Grindal and Staunton

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murphy15
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Grindal and Staunton

Post by murphy15 »

OK, so we won, and we keep winning. But I am really worried about our lack of depth at 9 and 10. I don't like to badmouth Tigers players, but I don't think Grindal and Staunton are out of form. I just don't think they are good enough, and that's it. If Youngs or Flood get injured, we aren't going to win anything. Grindal is slow to rucks and indecisive, more often than not passing slowly and to people's faces, and Staunton is a negative, deep standing fly half who is incapable of getting our backs moving. From a standing start with the ball passed two feet behind him, Allen is not a big enough centre to rectify the negativity of his 10 and get us going forward again. I don't believe that we have such little money that we can't replace these two with better frankly.
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Darc Tiger
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Darc Tiger »

Agreed on Grindal tonight. Missed Youngs' tempo a lot. Thought Staunton ran things pretty well though. Too many knock-ons around the park was the main gripe however.
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by POSTIGER »

I thought Staunton did okay - considering the service he got from his number 9! Grindall was hopeless, I really don't like criticising any of our players but JG is well out of his depth in the Premiership let alone in a Tigers shirt. I thought Wasps targeted him pretty successfully today.

Which begs the question - why not give Sam Harrison a chance? :smt017
I saw Marika Vunibaka play
murphy15
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by murphy15 »

I just think he stands too deep and doesn't pass in front of the man. He kicks well and we can still turn Wasps over but it won't be enough in, say, a Premiership Final. And let's face it, Wasps aren't going to be playing in that - they are the poorest Wasps squad I've seen for a long while, and with only one back over 14st, teams will run in tried like Mafi did all day long if the ball gets spun out.
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Darc Tiger
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Darc Tiger »

Staunton was fine considering the conditions, the ball he got and how much Wasps were on the edge of the offside line and closed down all his space. Jezza even made a few good half breaks. We looked pretty dangerous throughout, and it was only our ball retention and a cracking rearguard effort from Wasps that didnt make this a big win.

Staunton does a good job whilst Floody is away. He is never going to be anything more than 2nd choice, but he is a steady player we need to guide us to grinding out tough wins when the big guns are unavailable.
murphy15
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by murphy15 »

I think we can find better for the same wage tbh...
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tb1
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by tb1 »

If the conditions were better we would have taken the BP, no doubt. You dont do that with bad half-backs.
Darc Tiger
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Darc Tiger »

murphy15 wrote:I think we can find better for the same wage tbh...
Solid flyhalves arent in great supply though. Its probably one of the hardest positions to play well as you are right in the middle of everything. Most wont want to play second fiddle, or they have glaring weaknesses.
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by tb1 »

murphy15 wrote:I think we can find better for the same wage tbh...
Pray tell what that wage is?
g
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by g »

How is Sam Harrison ever going to gain 1st team experience if he never gets a chance to play. Grindal is absolutely :censored: and shouldn't be anywhere near the 1st team. Wasps are so poor at the moment that Tigers still would have won if Harrison had started. Plus Staunton is starting to miss kicks for the posts. Last week he missed 3 against Leeds this week he misses a couple of easy kicks. When 12trees was missing his kicks he was slated. Staunton misses his and not a dicky bird is said. 12trees and Harrison should have come on tonight Wasps are so poor that bringing these two on would have resulted in the same score.A victory for Tigers.

God help Tigers if the Grindal/Staunton partnership play against Sarries,with these 2 at the helm Sarries will win quite comfortably.

Grindal is that bad he probably wouldn't get into a Nat Div 1 team.
Darc Tiger
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Darc Tiger »

Mickey Young would be a nice arrival next season. Though not sure what Harrison will make of it.
bwightman
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by bwightman »

As mentioned above, first and foremost it was a win tonight and Wasps didn't leave with a consolation bonus point.
Wasps rarely got into our 22 and never looked like scoring a try, so credit to our team.

Grindal was not our best player on the field today, that's for sure! How many rucks did the pass out come from Castro, Allen, Newby, Mafi, Waldrom, Manu, Skivington...I could go on. We forget how lucky we are (and how good the man is!) to have Youngs, who's there, bossing everything at every ruck for 80 minutes with little to no exception. He's several cuts above, but that's why he has the England shirt nailed to his back. Ok, Grindal's far from the best but we're not going to get the Youngs treatment from ANY other scrumhalf playing in the country today.
Without a doubt we'd have scored more tries if the feed had been quicker and slicker from the base of the ruck. But it wasn't and we didn't. It wasn't just Grindal though - Waldrom, Bubbles, Skivo, Alesana, Manu, Allen and Agulla all knocked on either in the tackle or catching the ball. The killer handling wasn't there today, what with the greasy ball and the lack of premium service from the halfbacks. Meh, can't have it every week.

On a plus note I thought Staunton played better today than he's played for a while. He attacked the line on occasion and he was solid from the tee. Shame we didn't see Billy - that's a fortnight without a minute of rugby, poor guy. How you go from being a Saxons starter to team sheet filler is beyond me. His eye for a gap is up there with Flood's and I think he'd have made the difference from either 10 or 12 today.

Anyway, job done for today. Let's hope Grindal picks up the chuffing pace at Edgeley Park next week. Having said that, it'll be another freezing cold, miserable, wet Friday night (anyone else have issues with how many home games Sale and the Falcons get to play on a Friday night when the weather is always terrible and they can grind out rubbish 2-point wins merely by outlasting the geographically lower teams in grim conditions?) so don't bet on it.
Daveyboy
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Daveyboy »

A fair and even appraisal of the situation, as ever, g. :smt002

James Grindal is no Ben Youngs - that's true - but he is the most experienced scrum half that we had available today. His selection was perfectly reasonable and understandable. Cockers' own post-match comment that he couldn't just throw the substitutes onto the pitch in a tight game is also perfectly reasonable and understandable.

Take a look at our recent record against Wasps and be glad that we took 4 points from a game played in slippery difficult conditions.
Today is yesterday's tomorrow.
Tiger_in_Birmingham
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Tiger_in_Birmingham »

murphy15 wrote:I think we can find better for the same wage tbh...
who?

name someone out of contract, who will be happy being second choice, and no risk of being called up during the international window
Jay C
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Re: Grindal and Staunton

Post by Jay C »

Really difficult conditions today, but how mant handling errors did we see from Tigers ?

Agree with some comments that it appeared that Grindal was not doing enough today, but really tough ask to make a change to Harrison with 20 to go & the game in the balance......

Staunton did okay with the ball he was given, but the attack never really got going as Wasps were over the gain line to tackle very (too ??) quickly all game.

The two missed place kicks were, however, unusual for him as they were relatively easy. Also touch finding and clearance kicking from him & others was not up to usual standard today.

Staunton will be our number two until Ford is ready & is a good servant to the club. Floody is the main man & at fly half - like most positions at the club (bar props, where we are blessed) - there is a clear hierarchy and succession plan that we should thank Cockers for.

Take the 4 points and move on - same team (bar Castro/Croft) next week, probably ....
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