Quote: Cherry.Pie "The problem area in defence isn't Goulding, Smith or Charnley, it's the players inside them. Every try that Rovers made down that right hand side and every break came because Rovers had a massive overlap, with 7 or 8 players facing 4 or 5. There's very little the wide defenders can do in that situation. If they stick they'll be criticised for being hesitant, if they rush out they'll be accused of causing the try by rushing out. The players defending down the middle were pretty useless at spotting the fact that Rovers were adding numbers on the short side. That's one of the areas that O'Loughlin makes a big difference to, because he reads the defence, spots the movement of players and will direct players into the right positions or move himself across to cover. No one down the middle showed any organisation or managed to spot that the numbers were wrong and as a result the players out wide were made to look incompetent when really they were faced with an impossible task. That's without taking into account the fact that Rovers did have good shape in those attacking situations too which probably would have troubled a defence that was numbered up correctly.'"
Cracking post.
Thursday showed the difference when the forwards in the middle slide and mark as they are supposed to. The forwards certainly got the blame for the tries against Hull KR and it is a big reason why Bateman started instead of Hughes. It is far too simplistic just to blame the wide men especially when they were continually being left with 5 or 6 v 3.
