Frustrating to lose after being ahead for so long. Had we managed to control the ball better in the second half we would probably have won it. At least five knock ons in or around the Bradford 25 cost us potential scoring opportunities. Can’t fault the effort or commitment but the execution wasn’t quite good enough.
I think we’ll have an improved season from last but until it’s all full time or all part time it’s a given fev or Toulouse this season to go up
I would agree that the rest of the teams are playing for third. I will be disappointed if we can't achieve a top six finish this year for all their will be a fair few sides in contention for those play off positions. Get a win next week and I would say we have made a good start.
Utterly shambolic last 15 minutes. Disgraceful way to see our a game. Error, error, penalty.
Craven giving one away on the 4th tackle with a couple of minutes left. Deserves dropping for that alone.
Pathetic
John Kear rugby is a tough watch.
Granted it’s a little difficult to play at Bradford given the pitch, but that was one of the most negative Widnes performances I can recall.
A defensive kick to Blackmore every single time. Not trying to contest the kick, just boxing them in down their line. One up rugby, with no ball movement all game.
Just about bearable when winning (although last weeks win was boring), but so tedious when we don’t.
That was painful
Bradford were there for the taking and we lost it due to basics and indiscipline.
On the plus point, we seem to be fairly sound defensively, conceding 12, 18 and 12.
Without JJ and TG, in the absence of the new centres we have signed, there are a lot of last years/many years previously players; so although JK gets a bit more of a tune out of them, certain players haven't been consistently good enough to be Top 5 Champo for a while.
Things will improve creatively a bit when JJ comes back but if we play with Craven and Lyons all year we will be very lucky to finish 6th IMO.
For the York and Keighley games I think that is right, the defence today was okay and good at times, but Bradford were really disorganised.
Craven is a better player than he showed today, and his push on the last tackle (or maybe fourth?) to give that penalty on the line was bad (someone correct me if it wasn't Craven).
I am not sure what Lyons has done wrong, to be honest I thought it was more a problem of us coming on the attack in ones, rather than keeping Bradford guessing.
The thing that I noticed the most today is we have zero creativity. We are workman like and can get up the pitch and defend strongly but create nothing. No trickery or guile. As already said a tough game to watch us loose today. As we were leaving I heard a Bradford fan say ' what won it for us today was that we were playing a John Kear team'. On to Halifax..
We don't seem to have any variation around the opponents 10m line, without Gilmore. Not once today do I recall a grubber into their in-goal area, every 'kick-on-the-5th' was up in the sky. Our first try came when they were down to 12 men, their 3rd try came when they should have been down to 12, as they had an injured player leaving the pitch and had used all their subs. Mr Thaler decided to hold up the green card, and as a head injury, they were allowed an extra sub. I know we shouldn't have relied on that, but it's potential for 'head working' (excuse the pun) from teams struggling for bodies.
I thought Joe Edge was the pick of the backs, apart from that, no player really stood out.
Paulie xx
I wondered if the reason for the lack of grubber kicks was that the in-goal areas looked to be ridiculously short. Would make it a harder skill to pull off and Bradford also were not utilising this tactic. But I agree there was a lack of flair and variation in our attack. Also had Edge as MOM, some solid but not outstanding contributions in the pack from Grady, Davies and Field amongst others.
I wondered if the reason for the lack of grubber kicks was that the in-goal areas looked to be ridiculously short. W
Indeed - it's been like that for a while, as well as the ultra-narrow pitch. In fact they are so narrow that in Bradford's first home game against Whitehaven I thought their centre Gill came perilously close to going over the dead ball line having raced in from about 40 yards out. at about 2:19 in the video below.
Went today & this is a reality check. The defence overall was good but that is it. We dominated the first half & had all the territory but only managed to score a try once when they were down to 12 men after a yellow card.
Apart from Lawton's try in the second hallf we never looked likke scoring. All that we did was use the high kick on the last. Not one of Craven's kicks was high enough to give his team mates the opportunity to compete for the ball or put pressure on the catcher. They did the same but Patton put tremendous height on his which were more troubling. Both half backs were poor & predictable on attack as were everyone else but it is the half backs job. In the second half in their 20 Lawton was given it just the once & he scored taking 3 with him over the line. Why are we not using him when near the line? We ignored him at least twice after he had scored.
I know we had 3 missing but that is likely to be the case most of the season. They had players missing too. We need some plays to use in the opposition half besides the dummy & go (not actually used today). Still early days but we look similar to the last few seasons on attack. We need to turn attacking positions into points. We really need a win next week now but that will be tough to achieve against Halifax. COYV step it up.
Absolutely not for the first time, I'm torn between wanting Widnes to just win and my hopes of seeing an exciting game of RL.
IMHO John Kear has significantly improved fitness, team spirit and our defence. No coach can prevent players making basic mistakes but what I long to see is our players using their personal skills and bringing supporters to their feet with some alternative attacking moves.
We have a couple of good talented forwards and two speedy wingers who are all easily capable of making a break.
However, I suppose that I really just want us to win, so I will have to wait a bit longer to see fulfil my dream of watching some new tactics and some thrilling rugby.
Absolutely not for the first time, I'm torn between wanting Widnes to just win and my hopes of seeing an exciting game of RL.
IMHO John Kear has significantly improved fitness, team spirit and our defence. No coach can prevent players making basic mistakes but what I long to see is our players using their personal skills and bringing supporters to their feet with some alternative attacking moves.
We have a couple of good talented forwards and two speedy wingers who are all easily capable of making a break.
However, I suppose that I really just want us to win, so I will have to wait a bit longer to see fulfil my dream of watching some new tactics and some thrilling rugby.
I think this is a fair post.
It is a fine balance between entertainment and winning. At the minute, I think the entertainment on offer is virtually non existent.
Yesterdays game was boring, the most bored I’ve been at a game in years. Last weeks win felt like a chore and wasn’t much to get excited about.
I think Kear should see out his contract until the end of this season and the club part ways then. We have to be identifying a coach now to take over next pre season.