Murphy played in an era of unlimited tackles and later 4 tackles where you didn't get many chances at the line.
His philosophy was perfect for that time and as a great player and coach you should listen.

Now, I'd still say it is important but if you've just had two penalties and attacking the line unless you are playing poorly you've got a decent chance of scoring and a decent chance of getting back there.

The decision isn't as simple now.

Saying all that, I do agree with Murphy, if it's an easy kick you should take it.

I take it you never went to thrumhall in was it 79-80 when there fullback kicked a drop goal every chance he was in line 3 or 4 To knock us out of the challenge cup.
Was his name wait or something like that.

Only two observations 1) we lacked any second phase by our inability to offload in the tackle & 2) there was definitely enough space to kick from the scrum for our wingers to chase.
The bottom line is we won not playing our best I guess it is a sign of our increased standing.

Think they called him johnny Blair I went to that game we were the red hot favourites to win it was the year after the Wembley final Maurice bamford was the Halifax coach they tackled us out of the game and beat us with drop goals we had Dave topliss keith smith and we're a pretty good side it was a big shock to get knocked out of the cup at Halifax .

I was there actually.
But that partly proved both out points.

They weren't capable of beating us with tries. We were the better team. They tackles and took their chances.
When we play Sts in the semi this year to get to Wembley I want to kick every chance.
When we play Oxford in the early rounds I'll be happy to run it.

I'm not disagreeing about Salford. If bite for kicking the goals. What I'm saying is that a confident team can often see a try opportunity and go for it. If back them if they did.....its a you call.

Not saying that we would've, just think taking the two when we're camped on their line is just a way of saying the opposition "we're not that confident of scoring a try".

Doesn't necessarily prove successful though as Hull KR found out on Thursday, when they kicked a drop goal to make it 11-10, only to lose 20-11. I rarely like us to take the two unless we have a healthy lead, because the risk of that is losing the ball at the restart and the opposition scoring from that, as opposed to turning the ball over in their ten metre line as far away from our own try line as possible.

I am happy to accept that at that time in the game going for the try was worth a go. I think when we got to the final stages we should have gone for a drop goal rather than the kick to the corner.
It’s all about the state and time in the game and making the correct decision at that moment.

My view is make the game safe and then go for your tries.
Its not the right attitude for every game, but Fridays game was an arm wrestle and we had more than one opportunity to make the game safe with a drop goal, instead of relying on a missed kick at the end to secure both points.

Totally agree Trinity 1315, it's called game management, it's something we need to improve on.

There are far more important improvements to make than wittering about one instance of running the ball instead of taking the 2, especially in a game where in the end it made no difference.
I hope we are gonna run it every time the team feels they should, that involves lots of in game evaluation by the guys on the field and you have to trust them to do that.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, that's the nature of the game, its simple with hindsight and the comfort of an armchair or the stand to come out with the coulda woulda shoulda's after the fact.
I'm quite happy they took the right option to run it, they thought it was right at the time the decision needed to be made, and that's good enough for me.

That would be a miracle if we did play Oxford! They no longer exist

Having a discussion on the pros and cons of taking the two is hardly wittering on.

Isn't there an additional hidden benefit in running the plays? If you did it twice, that's 10 or 12 extra tackles, and double that if you can force a drop-out with a good grubber. You might not get the two or four points, but you play a tired defence later in the game, who leave gaps. At that time, the Salford defence was being beaten. It only backfired because they managed to regroup.

Anybody remember 2015????

we got the 2 !! that is the main thing ...
fifta again almost cost us the game like he did against Warrington last year.
you are wining by 6 with 1 min to go!! why o why are you struggling to get up and play the ball quickly ! just get up and play it slowly so you don't make mistake- he has a target in his back now from the refs because he plays the ball like that everytime! I think he may of gave 6 pens away on Friday.
I was impressed with Pauli Pauli fitness he will be better as season goes on......will he be out you think though for a while with a broken nose?

2 points and 2 from 2 !! got to love it.

miller mom for me

5 in 2 games ftr. Yes, he does give pens but some are calculated others aren't. Also with the number of minutes we get out him in the middle, it's no surprise. Personally, I like the way Fifita gets up and plays the ball as he quick as he can, it's usually off a big carry and with at least 3 defenders on him, so getting up quick will leave holes in the opposition defense & it generally gets us on the front foot far more than not. Better players than him have been pulled for that ateotd.

Agree though on Pauli, he will get better and better as the season goes on and his fitness improves and he gets used to playing over here. As Wood said he came into pre-season the most unfit as he was still overcoming his leg injury and also arrived late. You can see what he's gonna bring when he's up to speed. He's already just behind Fifta on average gain at nearly 7.50 meters per carry. In warmer weather and another few games under his belt, I expect that to rise, along with his minutes and carries.

Yep, please don't remind us. We won the first 2 and that was practically it for the season.

I know we shouldn't get carried away but surely MC you're not saying that could happen again?



On a wider point grinding out those ugly wins when you're not at your best is just as important as putting 40 on a team and looking a million dollars ateotd.

That's a crazy statement - no other ref would have given that penalty; can hardly blame Big Dave for Mr Child's selective pedantry.

You sir are a killjoy


Cant we just enjoy the ride, i'll even put up with the nose bleed.

My point exactly. Enjoy the ride. Instead of nit picking over errors, enjoy rocky’s Kick to milky. Or grix’s cover tackle!! We are never going to be perfect. But the focus is always on the bits that go wrong

We need something to talk about!

My assessment of life is always that you judge your life on what your worries are. Personally, I'm enjoying the fact that the height of our debate is whether we should have won by more.

I couldn't agree more; as I said straight after the game - Miller's try was a peach, and Grix probably saved the game with that ridiculous 'tackle' - and I use the word tackle in it's broadest possible sense, since what he really did was disregard his own physical wellbeing for the sake of saving a try. Not many FB's in SL would have pulled that off.

We're not the well oiled machine that this team has the capability to become yet - but having watched all the televised games thus far, I don't think any team is; players have had a long lay-off, and adjusting to the speed and intensity of week in/week out SL games takes some time - particularly in the crappy conditions that the opening few months serve up.

On that note, Saints look like they could be the real deal this season; I'd love to know what they feed Roby - he's like the Duracell bunny.

And your vendetta continues. Against Warrington he did cost us but on Friday there was sod all difference between his play the ball and every other play the ball that evening.

If a player cocks up then fine but he didn't on this occasion it was an unbelievably pedantic decision and typical of the attention seekers who ref our games.