Quote ="BOJ04"if we are to make as many mistakes as Saturday against wire we are going to get flogged- we need over 80% completion rate and no pens on 4th or 5th tackle to stand a chance'"
I’m probably going to sound patronising here but I think you and a few others need a reality check regarding this issue.
The reason as I’ve been told by smart people that we concede these penalties is generally not a lack of discipline or being lazy but most of the time it’s pure necessity that causes it.
We as a team are outgunned in nearly every department by nearly every team in SL whether that be speed, size, power or guile and as such we find ourselves back peddling more than most. Because of this we often need to slow the play down because if we don’t the opposition will gain momentum and we really can’t allow that to happen. Conceding a sloppy try from a penalty is a better outcome than conceding 3 back to backs as per last season because we allowed them to build up a head of steam.
As long as I can remember it’s always been advantages for us if the game is a bit niggly and less open - the big difference this year is we have the ability to exploit the situation when it turns in our favour. It’s not pretty and we’d all love to be the Harlem Globetrotters of RL but we just aren’t.
We are not alone and even the top teams do it but for the reasons given we do it more than most. It’s not accidental and most of the penalties we give away are from a deliberate decision to take the risk and it’s part of how we play. I do think we get away with less than some big clubs but we certainly push it.
The one that always tickles me is Stevo and his 5th tackle Coach killer - as if giving away a penalty on the fifth is a deliberate act of stupidity by the players - it isn’t. Against a good team by the 4th or 5th tackle they will have made headway and your defensive line will be stretched and at that point they will go wide or through the gaps.
So what does a player do with a split second call - risk the ball moving out to what he thinks is a certain overlap and try - or does he risk a penalty by interfering or holding down to give the defensive line a chance to set. It’s a tough call but one they have to make and sometimes the ref loses his patience and bingo. However the worse that can happen is the opposition go on to score a try, a try they would have scored anyway but at least they had to work harder and some of the steam has been removed.
RL these days is really quite complicated and by and large the players know what they are doing and although in hindsight the penalties may appear needless at the time to the player involved they certainly don’t. It’s a percentage game and we have to play it to the extreme and sometimes we will get badly caught to, that’s life. We either accept that or we all sell our houses and fund a team of internationals.
There are exceptions where they do mess up due to fatigue, lack of concentration and occasionally they can’t be bothered - but they are only humans not machines.
