opposition (although the new players will help) but also with game intelligence, for example if we are gifted the ball, we have a tendency to assume it is a free play or try a miracle pass when we still have 5 tackles. Both will be solved in time I feel.

Sorry for this long ramble
Cheers
Mark