Defence and wet weather rugby

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SuffolkTiger
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Defence and wet weather rugby

Post by SuffolkTiger » 23 Sep 2018, 05:55

Here we are then...

I remember standing behind the sticks at Langtree Park for the first game this term and thinking this season might be a write off. Happy to say that I was being a little disrespectful to DP's coaching ability and we are 80 minutes away from back to back finals. Unthinkable 5 years ago.

Defence and the ability to grind other sides down in their own 20 will decide who reaches and then wins the GF - especially if there is water about.

Although we won comfortably on Friday, we were too loose and allowed WT out of their end too easily at times. We should have been making them sick with aggressive defence and more astute kicking close to their line.

The Saints defence was quick and brutal vs Wire yesterday. Wigan are also displaying that trait. The Roosters were magnificent in defence in their semi final win - we need something akin to that to win 2 of the biggest games in our history.

If we can match fire with fire up the middle at Wigan early doors then we have every chance. They will try and bully us off the park straight from kick off. Bateman is their talisman and makes yards out of nothing. Our left edge defence needs to be outstanding to nullify this.

Our desire to score beautiful tries when they are not really on, resulting in dropped ball, worries me in an attritional semi but DP will have all that in hand.

Fantastic that we are involved in the business end again and, as mentioned in a previous thread, time to believe.....

Scoopage
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Re: Defence and wet weather rugby

Post by Scoopage » 23 Sep 2018, 08:35

Great post.pretty much all the feelings I have.i do think we have a extra gear or two in defence and think DP predicted a tougher test v wakey.i know this sounds daft but I get the feeling we are actually enjoying defending when we have to do it.saying to the opposition give us all you’ve got.5 games on the trot the opposition have had a pointless half(plus no try conceded second half v Wigan)says to me we’re very switched on in defence.the attack both sides is really starting to click aswel especially with mata’utia getting more and more involved.i really feel we’re hitting our straps and will be semi final ready in 2 weeks

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StevieTheTV
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Re: Defence and wet weather rugby

Post by StevieTheTV » 24 Sep 2018, 08:54

Dont be so quick to bag our defence, we have won 5 games on the trot conceding just 52 point, equating to 10.4 points conceded per game. This against teams that a trying to play loose (no pressure) rugby against us. Anyone who has played the game will understand that when there is no pressure on you, you play better.

We arent blowing teams away, we are grinding them down meaning the last 20 / 30 minutes of games are where we really start to come into our own.

That being said, i do still feel like we have another couple of gears left in us both in attack and defence, whether we will see these extra gears in the next 3 (hopefully) games remains to be seen, but from what i've seen of other teams, if 'we can get up to these extra gears, we should be a match for any team.

We need to start big against wigan, if we can get on top of them early, we could grow in confidence and see a performance akin to the 2014 CC quarter, if not, it will be a scrap.
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