Halifax v Haven - your thoughts?

[MrsHavenWarrior]

Certainly a step in the wrong direction today.  Our discipline sounded woeful, defence even worse!

Lots of comments about Makisi being out of his depth??  Are we expecting too much? 

I think its down to good hard training this week and defence and discipline being top of the list for most work.  Town at home next week and a MUST win situation. 

[brett kinghams mullet]

Halifax are the same team as last year  (absent Trinder) and we had the measure of  them four times out of five. 

Today  tells its own story.  No passion what so ever  no pattern to our play  when we had the ball. Tackling was awful when we did not.

Where is the attacking Rugby we have been promised.  I would settle for some tackling rugby to be honest.

Apart from Widnes in the NRC we have not been betean so badly by a NL team for five or six years.

Commentators seemed to think the Tongan was out of his depth which is a bit of a concern for a quota player .

I hat to say I told you so but I really do not think things look very bright.  I sincerely wish they did, but Crarey (apart from talking a good game) has not don one thing withthe team to make me think he is going to make us a better team this year.

while not making excuses halifax are not the same team as last year

in
dana wilson
mike ratu
jon goddard
lee patterson
jana billings
miles greenwood
lee greenwood

kopchac on loan

so get your facts right boxer

still a long season in store if this is anything to go by think we missed sice today no one scooting from dummy half

[farawayfan]

couldn't make the game today- quite glad frankly- well were do we start, finch in to shackle holroyd- sounds to me like he ran the show. i dont think finch is good enough for this league.
why move carl rudd from when he has been at his best form since signing for haven
the craig mcavoy plan obviously didnt work-impact player? i honestly think macca has not been up to his best all season- seems as if he is not interested??
the only consolation from today is that it was the nrc and not the league which i believe is far more important.

[shavenhaven]

Agree 100% with boxer, we are pants and anyone who says otherwise is brainwashed.
We are in big trouble but you can continue and deny it all you want but it wont go away.

[haven09]

2005 halifax 60-12 against haven forget that did you boxer?
2006 hull kr gave us a tonking was it 72-10? forget that boxer


im sick of boxer and his nonsense

makisi has had 3 training sessions with the lads he has played 2 80 minutes in 5 months yeah lets get rid great idea dont even give the lad a chance to settle in to his new life here  

halifax the same team as last season except trinder are you having a laugh boxer? what about the signings of
mike ratu (loan signing from leeds)
craig kopzack (loan signing from bradford)
jon goddard (signed from hull kr)
dana wilson and miles greenwood (signed from leigh)
janan billings (aussie hooker they signed up)
not to mention holroyd and paul smith have now had a full pre seasons with fax they both joined midway through the season last year,
plus mick govin who was injured for all of last season wil have his first full season with them and he is a very good player they got from leigh

i dont no what your problem is with cresta boxer but your really starting to annoy me now if your not happy go and follow your beloved dave rotherham to workington!!!!!!!!

it will take time for cresta to drill the attacking rugby into whitehaven he has said that from the start, the reason he got barrow playing good rugby is because at his first training session he had 7 players and built the team and taught them attacking rugby and they nearly shocked us twice last season he will get the team playing attacking rugby but clowns like you boxer wont give him the time.

[Boxer]

Give me a break.  Yiu talk about crareys achivements at barrow like he won the Grand Final.

He got barrow to finsh third in NL 2 for god sake,  and to be frank I doubt people will be looking back at barrow in 2007 as some fantastic attacking team.  He had a reasonable set of players in a poor league and finished third ...so what.     

[Boxer]

View from a fax fan at the game.  He could have given us some credit!

Great performance by 'Fax today. Completely out played them in the forwards which left the gaps for the backs to capitalise. Whitehaven were trulty awful

[daniluvsdis]

Disappointed!! We could of done miles better. We need to tighten our defence and keep penalties too a minimum as well as our discipline!! 

[heathen55]

As a Fax fan I've no wish gloat but your team today made it easy for us. Don't know the penalty count in the first half but Mr Ganson certainly took exception to your indiscipline at the play the ball. Others might disagree but i thought the most significant difference between the teams was in the forwards. We made good yardage on just about every set against a pack which seemed slow and in one or two cases overweight. As a result our playmakers (and we do have more than one Mr Crarey) had all the time they needed to drag Whitehaven round the park
By the way if No5 was your Fijiian he had a nightmare, mind you his centre (No 3) was no better.
It's a long season and I'm sure you will improve as the players get to know each other and the coache's strategies - keep the faith       

[haven09]

5 was adebisi 3 was makisi

[Boxer]

He is Tongan and supposed to be our quota player....we are very worried.  Neverthless thanks for the honesty.

[Boxer]

He is talking about Makisi Abesi was our man of the match.

Even cox who is usually very reluctant to critise individual players said the tongan looked way out of his depth today.

You must rememebr he was playing Jim beam cup last year for a team called "Cherry" Hill .  That league is three levels below first grade in Aus

[haven09]

erm no he wasnt boxer read the quota again

By the way if No5 was your Fijiian he had a nightmare, mind you his centre (No 3) was no better.

ade adebisi was number 5 he said he had a nightmare but makisi number 3 was no better

do you have a problem with cresta and makisi boxer? like ive said go and follow your beloved dave rotherham to workington!!!

[Flannerz]

Just got back from the game and these are my thoughts:

The good - I thought Adebisi had a good game, as did Calvert. Both didn't do much wrong. Leroy came off the bench and played for the badge.

The bad - We looked good for the opening 2-3 minutes and that was the only time we did. As soon as Fax got the ball, it was fast, flowing rugby with plenty of support play. When we had the ball, it was the opposite. One man rugby up the middle and never breaking the line. Duffy looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed and didn't know what day it was, he really didn't seem to have much idea at all. Although it was his pass which put Calvert in on the hooter.

As regards to Makisi, he did look poor today. I know we've got to give him time, but on today's performance if Rob Jackson was fit then he should be dropped. Fletcher was very quiet and Miller needs time in the Reserve Grade. The forwards weren't running aggressively enough at the line, it was too easy for Fax to put our men down.

The ugly - discipline, discipline, discipline! Our penalty county must have been in double figures in the first half alone. Silly penalty after silly penalty, it just isn't good enough and isn't acceptable!

Whilst the result wasn't the worst we have suffered, the rugby on show was abysmal. There needs to be a drastic change over the coming weeks because there doesn't seem much evidence of this 'fast flowing, attractive' rugby. If I hadn't known PC was coach, I could quite easily have thought DR was in charge as the moves we were doing were just the same time after time and the same ones that we have been using for the past 2 years.

Put it into perspective though. It's not going to make any difference to the outcome of our group. The coach and players should use this as a wake up call and get it sorted out. if we are playing rugby like that at the Recre week in week out, the future certainly isn't bright!

[whitehavenRLforever]

Lets  hope  PC  gives  them  hell  in  training  this  week.