Oh well, I was relatively happy with today's performance. I think given the form that Saints are in at the moment, we did pretty well. In the second half we seemed to let are feet off the gas and we were unlucky with the ref. I think we missed Penny a little bit in attack, ceratinly Saints proved a lot harder to break down than Hull last week. The draw always seems to be bias against us, with us consistently getting Super League sides. The scousers have been 'lucky' and got Barrow in the next round, whose betting they don't get 'lucky' again in the next round and draw Cats, Wembley apperance nicely set up for Cunningham in his last year.



Anyway, given current form I'd like to see us kick on and trounce Castleford then hopefully give Crusaders a beating. At least we can concentrate on the league now. What do other people think?

That was my first Quins game since the dismal collapse against Salford, who I thought looked no better than last year's Crusaders team. That match was as unenjoyable as any I can recall, as our negative and attritional game plan combined horribly with an awful second half collapse. Today however was completely different. I'd been looking forward to the match and really enjoyed it, especially our first half performance. We played with confidence and were prepared to give it a go against strong opponents. I'm already looking forward to next week's game and the chance to see Kevin Penny in our colours for the first time.



One aspect of watching Quins never seems to change though. How is it that we always seem to get the rough end of the debatable refereeing decisions? Year in year out we are awarded fewer penalties than any other team, yet we're usually near the top of the fair play league ourselves. In other words most other teams generally commit more fouls than us when they play each other, yet when they play us they all manage to clean up their act and play with discipline. I know it's not always apparent that a foul has occurred when players are committing crafty infringements in the tackle and you're sitting fifty yards away but some of the fouls given against us today seemed baffling, especially when the likes of Nick Fozzard can dangerously raise a braced forearm at the face of anyone attempting to tackle him and repeatedly get away with it. Their first try came off a penalty that remains a mystery to me, and the Howell non-try, of which I had a pretty good view, seemed like a straightforward score - presumably Thaler felt he didn't get downward pressure, but I've noticed before with Thaler that the notion of "benefit of doubt" to the attacking side doesn't seem to apply. Anyone who was behind the goal at Cas a couple of years ago when Rob Purdham reached out from a tackle and cleanly touched down on the tryline only to have his score ruled out can vouch for that. One particular decision puzzled me today: one of our players (Dorn I think) was playing the ball after a tackle when an opponent stepped right through where his hands were and the ball was fumbled forward. Surely that's an infringement one way or the other? Yet Thaler just told us to pick the ball up and play it again!



Don't get me wrong, the better team won today. Saints stepped up a gear when they came out for the second half and for a while they were just too good for us, but it annoys me that the final score could have been a fair bit closer if they hadn't had so much assistance from the referee and his colleagues.



Anyway, the next three league games are all against sides in the wrong half of the table, two of them at home, so we've got a great opportunity to capitalise on the good work of recent weeks.

Howell's was definitely a knock-on from my view, but I totally agree about Fozzard, and one of Meli's tries was froma pass that floated well forward.



I can't agree with you about the Salford game. I think that all season we've tried to play more enterprising rugby - eg the kick-receiver passing rather than taking the first tackle. However, that day (and others) a combination of inadequate players, lack of confidence and panic about holding the lead caused us to crumble. However, we've been easier to watch all year, and now the players are back, it's fun again.



I'd be worried about Randall and Howell for next week though...

I think PoD was talking about losing to Salford at home last year, not this year.

ok i have to admit very much like most of the rest of the quins fans today i spent my time shouting at the ref to get em onside!

However to be fair to the ref tho its generally the TJ's who looks after the offside in general, the ref is mainly looking at the play the ball and possibly 2 or 3 players either side of the ruck

What most of us forget is that unless a defender effects play then it does not actually matter if he is stood in an offside position!.

I think the big difference today and especially in the second half was the tackle technique and the technique when being tackled

Watch the saints players, 60-70% of the time when the tackle is completeed on them they were on there knees! so getting up and playing the ball was pretty quick

Look at what we do 60-70% of the time when we get tackled we got turned on to our backs, giving the saints time to set the defence.

Both things are a skill, staying face down on yr knees when you get tackled, and turning a player legally on to the back in the tackle, thats why we end up getting pinged for "offside" or "not square"



BUT

I was not to upsett today, yes we lost but we didnt get a spanking! 3 or 4 weeks ago I reckon that would have been a 60 point game to saints. I think the boys will go away from that with a lot of confidence, and to be honest the challenge cup has lost a lot of appeal for me sadly, and for future development a good run in the league is more important

i noticed you left out the part about the first try you were awarded when the corner flag was knocked over before the ball was put down..

Saints deserved the result but failure may as wel wore a saints jersey Yesterday He seemed to be in awe/love of Cunningham

re the corner flag being knocked over apparently before the ball was grounded by howell, the TJ obviously did not see it that way, he indicated that the try had been scored straight away

so obviously in his eyes and he was stood about a foot away, the ball was grounded before the flag was touched

Yes and his appointment for specsavers was today,





that was clearly not a try ,but despaite that i enjoyed the game (not because we won) I thought quinns played well , put some nice moves together in the first half but continually shot themselves in the foot letting Saints off the hook a few times, like i think in the second half Dorn made a beauty of a break weaved his way down the field only for his pass to go to ground, a major let off for us, but as you say in the second half mainly , Saints stepped up a gear , and played some lovely rugby , and while having no love for Thaler , I think he didnt affect the game one way or another , anyway thanks again to all the quinns fans for welcoming us I always enjoy going to your place as you fans are one of the nicest and knowledgeable crowd I have met.



Oh and as for the toouchie who gave the try , every time he went behind the sticks for a goal he got booed and heckled but the other touch judge with him just had a huge smile on his face finding the abuse of his collegue very funny.

That just about sums you lack of knowledge of the game up. If a centre is 5 metres off side and the acting half back looks that way he will not go that way as a direct result of that player gaining an advantage by coming up onto our ball receiver and or making an intercept. That is why they do it. Have you heard of umbrella defences where the attack is forced into a channel?



The classic example of this is close to the line-The outside defensive backs rush up forcing the attack to crash close to the play the ball where they have stacked up with defenders, hence why you see time and time again floated balls to the wingers due to a lack of defenders out wide and the closer outside backs rushing up.

but the rugby league papers stiil state controversial for that one though..

who cares anyway..best of luck for the rest of the season anyway..

I get as frustrated as the next man about off side, but to be honest we strayed off side on a number of occassions and weren't penalised. That said, if the ref blew for every actual offside, then we'd have no game to watch.



My main issue still lies with referee inconsistency. A good example would be grapple tackle. Yesterday we were penalised twice for grapple tackling, perfectly fine. Saints on the other hand, Fozzard and Flannery, expecially were all but ripping the mans head off with no penalty. How can this be the case ? Forward passes, forget the border line pop pass from Cunningham at dummy half, what about the long wide passes drifting a yard or more forward, do the touch judges not see them - well they do as they spotted our ones.



It just so happens it was Saints yestderday (and the better side won) but this is relfected week in week out and something needs to be done. We are no better and no worse than any other side in the disciplinary / penalty stakes and yet the records suggest otherwise.

Who was put on report and why. Was it to do with the tackle on Dorn? I couldn't see clearly from where I was

Did you notice the penalty we were awarded on the far side of the field-as we were about to kick to touch Cuningham started chipping away at the ref and the next thing the ref is speaking with our players!

The same happened when Graham got a penalty for Williams grapple tackle- he then started talking to the ref and Williams is then in the spot light.



If the Refs gripped the off side early the teams wouldn’t do it-These clubs do there analysis of refs and play to there weaknesses. Theirs no question the Ref plays a significant direct and indirect part in the game.

I couldnt get to the game yesterday so listened in to it on the radio.

we all know that when Rammo does the commentry he's never comes down on one side or the other and calls it fair for both teams. But he was working with Phil Parry on the game and even he and Phil Parry were discussing the ref and his handling of some of the game and their view on the linesmen and the way they didnt seem to see the forwards pass'es.



I might have this wrong,but they did leave you with the impression that teams in so called big four do seem to know how to work refs. i.e. like someone pointed out the Cuningham incident, they felt he just knows now to work the ref, nothing wrong in it hes just good at it and by delaying the play it gets his team back and set up. Its like knowing which refs you can do it to some refs like Ganson dont stand backchat so he wouldnt do it for the fear of getting moved back a further 10 metres. We as a team just dont seem to be able to do it or afraid to do it as maybe they no its not worth it as we wont get away with it.



As for tackling dont get me started on that and the way we seem to get done for some things other teams dont, even my wife whos not the greatest rugby league fan in the world askes why do they get away with certain tackles and we dont.

I'm lucky enough to sit in the LV stand and maybe because its empty and no crowd to shout if they see something or not but at times when over there i have seen some high shots or things going on when the player has been taken to ground and nothing done, i have shouted down at the linesmen are you blind or something but one voice dont carry much weight in that Stand.



I dont want to start the same old debate about two sides open for games,but when it was open you couldnt help feel that some noise that side did have an affect with some things.

How do you get in the LV stand- You are Brian Mac

Quote Briali1="Briali1"Who was put on report and why. Was it to do with the tackle on Dorn? I couldn't see clearly from where I was'" C'mon, you were closer than me but I saw it. Tackle on Gale. It was Saints no. 22, Andrew Dixon. I thought it was borderline but it was a hit on the kicker and probably should have been penalised. EDIT: Having now read the report: www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplin ... hp?id=1878, Dixon should have had 10 mins in the bin. TJ should have spotted that. Gale took a lot of knocks yesterday. He was floored over on the far side, just before Howell's try, and down for quite a while. Purdo spoke to Thaler at the subsequent kick-off and it was put on report but obviously deemed to be OK. This will be it: www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplin ... hp?id=1880

Quote Briali1="Briali1"Who was put on report and why. Was it to do with the tackle on Dorn? I couldn't see clearly from where I was'" C'mon, you were closer than me but I saw it. Tackle on Gale. It was Saints no. 22, Andrew Dixon. I thought it was borderline but it was a hit on the kicker and probably should have been penalised. EDIT: Having now read the report: www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplin ... hp?id=1878, Dixon should have had 10 mins in the bin. TJ should have spotted that. Gale took a lot of knocks yesterday. He was floored over on the far side, just before Howell's try, and down for quite a while. Purdo spoke to Thaler at the subsequent kick-off and it was put on report but obviously deemed to be OK. This will be it: www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplin ... hp?id=1880

I'd like to see a video of Saints first try. Typical Cunningham job but I have my doubts about the ptb, to me the tackled player played it without getting up.

Nope it wasn't ok, he's got a formal caution.



[url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplinary_item.php?id=1878Andrew Dixon:[/url





[url=http://www.therfl.co.uk/about/disciplinary_item.php?id=1880Scott Moore:[/url



Does it matter whether it's head or neck, I'm pretty sure neither is allowed! What would I know though…



A late hit on the kicker is an automatic yellow card, no discretion allowed (of course there is discretion on whether it was late, but it's normally easy to tell when a played has time to pull out). I remember David Howell went through a phase of picking up 1 a week for pressuring the kicker (he's mellowed a bit now!).

I'd also like to metion Cunningham's half-year forward pass from the tap penalty at the beginning of that set. When passing directly from dummy half more often than not he'll pass it forward.