Just a thought...

Is our home record (1 from 3) this season as a result of the size of our pitch at Wheldon Road? When you think about our away wins (3 from 3) and where they've come, they've been in stadia with full size, wide fields which obviously suits our attacking style of play.

Are the dimensions of the field at the Jungle limiting our attacking options and allowing teams who play less expansive rugby to capitalise?

I realise there's little that can be done about it, however it highlights a need for our defence to be absolutely spot on when we're playing at home. It also adds more fuel to the fire of an ever increasingly desperate need for the new stadium to progress.

just having this conversation at work with a rhino fan now!!

i 100% agree

I'm sure i remember my dad telling me that they mentioned on SKY that our pitch was something like 20 metres shorter than everyone else's in SL

My opinion fwiw is that the players play with a greater sense of freedom when playing away and are more under pressure when in front of the home crowd. There is a greater expectation for us to win more at home and this is often reflected with players forcing the play and perhaps being guilty of over-playing. The players appear to more relaxed when on the road, playing more 'off-the-cuff' rugby and letting their game come more naturally.

Just a theory in my lunch-hour, nowt much.

You're talking to a rhinos fan? Yuk!

I await this point to be talked about on BnA this week once one of the researches has scoured RLfans.



Quite possibly it could be a reason because we do like to throw the ball about a bit, but...



....i was actually thinking more on the lines of this reason. We have some right whinging buggers in the Cas ground and at the slightest hint of anything not going our way they are on peoples backs. We still have a mentality that we are by far better than the small teams such as Wakey, Hudds, Quins, Catalan, Salford, Hull KR (not my opinion of course before fans of the respective clubs pipe up) and if we aren't 20 points up after ten minutes these fans think everyone should feck off back to Oz, New Zealand, which ever Pacific island, Wakey or where ever because they aren't as good as Hardisty, Hepworth, Reilly or Atkinson (no disrespect to the previously named legends of course).

I'm still of the opinion that if we actually supported our team at home as we have done away at Wigan, Catalan and Hull the players would respond much better and we might actually make our home support work in our favour rather than against us.

It will be the minimum length of 88 metres.

That'll be over 250 feet then.

If you look at the markings, from the 30m line to the 40m line in both halves is only about 4 metres. Add onto that the in-goal areas at 6m each and you've got a 100m playing area, but a field of play of only around 88m.

I think the fields were once measured in yards anyway, which would've made it about right back then.

I totally agree mate!!!!! when you look at where most of our points have come from they have been out wide with Dixon, Evans, Shenny and Owen, which also suggests why Dixon's kicking success is a little off, they have almost all been from touch.

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In agreement with PA and Marshy (though Bonzo's point seems very valid).

In both the home defeats we seem to have played with a degree of panic when it wasn't needed. This can only be due to feeling pressure from the terraces. Then we score once and we return to our best. When we conceed again it's back to silly offloads and poor decision making.

I was also talking to a former Tigers' skipper the other day (more on that next week) and he was in agreement too about the role the fans can play in helping the side.

You should do well when you come to Wakey then

I think it's a combination of the two factors already discussed.

Most of our tries tend to come out wide and we don't seem to have trouble getting out of our own 25 to the oppositions, at home. The problem seems to come if we are 'camped' in their 25 for more than one set, we seem to have too many bodies and not enough space to get over out wide.

This combined with the fact that the fans expectations are rising. When we are 'camped' in their 25, the sheer panic that comes from the Wheldon Road end, infects the players . The players have to learn to cope with that though. We are also losing the underdog tag. It's good to go to games now, expecting and hoping we can win. But as I've read earlier on here, our away support is 'proper' support. The fans get behind them if we are winning or losing. At home, it's only when the game seems to be in the bag and supporters have relaxed that they get behind them with 'support' and not 'panic'.

As seems to be the general consensus, I'd agree that the 2 points are equally valid:

We have a side that tends to score plenty of points out wide and this is clearly suited by the wider pitches such as KC and JJB (and Headingly when we go there

) . I don't know whether others have noticed but the pitch was further narrowed by a few yards to allow for the new dugouts.

There is also the anxiety from the home supporters that transmits itself to the players when things aren't going our way. Incidentally, this isn't a problem peculiar only to Cas - try listening to the home fans at Wigan, Leeds, Saints, Warrington etc when they're behind at home!