Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 2:00 pm  

NSW wrote:

Good call, when was the last time one of our forwards broke a tackle and scored with a few players on their back?

Havard IIRC, it was a while back like.

Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 2:19 pm  

We need to find a Lee Crooks from somewhere............

Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 2:48 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

It was Taukeiaho (not a clue if that spelling is right), who is now at Catalans.

Ha, that's right! I thought it began with T!

Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 5:22 pm  

Egg Chasing wrote:

That's kind of my point.

We need props and potentially a SR. Let's not get too concerned with signing someone just because they can kick goals.

Which is what I was saying as well - if you look at the best goal kickers around at the moment most are not positions we need or players we would really be interested in, if we could sign someone who is in a positon we nned to strengthen and happened to be a good goal kicker as well that would be a huge bonus. Perhaps we need to bring in someone who was a top goal kicker on a short term coaching contract to work with anyone in the squad to improve them.

Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 8:00 pm  

exiled Warrior wrote:

Which is what I was saying as well - if you look at the best goal kickers around at the moment most are not positions we need or players we would really be interested in, if we could sign someone who is in a positon we nned to strengthen and happened to be a good goal kicker as well that would be a huge bonus. Perhaps we need to bring in someone who was a top goal kicker on a short term coaching contract to work with anyone in the squad to improve them.

We had Charlie Hodgson a few years ago and it worked wonders with Sam.

Wonder if Deacs fancies a summer job.

Re: Goal Kicking : Sun May 28, 2023 10:27 pm  

NSW wrote:

Good call, when was the last time one of our forwards broke a tackle and scored with a few players on their back?

We just don’t do it. Mago kills me in that regard. He had chances at HKR the other night to just smash his way over players but he doesn’t do it. We have one forward who scores try’s and that is Faz, but even he doesn’t score what I’d call ‘forwards try’s’. His try’s are from his brilliant line running and support play from deep. We need a forward or two that will just smash his way over the line. I look at Dupree and Walters and they could be those guys.

Re: Goal Kicking : Mon May 29, 2023 9:31 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

We just don’t do it. Mago kills me in that regard. He had chances at HKR the other night to just smash his way over players but he doesn’t do it. We have one forward who scores try’s and that is Faz, but even he doesn’t score what I’d call ‘forwards try’s’. His try’s are from his brilliant line running and support play from deep. We need a forward or two that will just smash his way over the line. I look at Dupree and Walters and they could be those guys.

Byrne is one that frustrates me in that regard, he runs in really hard often from a deeper position but seems to get stopped quite quickly which for someone his size seems a bit odd, Ellis made more ground in contact in the last game which was good to see and hopefully he can continue doing that. Mago too often seems to get the ball standing still rather than bursting onto the ball, he can make reasonable ground but too slowly.

Re: Goal Kicking : Mon May 29, 2023 7:10 pm  

Craig Huby was a goalkicking prop and very often in my fantasy rugby team

in regards to Smith, we have to stick with him. He is striking the ball well, so i'd be more concerned if he was splaying them all over the place and not hitting it well. I liken it to playing golf, the margins between a perfect shot and it missing is miniscule, so for me he is hitting them well, but just a fraction out

Re: Goal Kicking : Mon May 29, 2023 9:42 pm  

NickyKiss wrote:

I worry about us more when we’re attacking on the opposition line, than I do attacking from our own half and part of that is because we lack a player who can pull the trigger accurately on a pass but also because we lack punch in the forwards or the type of player that is just difficult to stop close to the line. If you have those, your kicks do start becoming easier. Saints get regular try contributions from big, powerful forwards like Walmsley and Sironen but we lack that. It’s something I’m hoping Walters and whoever else comes in can solve and in turn it can improve the kicking percentages.

It struck me, watching TSS, that as far as scoring under the posts is concerned, it's not just about powerful forwards. How many tries did George Williams score under the posts for us? We don't have halves that can do that right now.

Re: Goal Kicking : Tue May 30, 2023 6:03 am  

moto748 wrote:

It struck me, watching TSS, that as far as scoring under the posts is concerned, it's not just about powerful forwards. How many tries did George Williams score under the posts for us? We don't have halves that can do that right now.

That’s true. We don’t have that ability from hooker either, so it’s an issue across the board. Not sure where Powell pulled that season from where he scored about 11/12 trys close to the opposition line but that seems to be gone now.