Top post BD



'Form is temporary, class is permanent'. Shame some of our fans don't have enough class themselves (or experience of actually playing RL) to realize this.

If you check out the OPTA stats on the SL website you will find that DJ is top of the try assists and top of the 40-20 lists. In other categories such as errors made and tries scored he also compares quite favourably to other players in his position. I did a little comparison between him and Lee Briers and found that apart from tries scored DJ has comparable or better stats!

Given that Briers is playing in a team with class all over the park and scoring tries for fun I'd suggest that DJ is not doing such a bad job!
Yes I agree that he has not made the eye catching breaks that he did last year and that he perhaps could take the line on a bit more often but I think that you need to look deeper into game plans and what he has been asked to do by the coaching staff.

Also one stat that does look bad for him is his % goal kicking success. 2 points about that tho, on sunday he kicked 2 from the touch line that won us the game and who else would you throw the ball to in our team? Unfortunately we don't have a Pat Richards or Brett Hodgson in our squad!

I think he has come out of his shell more and playing the type of rugby he wants to play since our ex coach departed. Maybe that had been his problem?

But we're not actually playing to a different system so far as I can tell. Sure, we're looking sharper when we play to the said sytem but I can't say it's changed as such.

He is running more with the ball (i think) and looking to enjoy his game more rather than throwing hospital balls like he has been doing the first part of the season. Also out forwards seem more upfor it since our ex coach departed. Maybe it could be to impress our new coach as i am sure he will be getting copies of the games that we play in.

I agree that overall Holdsworth has still been one of our most important players this season. There's no doubt that he has had a couple of absolute stinkers and I've been frustrated at times with him (for example even in the win against Wakefield we could have done our points difference some more good if he'd kept his head a little more). At times he has looked like he's had the world on his shoulders - the burden of being most senior pivot, captain and goal kicker would take its toll on anyone I'm sure, especially during a time of high expectations from the club and fans and during a time of such coaching instability.

But when you look at his contribution such as those highlighted in the stas above and how many of our tries he has created, there's no doubt we would have been worse off without him. Interestingly Smith has been more consistent this year while DJ's game has fluctuated whereas last year it was pretty much the exact opposite so I wonder if the distractions associated with his extra responsibilties have had an impact. When we've played well, holdsworth has been at the heart of it pretty much every time