A couple of points have been made on other threads about when Craig Hall knocked on in our own half with the open field ahead of him. This isn't a pop at him - just a genuine question over current coaching/views on the game.
My old bloke - who was a pro in the old old old days, and a winger or full back - always reckoned if the ball fell loose on the ground like it did tonight, that the best tactic was to put the boot to it and get the ball as far up the field as possible. His logic was that he'd always back himself in a straight foot race, and even if it was still a difficult pick up when he got there, at least it would be a knock on near their line rather than his own. Seems sense to me, yet you don't see many players do it. If Craig had done that tonight would he have got more, or less, stick?

A lot more stick.

He should have simply kept his eye on the ball and picked it up or dropped on it. His mistakes were made as he was already looking at the try line before getting control of the ball.

Without the luxury of hindsight:

He gathers, he scores.
He kicks it, he is at the mercy of the bounce and kick accuracy.

He drops on it and doesnt put our already shattered defence under more pressure.

FWIW he made a couple of school boy erros but so did all of the other players. (including Berrigan and Dowes)

His Ar$e fell out plain and simple

Watch the ball, not the try line. The try line will stay where it is.

A very well thought out and detailed argument.

Was the reason he dropped all the balls he did. Took his eyes off it, whether it be due to the pressure and he bottled it, or like the one were talking about, he thought he had scored before he had picked it up

Precisely,he did it twice. When they kicked through in exactly the same part of the pitch and as the ball bounced up for him he was more concerned with his route to the line than catching the ball and knocked it on. Just one of them things that sometimes go for you and sometimes go against you, another day he'll take it and step round someone and he'll be away.

He'll learn.

Absolutely. If anyone thinks he cost us the game they should remember that his errors mainly came in the first half, and we lost the game in the second.

Although the repeat sets in the first will have taken it out of our tanks for the second.



Agree though, he contributed to our defeat but so did the other 16 players in equal measure.

He was hardly the only culprit for causing that though was he? We must have dropped more ball than we had all season previously.

Pretty much agree, we were poor all over the place.