Quote JTB="JTB"I see this one as a scratch game too. Whilst I can understand the last couple of weeks wobbly performances, I can't entirely dismiss them when thinking about this week. So much of defending in crunch games is a mindset of discipline which I think is a lot harder to flick a switch on and off from as opposed to attacking structures.
Attack wise, our real advantage comes from being able to score from any part of the pitch due to the pace in our back 3. Watson still coaches in the 'grind out sets' style which can go one of two ways with us. If we have one of our ball-juggling jittery performances it leaves us pinned on our line as per 2 weeks ago.
That said as others have mentioned I feel the cup has been targetted this year. Our cup performances this year have been a cut above most SL ones and our points difference in the cup just from a handful of games can't be far of our league tally. They have us in the centres but I feel our back row - both in attacking threat and in game experience - may be the difference. Pre-match ales for nerves will help.'"
It’s a good summary. I can’t say I was particularly pleased with the mentality in that first 20 minutes at Hull on Saturday. I’ll give them credit because they did put it behind them and got back to playing properly but for 20 minutes, it just felt like a small club mentality of ‘I’ve got a cup final to play in next week, so screw this’.
The proof will be in the pudding on Saturday but I always feel momentum is tough to create and easy to throw away and we had great momentum going in to the semi. We’d been excellent at Wire and took it in to the semi and whilst I wasn’t against the rests at Huddersfield, we have lost some momentum. I suppose on the plus side, we did play pretty well outside that first 20 minutes, so maybe we can get straight back in the grove.
I’m nervous already and don’t have a great feeling about it but that’s probably just natural final pessimism.
