yes, thanks nothus for the link. Platts defence not so good but he did make two tries, and yes also in those same two tries theres that old has-been who cannot pass a ball Jamie Langley, passing the ball. Of course its a Cas video so for example the mis pass to "2nd year of contract bought out" that caused him to knock on with the line begging him to score is not in there, the crossing (alleged ) etc. and the good tackling of course (by Langley but also a bit by Sibbit). Phil Joseph would be what, 6th choice, so not much at risk. Effectively a Crossley replacement.

You should probably thank pyeman for the link, not me

Backs up what those of us at game said re Joseph really. Decent go forward but needs to work on defence. It's a cas highlights video so naturally it concentrates on their try's ( notice how it shows each of their tries 3 or 4 times but only shows ours once). It shows Joseph missing tackles in build up to a couple of cas tries whic was reason we mentioned his defence needs work. You don't see the go forward as there virtually no general play shown. ATEOTD were looking at him as a possible sixth choice prop and for that role his level looks fine.

To be fair to Platt he clearly did tig those players.

How long was Joseph on the field in his stints? He just looks fatigued to me when missing those tackles. Having seen him play a few times I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with his defense in terms of technique. I think that coming from a part time enviroment he's bound to be a fair way behind the fitness levels. I'd expect to see a big improvement in his next game. As squad players go we could do a lot worse IMO.

We do still seem utterly incapable of defending against that simple backline move where the ball goes to a deep runner who throws a long ball to the inevitably unmarked wiinger. Why do we react so slowly to this? It's been a problem for at least 4 years. Potter is right about needing to work on it but it's not a new problem. Hopefully our new centres can sort it, if they can't it's an obvious and clear weakness.

It was difficult to tell which were replays of the tries down your RHS defence & which were the same move repeated a few minutes later.

Thanks for posting



I agree that Platt looked pretty woeful in defence, although he wasn't helped by Ainscough being out of position or grabbing at thin air. In fact we looked worryingly ordinary in defensive department all round - let's hope it was simply the rustiness of pre-season, but it seemed like we were making the same basic defensive errors as last season...

And what about that commentator as well? He could not have been more broad Yorkshire if he's been a character in some sort of comedy sketch. Wonderful accent

I watched it with the volume off as I am busy managing a cutting edge office, but I guess it was Mick Morgan.

Morgy is a legend!

'if that's 10 yards don't lay me a carpet!

when widders intercepted and ran 70 yards to score against you a few years ago 'get the oxygen tank on!

My favourite was after Platt's glaring forward pass to Ainscough

'That was so far forward Stevie Wonder would have seen it'

If executed properly it's almost impossible to defend against. Someone has to mark the lead (front) runner and that's what creates the overlap. That's why every team uses the play so commonly.

I can see why every SL side uses the move (though we rarely seem to execute it very well ourselves!)



I would think that the key in defending it is communication. If that's done quick enough then the defence can move across to cover. At this game we seemed to stand like statues. Every defender had to take responsibility and move sideways quickly to provide cover. It's easy to criticise Ainscough but if he'd ran out to the winger the centre would've had a walk in. ALL the defenders have to move across and up quicker to give the attackers less time on the ball.

As you say if done well it's very hard to defend against but it's not impossible. Cas seemed almost to score at will using this move. We can and must do better if we're to do any better this season.

isn't that the one where Morgie says "he doesn't go that far on his holidays"...?

thanks for correcting me Nothus: Thanks for the link Pyeman. I missed the first try, by " he who has had the 2nd year of his contract bought out, so someone in the chippy told my aunts poodle, honestly", so good to see it on the vid.

Almost impossible. Very difficult. Tomato. Tomato.



(I've no idea how to make the same word look as though it's pronounced differently, but you get my drift)!

Almost impossible you say but we do seem to get caught out more often than the sides above us. Perhaps if we win the ruck and get some more line speed then the attacking side will have less opportunity to put this move on? That depends on us showing more enthusiasm in defence but that's certainly not impossible.

How come we're so crap at putting on this move? I remember under McNamara it was so awful our deep runner was Halley and he often took the ball while facing the sideline and kept going sideways before getting hammered. Last year we seemed to put it on so slowly it was like a rehed training move for the opposition.

Maybe a symptom of the quality of players attempting the move as much as the quality of training IMO

I can't see many teams coping with Cas' famous LHS attack of James Clare, Josh Griffin & Josh Atkinson.

I'd like to think that we'll be executing it more effectively with Luke Gale playing.

I'll be very interested to see how we use our halfbacks this year. I think that a Luke Gale & Jarrod Sammut partnership would work really well playing as first and second reciever (In the style of Shaun Long & Leon Pryce) whereby the second reciever is pretty much a runner of the ball. That in my opinion is our strongest option.

Having said that, I don't think that this system would work with any other half back combination we could put together. I think that a Gale & Briggs/Jeffries would work better playing as a left and right split (ie. Myler & Briers) where they would make plays on their own side of the field. I don't think that Briggs or Jeffries are strong enough players to make this system really effective, but at the same time aren't effective enough runners of the ball to play in the way I've mentioned above.

Was thinking more in terms of our lack of succes using this move in attack as opposed to our defending against it. Our defense is a team wide issue that really needs to improve this year.

My point was that if 2 junior players & a cast-off can make it work it shouldn't be that difficult for 3 seasoned pro's.

Has this match not finished yet?

Indeed. Makes me wonder what the eck our lads get up to in training.

We were marginally better when we set up from Briggs, Jeffries and Kearney out the back. Not brilliant but perhaps less hopeless and we still couldn´t defend against it.