Saints v Falcons 15th October 2022 - Teams Up

Staggering score line! We’ve dominated for most of the half and yet poor decision making 10m out means we are not home and away.. embarrassing that we are losing and a man down. Our attacking lineout close to the line has been for a long time and still continues to be appalling, clueless.

Should have scored four. But a few back to back poor decisions cost us. I thought Falcons should have had a yellow on their line fir sinicle play.

We deserve to lose this.. pretty shocking performance

Really need to learn how to put these games to bed, we let teams back in so often.

Embarrassing

Falcons can’t believe their luck
Saints have switched off

Got to question Dowson's decision to make so many changes so early when the game wasn't out of sight, despite us having a 18-point lead. We've completely stopped playing since the 55th minute and it's been all Falcons since

Even if we win we've suffered with severe mental fragility for 4 years and it's getting boring quite frankly.

What a call, scrum! Really, we haven’t been dominant at any point albeit 50/50 take the points or a lineout or even a quick tap but not a scrum it’s a lottery. Decision making has been shocking

Got to question why we took the scrum and not the penalty under thei posts
We just don’t think clearly when we get inside their 25

Where do you begin with that one, should have won at a canter and left clinging on

Granted we were missing a few starters (4?) but Newcastle were short of 8 first choice players on all accounts and made that very hard work, should have really kicked on at 32-18 but we seemed to switch off and thought the win was in the bag. And considering we had some first choice players on the bench, the impact of the 'finishers' was shocking quite frankly. Some try by Carreras though, what a player!

Well, at least we won.

Man that was a frustrating watch live! Play well for 20 mins. Play terribly for 20 mins. Play well for 20. Terrible for 20.

That first period we were playing exceptionally well. Utterly dominant and Falcons couldn't live with us. Not sure what happened.

Bit hairy that. But three wins in a week. We lack a lot of game management at crucial times which will potentially keep us out of the top 4 picture I think. We could be a really good side, potential is through the roof but without addressing those issues I think it will be a struggle. Bonus that a few got a rest.

Echoes of Jim and Doreen - get a good lead, bring on a raft of replacements and watch the opposition force their way back into the game.

Why oh why, take the scrum with less than two minutes to go with three easy points on offer ?

Paul James will sleep easy tonight…………

Yes, I know, take the five points but learn the lessons for next week !

Quote:

Deesaint
Got to question why we took the scrum and not the penalty under thei posts
We just don’t think clearly when we get inside their 25

Personally, think it was the right decision. I certainly didn’t want to see the ball back in our half after the restart. We had already given 2 penalties away at the restarts.

The best thing about Saints is that we can score tries against anyone.

The worst thing about Saints is that we can be scored against by anyone.

Our defence is so flimsy. We just do not make the opposition work hard enough - I think there is only one game this season where we have not conceded a try bonus.

On the plus side Sleights played well and good to see him bag a couple, shame no hat trick. And we are climbing the table!

Why is it that we build a lead and then let the intensity drop off? It happened in the first half and they get a roasting at half time and build a 32-14 lead and nearly gave it away. It’s almost as if they feel the game is won and it’s ok to relax. A top 4 side wouldn’t let this happen.

Disappointed with the lack of impact from the bench this week. It changed the game last week. I thought Braley was poor. Perhaps he was trying too hard. He doesn’t have breaking impact of Alex and his pass isn’t as good as Tom’s. IIRC his 2 speculative kicks over the defence led to 2 Falcons tries.

A win is a win and somehow we are in 3rd place.

Happy to take the 5 points.

But the performance was poor. The players and coaches know that.

Lets hope Bath next week is a win but not as crazy as last season.

Quote:

rugbymel
Why is it that we build a lead and then let the intensity drop off? It happened in the first half and they get a roasting at half time and build a 32-14 lead and nearly gave it away. It’s almost as if they feel the game is won and it’s ok to relax. A top 4 side wouldn’t let this happen.
Disappointed with the lack of impact from the bench this week. It changed the game last week. I thought Braley was poor. Perhaps he was trying too hard. He doesn’t have breaking impact of Alex and his pass isn’t as good as Tom’s. IIRC his 2 speculative kicks over the defence led to 2 Falcons tries.

A win is a win and somehow we are in 3rd place.

You'd hope that there's no complacency or expectation that Newcastle should be an easy 5-pointer! There was a home game around 3-4 years ago which we dominated yet somehow lost...

Agree with you on Braley - perhaps not playing in the first team resulted in some rustiness? The first kick was speculative and a complete waste of possession. Getting charged down happens sometimes - shame he didn't get an opportunity to offload after regathering it. Don't want to write him off after a bad 25 mins, but I'd restore TJ on the bench next week. As an aside, it was a shame to hear one of our fans afterwards criticising Tom James!

I guess if Wasps get suspended we'll soon see 5 of our points deducted!

Quote:

St Marcus
Our defence is so flimsy. We just do not make the opposition work hard enough - I think there is only one game this season where we have not conceded a try bonus.

Nearly 3 years since Vass arrived. Really unfortunate timing with Covid and the disastrous decision to alternate teams when the 19/20 season resumed was Boyd's decision. However, defence is nowhere where it needs to be. It's a weakness that could cost us top 4 - or perhaps be the difference between a home or away semi.

Quote:

Walks11
What a call, scrum! Really, we haven’t been dominant at any point albeit 50/50 take the points or a lineout or even a quick tap but not a scrum it’s a lottery. Decision making has been shocking

To be fair, at that point I think there'd only been one scrum pen which we won (neither side were dominant). It seemed to the decision of a team petrified of conceding another try. The rationale should've been "get a 4 point lead, claim the restart and look after the ball for 30-40s".

Quote:

JCDL86

Quote:

Walks11
What a call, scrum! Really, we haven’t been dominant at any point albeit 50/50 take the points or a lineout or even a quick tap but not a scrum it’s a lottery. Decision making has been shocking

To be fair, at that point I think there'd only been one scrum pen which we won (neither side were dominant). It seemed to the decision of a team petrified of conceding another try. The rationale should've been "get a 4 point lead, claim the restart and look after the ball for 30-40s".

That’s what I meant re:50/50 it had been pretty even. Kick to the corner, lineout run the clock down a better option. Didn’t have to risk kicking it close to the line, kick it slightly backwards, 10m-15m lineout. Worse case scenario a bit of huffing and puffing and concede a scrum to them game over. Odd decision

Mental fragility. We are seriously lacking in the top two inches. Brain dead at times and poor decision making.

There will come a day when Saints don’t score 3-4-5 tries……what happens then with our defensive frailties? Maybe some tweaking in the coaching department is needed……Discuss !

Quote:

Aberavon Wizard
There will come a day when Saints don’t score 3-4-5 tries……what happens then with our defensive frailties? Maybe some tweaking in the coaching department is needed……Discuss !

I've opined for a long time, that I do not subscribe to the "Kevin Keegan" coaching philosophy of outscoring the opposition.

Football or Rugby starts with defence.
We are lazy.
We accept the slow movement of players back into the correct positions.
We do not "fight" as hard as other teams.
We accept a poor performance and have done for quite some time.

How long have we been listening to post match coach interviews telling us - to quote Mr. Dowson yesterday - "...and things we acknowledge we are not good enough..."

Too many nice guys not enough real nasty whatever like you know who I mean, well like me who's quite comfortable pushing in a queue or the like...

Has anyone else noticed if we lose a game yet play well then, irrespective of the performance, there will be threads with lots of capitals and exclamation marks raging at the coaches. Yet these don’t appear when, like this week and last week, we only just scrap a win and play poorly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:10:16:23:56:06 by Saint Maul.

I think there was a drop off in intensity at 32-14 which happens in this league and we need to rectify this. But overall it was a good performance that we won and something to build on. Were not the finished article but wins bring confidence and that brings the consistency in performance that we are all craving.

Just seen the Carreras try. Crikey.

The tick box style of management has cost us dearly in last few seasons.Why disrupt a winning side just because computer model tells you.Injury or fatigue yes but coaches should decide on what they are watching not on laptop statistics

Quote:

Ryeexile
The tick box style of management has cost us dearly in last few seasons.Why disrupt a winning side just because computer model tells you.Injury or fatigue yes but coaches should decide on what they are watching not on laptop statistics

How do you know many (most?) Saints decisions are reduced to analytics? I'm not disagreeing, just wondering how or why you suspect this might be happening? I still think Saints biggest problem and the biggest obstacle keeping them from consistent top 4 performance (not a one off) is their losing focus for long periods during matches. Frankly, I thought that was a Boyd problem, and probably was, but we need to get rid of that or Saints will never compete at the top of the table consistently.

Quote:

Ryeexile
The tick box style of management has cost us dearly in last few seasons.Why disrupt a winning side just because computer model tells you.Injury or fatigue yes but coaches should decide on what they are watching not on laptop statistics

Perhaps the coaches though that with all due respect to Falcons it’s worth a bit of rest & rotation. We can’t go back to a first XV like it was under Jim M, there has be some depth and they are only going to get that by playing. Flogging XV players week in week out isn’t the answer. While it was a close result it really shouldn’t have been and I’d rather we play a Sarries or whoever at the top with a reasonably fresh team.