Alan Dickens - Tigers lack of attack coach.

[Rugbygramps]

Whilst the lack of an attack coach in situ has (rightly) raised questions , personally I believe it has deflected questions away from our defensive strategy - especially in open play. Stopping points is just as important as scoring them.

The same defensive strategy that kept what could have been the Irish side to 3 tries in normal time

[Tigersunited]

Imo there are no question marks over DMK and he continues to move the club forward.
As for Dickens absent now for 4 months , if it can be done legally for the sake of both parties it needs ending one way or the other, and I too doubt he will return

I also support DMK but I have question marks at the same time, imo the squad is at least as good as last season (I believe better) league position so far not as good - we have time to secure Top 4 which I believe is the minimum expectation.

[Tigersunited]

If we don’t have an attack coach you would t be inclined to attack that much would you? No wonder we are kicking the ball away so much!

I agree that I think Dickens is not coming back but the lack of clarity makes an ever more painful situation worse. We should be asking- why have we not had one for so many months? Even if the club cannot let dickens go, why has it taken so long to get someone else in?

Listening to DMK saying what a great job smithy is doing reflects what I was told, he has faith in smith and he was his first choice to be promoted from the academy to fill the gap. He might reconsider that soon…..

[Rugbygramps]

Imo there are no question marks over DMK and he continues to move the club forward.
As for Dickens absent now for 4 months , if it can be done legally for the sake of both parties it needs ending one way or the other, and I too doubt he will return

I also support DMK but I have question marks at the same time, imo the squad is at least as good as last season (I believe better) league position so far not as good - we have time to secure Top 4 which I believe is the minimum expectation.

Get your point but not quite that simple different seasons have different challenges. The telling thing imo reading what Mckellar said is that Dickens workload has been spread out so yes Smith has stepped up but I think everyone has

[longlivethecrumbie]

Just remembered this... before Leinster I stood pitch side with my lad and watched Matt Smith running the backs through some very simple passing drills. 10, 12 and 13 moving the ball down the line, unopposed.

They dropped the ball. A lot. Or passed it behind their teammate. Or too far in front. They got whoops of encouragement from the coaches but I was taken back by just how error prone they were, even in the warm-up.

Tough to be resilient playing Ireland when that's your preparation.

Let's be honest, our current covering backs coach wasn't much of a passer in his playing days!

[Tigers86asw]

Just remembered this... before Leinster I stood pitch side with my lad and watched Matt Smith running the backs through some very simple passing drills. 10, 12 and 13 moving the ball down the line, unopposed.

They dropped the ball. A lot. Or passed it behind their teammate. Or too far in front. They got whoops of encouragement from the coaches but I was taken back by just how error prone they were, even in the warm-up.

Tough to be resilient playing Ireland when that's your preparation.

Let's be honest, our current covering backs coach wasn't much of a passer in his playing days!

That’s nonsense. I don’t know whether Matt Smith will turn out to be a top coach or not but as a player his passing was fantastic. He could pass 20 m off either hand at full tilt- he had excellent hands. He played a lot of his schoolboy and academy rugby at fly half and centre, He may have had limits in other areas, as many do. But saying he couldn’t pass well as a player and therefore doesn’t know how to coach it is complete tosh.

The logic is based on a false premise.

Nonsense

[Rugbygramps]

Just remembered this... before Leinster I stood pitch side with my lad and watched Matt Smith running the backs through some very simple passing drills. 10, 12 and 13 moving the ball down the line, unopposed.

They dropped the ball. A lot. Or passed it behind their teammate. Or too far in front. They got whoops of encouragement from the coaches but I was taken back by just how error prone they were, even in the warm-up.

Tough to be resilient playing Ireland when that's your preparation.

Let's be honest, our current covering backs coach wasn't much of a passer in his playing days!

That’s nonsense. I don’t know whether Matt Smith will turn out to be a top coach or not but as a player his passing was fantastic. He could pass 20 m off either hand at full tilt- he had excellent hands. He played a lot of his schoolboy and academy rugby at fly half and centre, He may have had limits in other areas, as many do. But saying he couldn’t pass well as a player and therefore doesn’t know how to coach it is complete tosh.

The logic is based on a false premise.

Nonsense

Totally agree and you would also hope that players of that quality were taught how to pass and catch properly when they were 16

[longlivethecrumbie]

Just remembered this... before Leinster I stood pitch side with my lad and watched Matt Smith running the backs through some very simple passing drills. 10, 12 and 13 moving the ball down the line, unopposed.

They dropped the ball. A lot. Or passed it behind their teammate. Or too far in front. They got whoops of encouragement from the coaches but I was taken back by just how error prone they were, even in the warm-up.

Tough to be resilient playing Ireland when that's your preparation.

Let's be honest, our current covering backs coach wasn't much of a passer in his playing days!

That’s nonsense. I don’t know whether Matt Smith will turn out to be a top coach or not but as a player his passing was fantastic. He could pass 20 m off either hand at full tilt- he had excellent hands. He played a lot of his schoolboy and academy rugby at fly half and centre, He may have had limits in other areas, as many do. But saying he couldn’t pass well as a player and therefore doesn’t know how to coach it is complete tosh.

The logic is based on a false premise.

Nonsense

It was tongue in cheek. It was a standing joke in the area of the terrace that we stand in that, towards the end of his playing days, he'd take the contact rather than pass.

[Old Hob]

If we don’t have an attack coach you would t be inclined to attack that much would you? No wonder we are kicking the ball away so much!

How many more times? We kick less than others.

[Ian Cant]

In my hole view, Tigers’ problem isn’t so much the passing as te running lines and support play. Ad maybe fitness!
I’ve always enjoyed sitting/ standing behind the posts to see the way teams attack and defend: I grew up as a youngster seeing Chalkie White often watching as coach standing on the shale behind the posts! Last week you could see the Leinster forwards and backs running different lines and offering different points of attack. On Matt Smith, great player and who can forget the time he ripped the ball out of the hands of a Saints’ player about half way to sprint down the Crumbie touch line to score a try to cement victory!
Our attack needs to finish off the moves we make and maybe take a few 3 pointers instead of turning them down. Saints v Munster last week showed how to manage the game: took 3 lots of 3s!
Back to Chalkie White: Cusworth,Hare, Dodge, Woodward, Barnwell, etc great backs but Tigers often built a score with the boot of Hare then cut loose!
Pollard is surely our greatest weapon for points and take some 3s then teams have to think differently!

[Tiglon]

The problem with saying "take the points" is that 3 points per visit to the 22 is rarely enough to win a game. Especially against teams like La Rochelle and Leinster who will undoubtedly score more than 3 per visit.

The score would have been closer against Leinster if we'd kicked for goal, but our chances of actually winning would probably be lower.

It's horses for courses - at a water logged Rec in the winter, kick for goal. On a decent day against Leinster you simply have to be more ambitious. The chances are you'll get beaten by more, but it's the only way you have a hope of winning.

[Hot_Charlie]

If we don’t have an attack coach you would t be inclined to attack that much would you? No wonder we are kicking the ball away so much!

I agree that I think Dickens is not coming back but the lack of clarity makes an ever more painful situation worse. We should be asking- why have we not had one for so many months? Even if the club cannot let dickens go, why has it taken so long to get someone else in?

Listening to DMK saying what a great job smithy is doing reflects what I was told, he has faith in smith and he was his first choice to be promoted from the academy to fill the gap. He might reconsider that soon…..

I don't think he has anything to reconsider. With one attack coach already under contract and an unknown date of his return it would be very difficult for the club to have done anything different, particularly recruiting a new coach from outside the organisation. A stop gap from within was probably one of a very limited set of options.

[kk20gb30]

Whilst the lack of an attack coach in situ has (rightly) raised questions , personally I believe it has deflected questions away from our defensive strategy - especially in open play. Stopping points is just as important as scoring them.

The same defensive strategy that kept what could have been the Irish side to 3 tries in normal time

Please look at the season as a whole ,my friend.
In open play there is a decided vulnerability.An unsettled Centre pairing does not help but non the less... different eyes see different things.

[AViewFromLe2]

Whilst the lack of an attack coach in situ has (rightly) raised questions , personally I believe it has deflected questions away from our defensive strategy - especially in open play. Stopping points is just as important as scoring them.

The same defensive strategy that kept what could have been the Irish side to 3 tries in normal time

Please look at the season as a whole ,my friend.
In open play there is a decided vulnerability.An unsettled Centre pairing does not help but non the less... different eyes see different things.

Not sure I want to be relying on your eyes.

In 2022/23, from 20 league games we conceded 3.3 tries per game on average and conceded 24.5 points per game on average.

In 2023/24, from 11 league games we have conceded 2.64 tries per game on average and 21.36 points per game on average.

Our defence is not our issue.

[sam16111986]

The same defensive strategy that kept what could have been the Irish side to 3 tries in normal time

Please look at the season as a whole ,my friend.
In open play there is a decided vulnerability.An unsettled Centre pairing does not help but non the less... different eyes see different things.

Not sure I want to be relying on your eyes.

In 2022/23, from 20 league games we conceded 3.3 tries per game on average and conceded 24.5 points per game on average.

In 2023/24, from 11 league games we have conceded 2.64 tries per game on average and 21.36 points per game on average.

Our defence is not our issue.

I suspect the two absolute hidings we got after Borthwick left did nothing to help those averages for last season.

I'd be inclined to agree that defence isn't a massive problem. It could certainly be improved upon but for me our inability to be clinical in the opposition red zone is what's hurting us. Sarries should have been put to the sword and we let them off with just a loss, La Rochelle we had under the pressure and then let them off and they made us pay dearly. If we don't turn pressure into points then we just aren't going to win matches.