The 1st half was as good as we have played under Smith. Players running on the ball at pace, winning the ruck and excellent line speed in defence leading to us dominating field position. Everything we have been crying out for
and what has been lacking in most other games this season and last. The ball was in play with few stoppages and we looked great. Credit to Saints, we could have been well in front by half time against most sides.
Unfortunately the 2nd half was more of what we have served up too often recently. Errors, followed by conceding territory too easily. We stopped doing all the things that were working in the 1st half.
That said there was a lot to like and I actually thought it was probably our best performance of the season, despite losing.

That’s what i was told, Smith says different in his presser so who knows

Im not sure what game you were watching, Oledski dominated every collision in attack and defence and we dropped when he went off.

Agreed but I would Credit Saints who basically came out and outplayed us.

There was some costly errors though.

As you said, I haven’t seen a rhinos team play like that first half for a long time, i do think we are going to give some teams a hiding, hopefully Cas at Easter. We’ve played all teams that were above us last year bar Wigan, not too concerned with
3 out of 5

Its going to take time to be able to play full games like the first half. Until it becomes second nature and just the way we play we will continue to lapse into bad habits.

Couple of things for me. We will make mistakes, all teams do, and cutting out utterly stupid ones will obviously help. But we need to react better when we make them. Secondly we really look too light up front due to the forward rotation we have. There are times when simple size and strength makes life easier for everyone. Coming out of defensive positions is one thing, but our lack of genuine threat from big forwards near the line makes it hard for us to break defences because they know they don't need to throw multiple defenders into the middle. They can keep well spread, which makes it difficult for the backs when facing a defensive line with all 13 players in it. Contrast with how teams have to defend against Walmsley and co

Hopefully Lisone coming back will help hes been a big miss for the last 3 games imo

The errors allowed/encouraged Saints to play though. Frawley out in the full was bad. Miller out on the full even worse, they scored off that next set. Newman drops it in good ball. Croft fails to collect their second drop out in a row and all the pressure we’ve built disappears.

Saints just didn’t make those kind of errors and we couldn’t live with the intensity for long enough tonight.

Agreed.

Smith likes a moan doesn't he?.

Being that good for first 30, makes the rest of it even more disappointing!

What did he moan about?

Didn’t Wellens get fined for moaning?

Yeah i agree but Saints defensive effort in the first half keot them in a position to take advantage of those errors, they ate clinical. They are also a settled side, we’ll get there

Think we need to be physically fitter to get to that level for longer. We looked tired in that second half, when should have been other way round considering how much Saints spent on D…..

Wish they'd play with more structure. We've done great talent and mixing the off the cuff stuff with structured attack would work wonders.

Saints simply came out harder and stronger than us for the start of the 2nd half. Need lisone and fusitua back ASAP. Would rather have olpherts on wing and Roberts on loan at wakey.

Said it was unsporting of Saints to withdraw Makinson so late
Walked in to the presser saying i'm not going to mention the ref

Saints are machine like, we’re not at that level yet.

Fortunately theres only them and Wigan who are.

So he didn’t moan then.

Not come onto to gloat but the comments about Oledski being the best prop in the league is a worry for you? He'll tackle and he did put a hit on Big Alex once. BUT going forward he's a pudding and runs out of gas? Would not swap him for young Delaney.

Best team won. Quite comfortable in the end though we were a good watch for some of it. Usual pros and cons though I was pleased with our discipline. I think we have the building blocks of a good side but might be at that stage where an uncle Tony is needed to replace a Daryl Powell because at the end of the day, for all its gloss, our attack isn't that effective. That said, saints would have beaten most sides last night.

Best first half we have seen under Smith, but we didn’t put enough points on the board and we only scored one try at home in the whole game. For all the flashy plays we see sometimes we don’t score enough points, let’s see how that goes against some of the weaker teams as we’ve played the better ones (bar Wigan) over the first rounds.

We need to be able to play structured attack as well as off the cuff, and we don’t seem to do the former very well at all. Look back to how Cas played when they finished top, their attack was devastating with Gale having lots of options to choose from all over the field. Of course they screwed up at the GF, but they were dynamite through the regular rounds. If we have aspirations of finishing in with a chance, we must start scoring more points, and when I look at the team sheet and how we play I’m not sure I can see where they are coming from.

In defence, I think we have improved loads, they scored one try out wide, one try due to a misread in defence and another from a kick that should have been diffused, but not really from open play other than Bennison. That’s because we have learned how to defend as a unit for periods, but we need to be able to play like that for longer.

We’re improving, but still have a long way to go to really threaten the top teams consistently. Can we do that under R/S, I don’t know but the next few weeks against some of the weaker teams in the comp will tell us a lot.

Quality first 25-30 mins from Leeds but were just unable to keep it going.

I don’t think there is much between the 2 teams at all and wouldn’t surprise me if Leeds beat saints in the CC

Back in yet tank, Rommel


I thought Oledzski had a decent game last night. Walmsley probably better, barring his kicking game. But look at Mik's supporting cast. We had 2 lightweight tacklers in the SR, a number 10 who's effectively in the same mould, Goudemand (another with little go forward), Sangare (go forward but limited involvement) and Cam Smith whose remit is hardly the hard yards. I think even Big Al might struggle under those circs.

First half we performed well for 30 minutes played some excellent rugby. Then saints fought back and in the end ran out convincing winners.
Make no mistake about this, we are a deeply flawed side, no attacking structure it’s all off the cuff rugby. Second half as per normal get down to the opposition 25 ,no meaningful plan to unlock the saints defence. Try we conceded under our posts was an absolute shocker, the Benison try was smart passing along the line. A decent defence would have coped with that. So far this season we haven’t produced a decent 80 minute performance .
Second half Croft tried his best with very little support runners. Tompkins who is turning out to be an excellent match analyst summed it up perfectly in comparing both sides playing methods. One will always prevail over the other, Saints have that and have proved it in recent seasons.
Saints must be paying Welsby a huge amount of money to keep him away from the Australian clubs. He is one hell of a player. Smith absolutely right in complaining about the referee letting Saints slow the ruck down. Saints players making no attempt ,having completed the tackle to clear the ruck area. If you recall several seasons ago this was picked up by referees and penalised. It didn’t have any bearing on the result but needs sorting out.
At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious we need to win next week, another defeat would be a huge set back.

Can’t decide what I think about Cam Smith.
Is he a grafter, with good hands and good leadership?
Or a painfully slow player who gets in the way of offensive structures?

Well, tbf I expected to lose by more.
Saints are just more organised, disciplined and clinical.

Positives:
First half was good and we started to show some real identity.
Miller is a real box of tricks and will be exciting to watch.
Mik is starting to get back to form (he's not the best prop in SL btw).
Sangare is getting fitter.
Goudemand is going pretty well, but he shouldn't be one of our regular 4 prop rotation.

Negatives:
We're yet to play for 80 minutes.
The attack is all still a bit too off the cuff and very unstructured.
Way too many errors in second half.
Frawley's kicking is terrible.
We don't put any pressure on the opposition kicker. Frawley was under pressure every time.
The selections and use of the bench is still really poor from Smith - we noticeably drop off when changes are made.

Oh and it was cold and wet....