Quote Wildmoggy="Wildmoggy"I don't see how you can say we were missing Sau and MCB, as well as TJ & Tupou, as the first 2 are only here because Tj and Bill got injured in the first place!! In the last 3-4 weeks we have got back Ashurst, England, Miller, Randell & Brough, and have only beaten Widnes. The teams we put out against London & Catalans were good enough, but the performances weren't. Too many individuals are giving 4/10 performances, we just aren't playing well enough. Yesterday was always going to be tough, but Saints didn't even play that well for me, they made more errors than us, gave us chances to get into the game, and we didn't take them. Friday is a massive game, and we've got to start playing better, too many players are underperforming and have got to start upping their game, or else it's going to be a very disappointing season, injuries or not.'"
I can see how he says it because we got those 2 to replace Tom and Bill and they're not even available, so we have to put new players in and the team dynamics change again. Ateotd it's just a list of who could play, whether first choice or second choice but can't because of injury etc,
For me we've gone from sort of dealing with the injuries in the most part, to it catching up with us then the performances have dropped off and we've been all over the place the last few games, even during the course of 80 minutes. Saying that we should of/could of won against Catalans and that would have been the confidence boost we needed. Even with a few returning players, who seem to me to not be playing as good as they were pre-injury, we just look like a team the last 3 games or so playing short on confidence, that leads to errors, penalties etc. Also I might be wrong but some of those that have returned from injury, might in an ideal world have had an extra week or two. Brough certainly looked like he could have done with another week or so off, to maybe get some full contact training in after the pins were removed.
Another big thing for playing consistent RL is how often have we fielding the same team. From about a couple of months in we've seen so much chopping and changing through injuries etc it's been the craziest season I can remember in my time of watching Trinity. It's going to be hard to get any consistency imo with what we've been through this season so far and lack of consistency obviously brings lack of confidence.
Ateotd a team like Trinity on the finances we have just can't afford to lose Tupou, Johnstone, Arona, Ashurst, Brough, Miller, Huby, England etc and remain consistent, there's no team in SL that can have such an injury crisis and keep their standard of play fairly high week in week out. Hopefully when Fifita comes back and Ashurst, Brough, England etc get more game time into them we can produce a performance which will set up the rest of the season - then when Tupou returns that will also be a massive boast because it's been obvious we've missed his huge meters he contributes a game, which was I believe over 150 meters per game before injury, his tries and his deadly combination on the left with Tom.
Saying all that the performance against London was ridiculous first time, the second was even more so. That team we put out that day was easily good enough to get the business done, similarly at home against Hull KR. We've also developed this awful ability to not be switched on for the first 40, that seems to have got even worse of late. A team like ours that doesn't spend as much as others should be really focusing and perfecting all aspects of the game that doesn't come down to cash and intensity and controlled aggression is a big one.
