Quote ="LeythIg"Not sure that expectation rose that much after the Toulouse game, particularly after the defeat at Fax in round 2.
My memory of early season was that we had a team that were difficult to beat, particularly at home. We had quality in the pivotal positions (McNally, Higham, Ridyard) and quality of strike power was boosted by Saints (Costello, Bentley in particular)
We clearly needed more of our own players, if we wanted to avoid turning up to games with less than 17 players on a matchday. And players like Hock, Laithwaite and Hood were welcome additions. And when we were crying out for outside backs, Forsyth came in and scored tries at a rate that most of the rest of the squad would envy. We also had Mitch Cox step up to play on the wing, and played a lot better than I expected, given he'd previously been playing in the pack. In fact, he was named man of the match one game, then not picked for about two months. I also thought Higginson and Holroyd showed enough when played on the wing to warrant some time be invested in them. Especially once it became clear that we were not in relegation trouble, it was the ideal opportunity to try to develop players.
The worrying thing for me in the back end of the season, wasn't the fact that results got worse. It was the fact that the enthusiasm in defence, and difficulty to beat had disappeared. Not sure that can be put down to lack of dual reg from Saints. Sau, Higson, Clark and Thompson might be better individual players than the ones they replaced, but watching the back end of the 2019 season, felt like a repeat of the beginning of 2018 season.
Future might be bright, but I'm hoping that 2020 doesn't give us another complete overhaul of the squad, like 2018 and 19.'"
Well said!
It was indeed worrying that, when we brought in the 'quality' players towards the end of the season, our performances deteriorated. I will never publicly criticise individual players - I respect them all - but it looked for all the world, that our 'team ethic', which had been a major strong point, was diluted with the new arrivals. That said, though, we absolutely had to sign/borrow some players from somewhere to make up for our injuries, and the departure of the D/R's
