Does anyone think that Warrington's outside defence looks a touch fragile?. I am not trying to be a killjoy, but, Cas scored a couple of tries by moving the ball out wide quickly, and, only for a couple of interceptions they might have scored a couple more. Warrington are getting there slowly and surely, and I am sure TS will address any defencive problems in the coming weeks leading up to the cup semi final. If we are not on our game then Wigan will turn us over.



Any thoughts?.

I know what you are saying. One of their tries came from a pretty good, 20m left to right miss out pass from a prop, I can sort of forgive that. The place I think we have suffered is early on in the tackle count when the opposition backs are scooting from DH. Hull KR racked up pure yardage on us and for a period, Cas did the same with wingers and centres bumping off the first defender.
Saints and Leeds have the back up players to turn those little half breaks into 6 points.

BTW. Clarke did well to halt one of those breaks by holding onto someones shorts for dear life. I thought they were through for a second.

wigan turn us over never in a million years...hull hull kr and cas all away and that shower(wigan) at home could`nt do it...our defence is fine....any team will concede tries..dont worry mate....we get it right on the day we`ll beat wigan

I also know where your coming from with this, Lee Briers was a hero when he intercepted that pass but if the Cas player had been half awake and threw a dummy then Lee Briers would have been caught in no mans land, our fringe defence has always been poor which isn`t suprising given that Lee Briers defends one of the fringes.

I`m not saying its all his fault because it isn`t but lets face it his defence at times can be of tick and pass standard.

it is fine give them the outside and make them work for their trys. we have tightened up the defence in the middle.

This is a major area of improvement recently, and one of the reasons I didnt't want Bridge moving from 3. We should look to keep certain players in certain positions, especially the 3/4's.

You can pick out incidents of poor defence in every team in every game but for me those tries were quality. That's what makes the game what it is.
One moments lapse of defensive concentration v quality attacking play usually makes a score. Overall though, our defence has improved significantly thanks to Sir Tony and we're winning on the balance of play over 80 minutes.
Small steps make all the difference over the course of a season.

Cas did seem to generate overlaps quite easily considering they were down to 12 men.

...and yet only scored 18 points.

That first try was we conceded against cas wasn't great, i thought we could have recovered but Riley and Grix both decided to run past Dixon. Again for the Evans try Riley may have come in too early and left room to score in the corner. Personally I am not sure whether he did the right thing or not as I suppose if he stuck to his man and left a huge gap perhaps he would have people on his back anyway. Great season so far from Riley anyway.

I thought Lee Briers defence was excellent against Cas.....Certainly as good as anyone elses on the field I think he has improved this area of his game.....

outside d'fence and d'gate need sorting

I thought his technique was rather different than in previous years.

Who jumped at Shenton's shoulder in the first half and missed him before Shenton ran 40 meters

Who attempted to tackle Rangi Chase when he offloaded the ball for Shenton's try

Who missed the tackle on the centre leading up to Owen's try

Who was involved in everything good at the top end of the field



Come on give him some credit for goodness sake!

I'm afraid you havent got a clue about rugby related issues .....

I prefered it when you just said Kevin Penny Cant tackle just because tries were scored on his wing...


little tip for you have a look at Matt kings involvement in the tries we conceded...(he'll be the one rushing out of the defensive line if you need help - and also the one stood still watching Chase off load for the incident you did see if your being that critical).

Also have a look at the Way Riley lets a ball bounce (fortunatley for him the try was chalked off) have a look at how Riley has two men outside him for Cas's final try....
even Bridge was very shaky in defence... there were plenty of dissapointing defensive moments by a number of people, the fact you cant or wont spot them says something about your Rugby Knowledge or you petty hatred of certain players.....

When we have Carney in Grix and Riley will not be in the team and King will be his so our left side defence will be better also add Monnas into that who's defence is awesome and we will not have a problem.
You also have to realise and praise good play by the opposition ,we will let in tries and we will stop more than we let in ,in the past.
We are improving but as TS says we are nowhere near it yet so if we can win and play poorly I for one will accept it and look for improvement in the performance there after,in the past we would have lost that game !

I agree with that about both Fringes Rob, I cant even see Briers or Matt King in the picture for Hicks interception...same again the Cas player didnt need to bat the ball on he could have took that and Hicks has still got two attackers outside him. Hicks did the only thing open to him which was go for the intercept.

but again on the other flank Riley and Bridge were just as guilty at giving Cas plenty of room....

but at least the Wire camp still realise they are still way off being the finished article so i'm still very hopeful for some success....

Agree with all of that, i commented on King's poor defence on another thread, he's defiantly suited to playing on the Wing, Riley and Bridge were dragged in far to often but due to a few dodgy passes by Castleford we got away with most of it.

With the exeption of maybe Grix, none of our backs were great in defence but to single out one player for praise who may have been the best of a bad bunch is a little puzzling

I'm not just picking Briers for praise however I'd rather look at the fact that he burst on to a ball in the middle of the park and took the worlds greatest player Michael Shenton over the line with him for a very good score... and scored a superb intercept (and just as Phil Clarke was commenting on how poor we were...!!)

the worlds gone mad though with people saying we miss our scrum half for his defensive duties...... half backs are not there to defend its a fact of life...thats Why wigan constantly targeted Richie Myler in the Salford game...hes 5 ft and not very strong

this picking out one player for the clubs defensives woes is childish and has already been done to death with Penny...its boring now and should be banned

Bick, Matt King as you know was the same in the NRL with his ropey defence but it doesn`t matter so much when your surrounded by world class players that can clean up the mess afterwards, it wasn`t ideal for Kevin Penny to have such a poor defender that goes wandering and charging out of the line on his inside. This is why Matt King was a winger at origin and test level due to his lack of creative skllls as a centre along with his ropey defence which any decent coach would target.

Matt King for me is an expensive luxury that we could afford to live without, yes he has been in very good form as a finisher on the wing but he was signed to cure our left centre problem which still remain in all truth, even his try against Cas was little more than a finishers try, he isn`t a creator that beats men on a regular basis and never will be.

Correct and he proved again on Saturday that he is a winger not a centre. Compared to Shenton he is a donkey.

The outside defence isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than the end of last season and the start of this one, and will probably improve more as time goes on. Are we starting to win too many matches and making the the serial whingers look for anything?

I totally agree....some people are never happy...Well said