It's become a recurring theme this season and really needs addressing. I'm going to go a bit "Phil Clarke" in stats here, but it does highlight a huge problem area for us.

Here I've listed the round, opponent (home/away), score and what happened in the last 10 mins scoring-wise:

1. Catalans (a) postponed.
2. Wire (h) 20-20 - 79th min try to Wire.
3. London (h) 22-14 - 71st min try and con to London.
4. Salford (a) 24-22 - 71st min try and con to Salford + 80th min penalty.
5. Wakefield (h) 14-10 - 71st min try to Wakey + 76th min try and con.
6. Saints (a) 10-22 - 71st min pen to Hull + 77th min pen + 79th min try and con.
7. Widnes (h) 58-10 - 70th min try to Widnes + 80th min try and con.
8. Castleford (a) 28-42 - 77th min try and con to Hull. 80th min try and con to Cas.
9. Bradford (h) 24-18 - 71st min try to Hull + 77th min pen.
10. Hull KR (h) 36-6 - 73rd min try and con to Hull + 80th min try and con.
11. Huddersfield (a) 22-4 - 70th min try and con to Hudds + 76th min try and con + 80th min pen.
CCRnd4: Hudds (h) 16-42 - 73rd min try to Hudds.
12. Wigan (h) 12-56 - 72nd min try and con to Wigan + 79th min try.
13. Leeds (h) 34-20 - 73rd min try and con to Hull + 78th min try and con. 80th min try and con to Leeds.
14. London (a) 12-14 - 71st min try and con to London.
15. Hull KR (n) 30-32 - 70th min try and con to KR + 73rd min try and con + 80th min try.
16. Saints (h) 18-18 - 80th min pen to Saints.

Out of 16 games, we've failed to prevent the other team scoring in the last 10 mins on 13 occasions.
Of those 13 occasions, the result changed from us winning to us drawing twice, and from us winning to us losing twice. A total of 6 dropped points (we'd be joint top).
Out of 16 games, we've only managed to score more points than our opponents in the last 10 mins 4 times. We've drawn once.
Two clean sheets were lost in the last 10 minutes, both managing to score 10 points.
Of the 342 points we've conceded in games this season, 104 of them were scored in the last 10 minutes. That's nearly 1/3rd of all points in 1/8th of the game period.
Of the 388 points we've scored in games, 46 of them were in the last 10 mins. That's fairly proportionate. A little bit less than 1/8th of all points in 1/8th of game time.
We've only been the last team to post points in a game on 3 occasions this season.


It's clear to see this is a major issue we have as a team. To concede 1/3rd of all your points at the back end of the game means we're either not fit enough, not concentrating enough or not mentally able to cope in pressure situations. I hope this is an area PG can strengthen as we won't win anything for a while.

3 of our forwards playing 80 minutes a week contributes. houghton is unavoidable but there is no reaon to make manu and tickle play the full game every week. Fatigue must set in

very good point. after semi descent first half to the season things look to be going a tad stale. cue the return of Herimia to breeth new life into the team (hoping)

Nice piece of research, thanks.

I was trying to figure this out on the way home, I came to the same conclusion, 6 competition points thrown away to avoidable scores, almost exclusively in the last minute or so.

Although it has happened far too often for it to be a coincidence I do think some of the penalties that have cost us points have been harsh, the one at Salford and the one yesterday were both dubious. Given that awarding those penalties was almost certainly going to change the result of the game the referee has to be certain when the award them.

No excuse for the wire and rovers tries though, fatigue and lack of concentration cost us there.

Phil Clarke won't be happy about this thread

Seriously though its quite interesting to read, interesting comments about making players play the full 80, in close games you'd wonder if this played on the players minds.

I'd be interested to see the same research into the last 5 minutes before halftime as well. It seems that we've always been a team that ships points just before half time , certainly in the SL era anyway , regardless of who the players or coach has been but I don't know whether that's supported by the stats. Perhaps more points are scored at the end of each half in general because of fatigue? I tend to think that good coaches improve the chances of avoiding it by rotating players just before fatigue sets in rather than when it noticably has. One thing I agree with Phil Clark on is that the best players don't switch off for a second and it's probably a major factor in winning games which then builds confidence that the players need to have in each other.

This is nothing like PCs stats they are relevant, interesting and illustrate a real situation.

Excellent point.

It drives me mad the minutes the are playing week in and week out and must play a part in our finish to games.

I also am concerned that they will be completely burnt out by the time the play-offs come around or that fatigue plays a part in them picking up a costly injury.

It's no coincidence that Manu and Tickle have the most missed tackles of our players. They need to be spelled to keep them fresh.

We must be the only team that gets tired eh

Dont think Sharps injury yesterday helped the planned rotations though

Can tell it's half term, Wellsy

You've made some good points there though mate. It is frustrating that we rarley seem to see teams off and there's usually a feeling the team can threaten towards the end of the match. 6 points dropped from the last 10 minutes of our matches is incredible, I'm sure it must be something they are working on.

It's especially frustrating that Tickle and Manu don't get spelled when we go into games with 3 players who are comfortable, natural back rowers on the bench, and then play 3 different players at loose forward with the same second rowers.

I wonder if Sharp hadn't got injured what the plan would have been with rotation, since O'Carroll only did 15 minutes in the first half and was sat on the bench til minute 75 in the second.

Turner certainly switched off when he dropped the easiest interception imaginable with 5 to go. He catches that, he scores, game over. Mistakes like that are inexcusable.