Naive Game Management

[Northenlad]

The naivety shown on Saturday in the last minute was infuriating!

With 50 seconds left on the clock, on the half-way line, we get a penalty.

Instead of knocking on immediately, taking the penalty, kicking into the corner and trying to score from 5/10 metres out, we continued to play until the clock went dead. Then we get the penalty and have no choice but to run it from the half-way line.

I know there was still no guarantee we would have scored, but that extra point will prove so costly at the end of the season and we should have managed the game more effectively.

[Noddy555]

Totally agree Northern Lad, particularly as the try would have given us a bonus point.

[Iain]

In fairness, two breaks were made in that time where a try looked a possibility. Playing on seemed to me like the right thing to do at the time, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. There certainly was a desire to go for the bonus point, hence the quick dropped conversion.

The only criticism I have from Saturday's game is that the bonus point should have benn squared away much earlier.

[LE18]

Agreed, bonus point was lost, what I could not understand was just after half time when we were 20-3 up we took the penalty kick at goal to go 23-3 up when we could have gone to the corner to try for the 3 rd try which would have maintained the first half momentum, instead the 23-3 gave us a safety cushion, we sat back, momentum gone and a dull second half until we realised again too late that we might be able to get more out of the game, how i wish we had stepped up again a little earlier. That first half gave us such a buzz, just wish it could have lasted 80 mins. Oh well a very good win, but am i wishing for too much in a BP?

[ourla]

Agreed, bonus point was lost, what I could not understand was just after half time when we were 20-3 up we took the penalty kick at goal to go 23-3 up when we could have gone to the corner to try for the 3 rd try which would have maintained the first half momentum, instead the 23-3 gave us a safety cushion, we sat back, momentum gone and a dull second half until we realised again too late that we might be able to get more out of the game, how i wish we had stepped up again a little earlier. That first half gave us such a buzz, just wish it could have lasted 80 mins. Oh well a very good win, but am i wishing for too much in a BP?

I disagree about the kick to goal. It made the game much safer and should have allowed us plenty of time to get the two tries. But Bai got carded, Arscott scored a great try and we struggled to back on the front foot until late on. I agree a kick to the corner at the death would have made more sense. But still I am happy with the win, the 3 tries and the first half was the best we've seen for a while.

[voice of the crumbie]

Agreed, bonus point was lost, what I could not understand was just after half time when we were 20-3 up we took the penalty kick at goal to go 23-3 up when we could have gone to the corner to try for the 3 rd try which would have maintained the first half momentum, instead the 23-3 gave us a safety cushion, we sat back, momentum gone and a dull second half until we realised again too late that we might be able to get more out of the game, how I wish we had stepped up again a little earlier. That first half gave us such a buzz, just wish it could have lasted 80 mins. Oh well a very good win, but am i wishing for too much in a BP?

I think you will find that we took the kick when it was 20:8 i.e. after Arscott had scored. An eminently sensible decision as it put us more than 2 converted tries ahead meaning that if Sale scored a further converted try and we didn't score any more points they would not have secured a losing bonus point which in a tight league is very important.

Also, as has been stated by other posters there was adequate time for us to score 2 tries and secure a bonus point but for some bizarre reason we abandoned the successful offloading game in the first part of the 2nd half and let Sale back in by adopting a kicking game. This was exactly the same change of tactics which lost us last year's play off semi final against Saints. At least this time we reverted to offloading and secured a further try. I do agree that it is disappointing that we did not achieve the 4th try but on balance I'm glad that we are bemoaning that rather than complaining about another sub standard 80 minute performance.

Take the win. move on and hope that we can replicate the first half performance for 80 minutes against Falcons on Sunday. If we do we should have enough to win.

[Tigerbeat]

Given the situation, it was more important to get the win than the bonus point.

The score at the time was 20-8 so it put them more than two scores ahead.

If we had lost, the season would probably have been over as far as the paly offs were concerned. As it is, Tigers are still in touch with second spot and have to play 4 of the teams currently above them - Saints, Sarries, Wasps and Exeter.