Quote Rock God X="Rock God X"The game was indicative of our whole season - good defence, poor attack. This needs to change pretty quickly if next season is to be anything other than yet another disappointment.'"
"indicative of our season"?
Yesterday's game was indicative of our approach to the game for too many years now. Year after year we have failed to respect and value the ball. The odd wild pass apart (Miller to the TJ), most of the dropped balls came from the receiving player being guilty of man watching. Turning over ball like we did is always going to result in punishment and we got our a[ir[/ises handed to us on a plate yesterday.
I'd heard during the week that Gentle intended to play an expansive game but given yesterday's conditions, I expect that game plan was ripped up. But instead of five drives and a kick, we opted for two drives and a scrum. Failing to execute quick PtBs resulted in our kickers having little time to execute a useful punt downfield, on the few occasions we managed to complete a set - all too often the ball went straight down Tompkins throat. Add to that a lack of chase (not Rangii) and we were usually defending in our own half.
Wigan weren't great but we were woeful in attack, lacking patience and forcing passes that inevitably led to errors and handing possession back to the opposition. At 6-0 down after 40 minutes, I still considered we had a chance. When Wigan went for two points early in the 2nd half, I consider that had more to do with respect for our defence than the weather conditions. And those claiming that we should have gone for goal in similar positions are wise in hindsight but if we had kicked, how would that have improved our attack? OK we wouldn't have been nilled but that's just a pride thing, we still wouldn't have significantly changed the way we were playing and we'd still have lost. We needed to cross for a try to gain any confidence an the panic football we were playing made that a very difficult prospect.
Some have singled players out for criticism: Ben Crooks for allowing Thornely's try but minutes earlier he'd wrapped up Pat Richards to prevent what looked a certain try. Perhaps Crooks wasn't 100% but who else would we play there? We had no 3/4s left and Whiting's best position is from the bench. It would have been a major mistake to put Horney on the pitch. Richard Horne has been a talisman this year but he'd been out for three months and would have been found sadly lacking on the Wembley turf.
One play I would have liked to see yesterday was kicking early in the tackle count, we've got the best defence in Superleague and we should have been using that in Wigan's half of the field, not our own. That would then transfer the pressure to our opponents and force them into playing panic football. We used similar tactics against Wire in the semi and that didn't turn out too shabby. That game also proved we do have some tricks up our sleeve - Whiting's try was a classic training ground move that was perfectly executed.
I'm disappointed about yesterday but that's the sixth time I've seen us lose at Wembley so it's not an alien experience. I suppose living as far away as I do also helps develop a sense of detachment, I certainly don't have to suffer any stupid Rovers supporters crowing at me. I do have some concerns about our squad for next year, especially the forwards, we've wasted Ellis's talents by using him to donkey the ball in instead of running the lines he has done so effectively in the past. Similarly Westerman came as a ball-playing loose forward but we seem happy to have turned him into another donkey. Paea will replace Ogre but we desperately need at least one more mongrel prop to help get us on the front foot. I'd love to see us playing axpansive rugby but until we can better value the possession, that ain't going to happen anytime soon.
Do I still believe Gentle can do it for us? At the moment, yes, I am still convinced he has what it takes to win us silverware but that's going to require a vast improvement in the basic skill sets required and a radical change of attitude from all the playing staff
