Yes sykes was our culprit last night for that.



I like watching the super 14 (yawion) and they have a rule where they have to take their conversions in 30 secs or lose it, i am also sure its coming in to english RU quite soon so maybe RL should look at this idea.

Because half the time its not about kicking the ball, there either taking a drink, cleaning their shoes, pulling their socks up or using a piece of grass to see the direction of the way the wind blows. I think it almost took one of danny tickles conversions last night 3 mins !!!! as a RL supporter i want to watch the game and not spend half the game looking at the kickers.

I'm glad someone else has mentioned the length of the first half, we had got it to 45 minutes before the hooter went but we couldn't see the countdown clock anywhere, did we really have 5 minutes worth of stoppages.

I didn't really understand that. I know teams do it when they're winning in order to waste time, but we were losing. I know teams do it to have a rest, but we really didn't have time to be resting, we needed points. It seemed like an incredibly strange time to be taking so long for dropouts, but Sykes did it on more than one occasion last night in the second half.

I really couldn't work out how it was helping us at all to be wasting the time.



Regarding the goal kicking btw, Tickle is the worst in the league for wasting time. He was even worse for it when he was at Wigan. At goal kicks though, I believe there is a rule that says after 1 minute, the clock gets stopped.

Anyone else noticed that Saints at home is the o ly game where we haven't reversed last year's result? Don't know what that means.

the clock is in the north stand to the left of the big screen as i look at it from the east stand, it stops when the ref signals 'time off'

yes, i believe that is the rule and it was applied last night, the clock was stopped whilst tickle was about to take his kick, this maybe explains y the 2nd half lasted 47 mins

I personally think that the RFL should introduce a rule where for dead ball kicks like conversions and drop outs the clock should be stopped from the moment the ball goes out of play until it is kicked. There's always been players who taken forever with their kicks and it ruins the flow of the game.

I can understand kicking a conversion from the touchline is harder than from bang in front of the posts, but there are players who take just as long for one as the other and it's done as a way to run down the clock.

the game clock which counts down the halves is situated in NW corner, it was 40 mins on there when the 1st half ended, as Thaler stopped the clock at various points, from North stand you guys were possibly looking at actual clock in SW corner.

Mick, when you post something ike that I find it hard to take anything else you post serious. Halley will never be a top class FB as long as he has a hole in his botty. He is a winger.

I'm undecided how I stand with conversions. Tickle does take an age, possibly the longest in the league, but he does also have an outstanding conversion rate so does this justify it? Not sure tbh.
Also in terms of breaking the flow of the game, when a try is scored the whole affair stops for awhile anyways so I'm not personally too bothered about the time taken for conversions but I do see where you're coming from.
Time wasting at dropouts does annoy me though as I think it certainly does breakup the game more. When the ball skips dead in goal for example you generally don't see teams pratting around getting the ball back for a 20m restart so I've always thought dropouts should be taken in that sort of timeframe.

(This isn't just stemming from last nights came btw, I've been saying this for a bit about dropouts.)

I came up with a rule for this. If the defence takes over 45 seconds for any reason inc injury, the attack gets an 8 tackle set

How did Donaldson go against Hull ?

Maybe I should concentrate on the refs then. That would get your approval.

You say this, then give us this gem.



and



Dear me. World class? Stop being so bloody silly.

First half your defence was very good. It was only the last 5 minutes when you started to tire and Manu came close and then Tansey scored. Second half you were still hard to break down on your own line but I thought we found it alot easier to get over the advantage line.

I would be a little worried about your fitness though. You had all the field position in the first half and we had to take alot of punishment, yet you looked very tired at the end of the half and the fact you let us score so late was what won the game, you could tell there was no coming back from it.

We looked tired because we struggled to contain the Hull pack after they played up the middle virtually all game. We're a Prop down and we need to address this if we have hopes of finishing well inside the play off spots.

If a number of the squad had been down with sickness over recent days, and it seems clear some at least should not really have played had there been any alternative (I guess we could have given Worrincy a run...

) - all as has been suggested, then that would likely help explain a lot of things fitness-wise?

Worrincy was walking like he had a pelvic injury so that was probably why he wasn't on the bench, shame really as he would have had to front with half the team not at full fitness, Sheriffe fronted up so maybe Worrincy might have!

I think that is his usual walk to be honest! I think we can cope without Worrincy 'fronting up' for us for a little bit longer yet!

I don't think anybody disagrees with that

You can understand why teams do it though, since they are invariably under the cosh and have just defended at least one set of six already. We all know that defending takes far more out of players than attacking so it's inevitable that (all) teams take as long as they can get away with at drop outs just so they can have a bit of a breather; what is perhaps more difficult understand is why referees let them get away with it.

Oh I certainly understand why they do it and while they can teams would be stupid not to.

You talk sense

Ah! So you are an alias then? I knew that there had to be some reason for your posts.

On a second point, assuming the ref allows it, a QUICK drop out could pay dividends because defenders don't actually rush back either; a quick dab to just beyond the ten metre line and retain possession?