What went wrong?

Having been at the game, I felt it wise to let things settle before sharing a a few thoughts on it. We all agree it wasn’t a good day at the office, but there are some things that I feel impacted us and very little is directed at the ref, our downfall is down to LI and us only.

The team sheet.

Didn’t like the look our pack, seeing Rogerson back in when we had Cracknell and Pearson on the bench was ridiculous. I am aware Rogerson has a fan base and he does work hard but both those guys on the bench are better than him.

We were going to be in an arm wrestle with the Saints pack, we needed physicality but we don’t get that in Rogerson or Munga. Pearson made an instant impact when he came on, which made the initial call to start Rogerson even worse. Munga didn’t have a good game but he wasn’t on his own, I think the occasion got to him. What was noticeable for me was that he still seems very skinny compared to the other lads in his position. His jersey was baggy on him, at one stage Lewis Ludlum had him by the jersey and wouldn’t let go, he was just toying with chunya, looked like a kid getting bullied in the playground.

George Nott is Mr Consistency and would have been a better bet starting this game. Parton shouldn’t have been on the bench. My observations about him aren’t critical, just purely thoughts on a guy who has come back from a second bad leg injury. Seeing him against Quins the week before and now this week, the old Parton is a long way from making an appearance, current Parton has become very pedestrian and almost grinds to a halt before heading straight for contact, a long way from the guy who would seek out and exploit even the smallest of gaps. I hope this is a confidence issue and he’ll come good once he’s had more time training, this was not the game for him get minutes, arundell has done all that’s asked of him and yet didn’t get a spot. If we keep sidelining the young lads when the chance comes, they’ll leave, simple as that. Looks like it’s already happening with Phil C.

What happened to Albert?

He played in a cup game against Quins and then isn’t around the next one. If he was dropped , that’s insult to the fans who should have seen him this week, if he got injured in the Quins game, it’s appalling player management. Biggest game of the season, we needed to wrap players in cotton wool to minute any risk so we could have our strongest squad possible.

Discipline.

We’ve had 5 or 6 cards in the last three league games which have cost us a win at sale and the very real chance of wins against tigers and saints, at least would have got bonus points at a minimum. This week, Simmons let everyone down, no need to touch that ruck, I thought he was getting a red when I saw it.

Kicking out of hand

How bad is the kicking out of hand is from pretty much all our backline? It’s been bad all season, for those who were at the game, we invited so much pressure on ourselves by delivering the ball on a plate the the saints back three over and over again. With Biggar dropping back into the pocket he had so much time to orchestrate a counter attack given the lack of organised chase. I find bad kicking unacceptable, it’s a part of the game that can be worked on and we play on a nice surface with a lot of wind protection. Some people on this board think Jackson can do no wrong but he’s not a good kicker, simple. Either at posts, in open play or for touch, it’s poor. Saints scored two tries in the corners, Biggar steps up and nails them both. Too many times we’ve lost out on points because of the amount of points lost due to missed conversions. We make such small yardage when kicking for the corners, leaving the forwards no chance for the forwards to get a roll on. There were a few times in this game that we had penalties around the middle of the park and didn’t even get in to the 22, never mind anywhere near the five metre line.

Take the three, Barry!

We keep ignoring simple threes and going for the corner. So often we get turned over at the subsequent line out because our maul lacks power. We had the option of a simple three and ignored it. We should have taken it and then reset ready to go again but it turned into a horrible stage of the game that ended up with a yellow card. That’s poor leadership, simple as that. Rogerson isnt the guy to lead the troops, he’s the weakest link that pack, O'Brien did more talking to Barnes than Mat did.

Moving on from the game.

There are some bigger picture things to take on board as well:

1. Our squad is fragile, take out a few of the lads and we become a lot poorer for it. Other teams seem to be able to cope a little better with absences.
2. The gap between our starting lot and the younger recruits is still worrying large. Munga showed this weekend that for all the chat from Eddie etc, he’s got some way to go. The other young lads haven’t made that leap to ever threaten the first team. Saints have Grayson and others who can easily step in, we don’t. We’ve become overly reliant on imports to fix this problem, they’re great players but it’s not sustainable and they always leave. When Coleman, Simmons and Nic leave, the calibre of the squad goes with it.
3. Our academy doesn’t seem to produce many forwards, we’re known for back but so few forwards. We need to raid the championship and other teams fringe players. Look what we got in White and Rowe, there’s plenty of lads out there, we need to phase out having so many imports in the squad if we are to build a sustainable model that challenge the top 4.

It’s a long old read but these last few games are a repeat of last season where we dropped like a stone. Given that everyone has a game in hand, it’ll take a huge momentum shift to keep ourselves in top 8. If we miss out again, it’s a stain on the management and squad.