Passing and defence on this seasons evidence. Danny needs to be careful he doesnt turn into a 1 trick pony.

Drinking

The Salford deal is definately not a done deal yet thats for sure. He wont be an FC player though.

says who? even tommy doesnt know whats happening yet

I know

His family!!

Around the ankles is a terrible technique to have and is something Houghton needs to work on.

neither do they,the last i spoke to them

He doesnt dominate in any tackles due to his size. Definately needs to work doubly hard on his defensive technique.

Quite disappointed really. After some dire performances last season Tommy's shown excellent attitude and effort this year.

I really hope we're signing another half back.

I was disappointed when i heard too and hope its not correct. I'd like Tommy to stay and play 9 but that aint going to happen.

Maybe they wont tell you in case you put in on here?

Its a shame Swain isnt here for Houghton to learn off as he had the abilty to tackle around the legs but still manage to end up in a good position on the ball carrier.

Yup. Danny could do to watch video after video of swain if he doesnt already.

think you find its the brother that puts everything on here

Beat me to it.

Maybe there's a clue in that

They seem to be pretty evenly matched from what I've seen of them, particularly when out together.



It always annoys me when a big prop runs straight at Houghton (or any player with a similar stature and technique for that matter) and he tackles them low, ends up trapped underneath, concedes a quick play, doesn't get into position at marker and is effectively out of play for the next tackle, yet still gets praise/applause. The first game of last season stands out particularly, with Morley running at Houghton every chance he got. Every time it ended up the same and it was a big factor in us losing, yet he still got praised for doing a good job on Morley. It's almost as though most people watching don't really understand what it is they're seeing.

Some people only see his stats of putting 40-50 tackles in a game and praise his workload, without realising its because everyone targets running at him and he only wins the wrestle in about 5% of the tackles max.

If G. Horne learnt to tackle around the ankles (especially on Senior) instead of going high then he wouldn't let so many tries in.

If G Horne learnt to tackle properly he wouldnt let so many tries in, if he also got decent support from his winger and inside players he wouldnt be left so isolated!!

It comes down to organisation again. Instead of defending as a team people shoot out of the line , miss and leave a player isolated. If you go high you can miss if you go low you're exposed to the offload. Players "missing" tackles are sometimes covering someone who's in the wrong place or gone missing and end up being criticised for effectively working harder than their colleague. Until we play as a team with structure then we'll always end up relying on scrambling defence or a clever attacking break by an individual where that individual is just as likely to miss or cough the ball up. Leeds and Saints this year have plenty of ordinary players but they do play as a team and tend to rise to the highest common denominator - the ordinary players aspire to the better ones and work for each other rather than leaving it to each other.

He personally wouldn't, but if he tackled like Houghton, the team still would. You'd just get Senior running at Horne all game, getting a quick play with Buderus scooting and putting Hall in on the wing, with Calderwood being left to cover two men, both bigger and stronger than him. Or they'd go inside and Burrow would get through the massive gap left.

No you'd get Horne tackling him round the ankles and stopping his momentum whilst another player tackles him high, knocks him to the ground,turns him on his back and slows the play the ball



Simples

Nope, doesn't happen out wide when you've got Senior running an overs line. As soon as there's enough contact that he knows he's getting stopped, he'll offload or hit the ground, bounce up and get a quick play. With Buderus and Burrow down that side to get in at dummy half or collect the offload, it's practically a try already. The only way you stop it is to wrap the ball and hold him long enough to get numbers in to the tackle.

That's if you don't get into his face early, as soon as he receives the ball, which is the only really effective tactic against him.