I agree with all that has been said - our forwards were the greatest tonight but can I just throw in Ewen Dowes - He was such a different player to what we have seen over the years - yards - offloads ??

It was pretty patchy. Thought we weren't great defensively in the 1st half, and other than the purple patch after HT we struggled to open them up despite plenty of posession.

As for briscoe, he was left completely high and dry when they were bombing him. Where are the centre and 2nd rower giving him some protection?

That was pretty much how I saw it. I was concerned at half time that we were looking a little shaky defensively and hadn't looked like scoring too many points. We looked much better in the second half though and should improve again next week with Long back.

As I said before the game, Cas look a very average side this season. Think they'll struggle to make the 8.



He does need more protection, but he also needs to learn how to jump and contest a high ball.

Reading through the previous posts and posts on other threads I think people are being very picky!
Despite the 12 - 12 half time score line I was very confident and thought our go forward looked good. I thought we had to be wearing them down ready for the second half. We made easy yards, off loaded, we looked big, strong, Manu and Org were causing havoc. Tansey was everywhere (the fact that he's not in peoples MOM is a credit to how other people played) Horne ran at the line side steping rather than his usual ineffective 'stop' and step. Fitz and Dowes were also outstanding. Hall, Yeaman did nothing wrong at all.
Not everyone can have amazing games. If I was to nit pick it would be about Turner. His kicking game was very good but he seams to offer little go forward. He will make way for Long next week I think.
As for the Whiting issue... Yes he was unlucky to be on the bench, but there is no doubt Tansey offers so much more. Its about winning games remember, nothing else. It proves Agar has the balls to make tough calls. I think Agar acknowledged Whitings MOM last week by putting him on the bench rather than Danny H.
There trys... I was not to convinced Evans made the line! Chase's kick and chase you cant defend against. Briscoe did nothing wrong for the Ainscough try, it was the cover that was missing. The Hudson try worried me a little, a soft try from the dummy half if I remember right.
All in all I was more than happy last night. The best bit for me was how we looked so dangerous without Mr Long on the field.

Steve

Totally agree said the same at the game. Briscoe did what he could given the circumstance, he was never going to win the ball but he stopped Evans from scoring and held him upright but nobody came to assist, in fact there was nobody even close to hand. Defending a kick is a collective effort, we just seem to leave it to the wingers if they don't deal with it the opposition score.

Agreed. We're always going to struggle to a certain extent with height, but there's no excuse for leaving the winger quite so exposed. I noticed also there were a couple of occasions on in the 2nd half where Briscoe was left defending a 2 on 1.

I thought most of the problem came from Turner defending in the centres, I lost count of the amount of times he drifted in and left Briscoe to defend two or three men. As for Ainscoughs' try, for me it was created by a fantastic kick (and chase) from Sherwin; his vision from the other side of the field to see Briscoe out on his own and totally isolate him was a quality play.
If I have any criticism of Briscoe it's that he should probably be calling his centre out more, rather than being dragged infield.

You can tell briscoe has played centre all his life by his defensive positioning. He always drifts infield

O'Meeley's 2nd spell changed the game, he was outstanding in everything he did. The pace he showed for Horn'e first try was impressive too. We lacked enthusiasm in the first half I thought, it was reminicent on the Crusaders match especially in defence when we had zero line speed.

In the second half we were much better and some of the hits were superb. The agression shown by Fitz with and without the ball was fantastic.

Still as well as Shrek and Fitz played I thought Horne was outstanding and his 2nd try was sheer class.

Considering we missed three other good try scoring opportunities we coul have racked up a really big score last night but still the first half was a bit hit and miss.

First half I thought there was a lack of spark from our 9,7 and 6. I thought Berro was a bit off the pace with some of his distribution inaccurate and laboured and little dummy running. Although Horney created the kick try I thought he wasn't taking the line on well or looking like he wanted to run with ball in hand. Turner was similar to last week doing some good things but again not imposing himself on the game.

Second half it seemed clear to me that the coach had given the playmakers a bit of a rocket. Horne suddenly started taking the ball to the line and asking their defence to make some decisions instead of us playing in front of them. In addition the toughness of our first half pack performance started to tell as the number of defenders they were getting into the tackle was reduced. In turn we got a slightly faster ptb and Berro started running out of acting half instead of the slow first half passes.

Throughout the game penalties cost us in terms of tries conceded as near our line they attacked well which we knew would be the case. Well done to the coach for upping the ante in the second half and getting the hooker/halves doing their jobs. Like the Hudds game I think we would have lost this game last year as our pack would have lost the battle but instead the relentless power and aggression reaped dividends. I was pleased to see that for the first time in a long time we seemed to have another gear to step up to and that without Longy.

I think Fitz proved beyond doubt that he is far far more than a battering ram at 13. If there was any doubt then there can no longer be what with his involvement in set plays, his kick chase, his support play.

As for Horne he was excellent in the second half and deserved his MOM but first half he berro and turner were not doing enough.

As for Ogre the guy is sheer quality and we are lucky to have him here.