Quote:
Jake the Peg "Quote: Jake the Peg "For all the armchair coaches claim the team selection was wrong and we are too light in an ageing pack (which we can't do anything about til next season but let's moan anyway) we only just fell short. Failure to handle two kicks (which was backs and not forwards) a knock on our own line (which again was a back) was ultimately our downfall.
Two uncharacteristic misses at goal by Sneyd and poor in field kicking (from youve guessed it the backs) was the reason we fell short by a margin. On another day it would or could have being oh so different.
That's not being happy to have a small loss on record or just a general happy clapped. It's being realistic and calling it how it is. I will more then anyone slate the club and players when it is warranted, not just after every loss.'"
sneyd's kicking wasn't great but he was put under a lot of pressure by warrington, something we failed to do with austin which is either a tactical error or players not following the coach's instructions. He was also invariably kicking from inside his own half because our backs were ineffective at gaining good ground out of our 20 and we didn't have enough size in the forwards to dominate the opposition. I started watching the game back today and the speed of their play the ball compared to ours was massively quicker as they were completely dominating the ruck.
We really should have won that game if we'd played anywhere near our potential but poor ball control and poor kicking put us under consistent pressure and didn't really give us a chance. The team who controlled the ball better yesterday were always likely to win and wire did that by some margin'"
The other main point which for me made a difference between winning or losing was the difference in the defensive line speed. Warrington as soon as we ptb they were on top of us and in our face and we very rarely had anyone steaming into a ball at pace. Where as we let Warrington ptb and conceded at least 12-15M each and every time by just standing and waiting for them. That’s how they made so much ground each set as we were just surrending field position. That’s why Warrington were more effective with their kicking game as they were more often able to put in attacking kicks under no pressure to trouble us where as Sneyd/Kelly were more often having to kick from outside their 40 line.
It’s something we’ve been guilty of since last season and it needs addressing as it seems to empty our tank and may explain why we can’t do 80 mins consistently with the effort needed to make up the ground we concede.
Warrington had the right game plan and executed it and fir the full 80 mins and deserved the win.