Hull KR in our defence or lack of it

With the first true derby coming up on friday and Hull FC sitting pretty in second while we seem stuck in tenth , I want to try and defend our performances so far this season but im not sure there is any excuse for our poor finishes to games ...there are explanations but we havent been good enough to see games out and that really scares me going into the Hull game .

Yes we are missing a lot of players who would be in our first choice 17 if fit , Ben Galea Blake Green Craig Hall Jake Webster Ryan O'Hara all good players who would imo make the match day squad .
But the players who have played haven't done that badly in their absence , the problem we have struggled with so far this season is closing games out ....we dont play for 80 minutes and teams are taking advantage of that . I did think ater the Huddersfield game that things were maybe changing but then we go and let Cas snatch a last minute victory last night .
We should of beaten Cas yesterday as we controlled more of the game but couldn't turn pressure into points when needed . The same can be said about the Bradford and St Helens games 2 games we should of won .
The Catalans game hinged on a controvesial decision were a forward pass wasn't stopped by the official leading upto Catalans decisive try , in the opening game with Rovers leading Leeds scored a try that the ref said he wouldn't of allowed if he had seen a replay again maybe costing the result , but im not overly concerned by that as mistakes will happen in non televised games and hopefully we will be the ones to benefit in the future ( what goes around comes around and all that ) .

What does concern me are the decisions that our leaders on the park are making when it comes down to the last 20 minutes , panic seems to set in more often then not ...we go from playing attacking flowing rugby to defending our line , the ball is being given back to the oposition far to easily which just invites more pressure ....add that to the silly penaltys we are giving away and it equals to going from a winning position to losing the game . Is there a easy fix YES play for 80 minutes as we showed against Huddersfield the league leaders when we do that we can beat anyone , sounds simple but other teams do it and if we are ever going to challenge for honours ( a long way off i know ) then we have to cut out the errors ...you dont need to offload the ball every tackle sometimes its better to just take the tackle and set up for the next play ... dont invite teams on and concentrate for the full 80 .

Im not going to blame the new coach and in some ways i cant blame the players as they are a new team getting to know one another .We need our big players to step up and take control , some of my mates have said we aren't fit enough thats why we dont play for the full match but i cant see that , for me its not doing the basics right at the decisive times ..a poor choice at the wrong time if you will .

Enough of my ramblings , i just needed to gets this off my chest with the derby on friday and for the first time in 3 seasons i cant see Rovers winning . Hope im wrong or im going to have a very bad few weeks with the banter from the FC mob here .

To be fair i think that it's at both ends of the pitch that we are having problems. Having only been to 3 games so far this season (Leeds, Warrington & Widnes). We could/should have scored more, and because we're not clinical enough this puts extra pressure on our defence, that cracks slightly to often and once teams get through our 1st line of defence i don't think our 2ndry effots Particullarly good.
I'm hoping for a repeat of last year, not a particully good start to the season, but a fantastic end when the players you mentioned come back to fitness. As i think that ther's quite a few average sides this season.
As for Fri, we've lost our last 3 league meetings at the KC, and Hull have started this season like a house on fire, plus the injured players i wasn't holding out much hope anyway. But then again i wasn't at the last derby of 07 (the 42 - 6 win), or in the play off meeting in 10, and we won both.

I would agree that once our main players are back we should be a different side , i just find our lack of leadership at the moment alarming .

Poor decisions in attack and defence are costing us , couple that with some 50/50 refereeing calls going against us and we need to turn things round quickly before a top 8 place gets to far out of reach .

The lack of leadership is an intresting point, the problem there i think is that the injured players are our leaders. Though we let others go (Briscoe, Newton etc), coupled with quite a few new Aussies who are learning the team/comp.

We do have to improve our attack, because as the defence not great we have to score more. The constent changing is not helping. But like i said i think we'll improve though do agree we have to win soon or we could be losing touch with the top 8. Though it's been a wierd season, so tend to think that it will be like last season, in that the bottom 4 will be intouch with everyone else most of the season and not decided to the end.

The next 3 games could be important Hull away, Salford away, London home. Couple wins are need, 2/3 losses and we could be in trouble.

Dont you think we are missing Vella ?

Agree 2 wins are needed out of the next 3 games , just hate going into the Hull game with them playing well and us not .

Play the better sport. It's called rugby union.

No thanks

KingKenny7Heaven wrote:Dont you think we are missing Vella ?

Agree 2 wins are needed out of the next 3 games , just hate going into the Hull game with them playing well and us not .

I'm not sure, as much as Vella was consitent & a leader, i think our props when all fit are better this season. What we need is players like Wheeldon to step up like Taylor has.
As for the Hull game, it could be coming at the right time for us, we need to focus and this is the game to do it, plus as we know form goes out the window hopefully.

As a Warrington fan I always dread the games against Hull KR, they are always tight tough games. You might not be missing Vella the player but are you missing him as a leader?

davidl1061 wrote:As a Warrington fan I always dread the games against Hull KR, they are always tight tough games. You might not be missing Vella the player but are you missing him as a leader?

As a leader undoubtably, but he would need to be playing and thats were i think we arn't missing him.
Funny enough the game at the Hellwell illistrates the point, espically in the 1st half. We had more possesion, and quite a fewinside your 20, but kept going side to side, very rarely forward which Vella would have done. Wire had 3 real chances and scored all of them.
But when our injured players become fit again (Galea's rumoured for this weekend), i doubt he would get in. And to be honest i would hate that more, he was a top bloke who gave his all during games and seeing him as abit part player would be unfair to him.

I was thinking that he never seemed to make many yards after collision last season. I was surprised we won the game at the HJ with the way we played and think we were very lucky after some shoddy play. I think the link between Dobson and Hall looked really promising in that game

davidl1061 wrote:I was thinking that he never seemed to make many yards after collision last season. I was surprised we won the game at the HJ with the way we played and think we were very lucky after some shoddy play. I think the link between Dobson and Hall looked really promising in that game

I wasn't, the scoreline flattered you, but you deserved the win as we just didn't look like scoring, and you were clinical when you had your chances. You right that Wire didn't play particularly well, but your defence was good.
Hall has been a revelation at stand off, and along with Josh Hodgson has been our best attacking player so far we've missed him the last few games. will be intresting to see what Sandercock does when Greens fit, Hall is a far better player when he's more involved.

Might be sour grapes but i dont think Fc should of been allowed to register Radford for friday , what if he does something that gets him put on report that cost Rovers the game ? its not going to bother Radford as hes said its only for this one game hes coming back so any ban he would get would count for nothing