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Brisbane's right edge too sharp for us, says Sheens
Greg Prichard - SMH
April 23, 2011
WESTS TIGERS weren't making any excuses about what happened to them last night. Instead, they made admissions: that they conceded soft tries, were bent backwards by the opposition forwards, had brain explosions, gave Broncos captain Darren Lockyer too much latitude, didn't compete hard enough in the rucks, and have a lot of work to do.
''We talked about winning the second half and we did that [and] got ourselves back into the game, but we were just continually playing from our own end all night,'' Tigers coach Tim Sheens said. ''They won the battle of the field position, so all the ball we got was mainly deep in our half - in the first half - and it was hard working out. Our kicking game under pressure didn't fire where we wanted it to go, so we played a lot of our football under pressure.
''We gave Lockyer too many shots at us near the line, and that's always going to hurt you. We had our chances but a couple of brain explosions and a couple of issues there that might have kept us in the game [had decisions gone their way], and those sort of things come back to bite you.
''Their right edge is a big, strong edge, and they worked us over. No excuses - the blokes missed tackles they shouldn't have. They really drove through the middle of us, and although they didn't make too many line breaks, they just bent us, and bent us, and bent us, and they were starting their sets 30 or 40 metres off their line. That made it easy for their forwards, and we didn't really turn them around.
''The penalties we got, we weren't really effective from them. They didn't turn over much ball and give us many opportunities. When they did, we scored. They were pretty frugal with the ball in their own half.''
Unless the Broncos make the finals and play a game at the SFS, last night's encounter was Lockyer's last appearance at the ground. If it was, he went out in fine style, scoring a 68th-minute try that put the game out of reach for the Tigers. Brisbane second-rower Sam Thaiday, one of those right-edge players Sheens was talking about, was man-of-the-match - mainly because of his destructive efforts in attack. ''We knew that the ruck was an important battle tonight, and they just went through us,'' Tigers captain Robbie Farah said.
''Their right edge - we made them look like superstars. They were going 100 metres in a set, and Lockyer and [Peter] Wallace were putting up attacking kicks. It was a tough first half, and at half-time, the boys, there wasn't much said. Everyone was pretty disappointed, heads were down, but I guess the pleasing thing is the first 20 minutes of the second half we did give ourselves a chance.
''But it was too much of a head-start. You can't give a side like Brisbane 19 points start. Our first half wasn't good enough, some really soft tries and you can't do that, you can't give away easy points against a quality side. We've got a lot of things to work on. They were bending us in the middle 20 minutes of the first half.
''We're not there at the moment. We've got some work to do, and we've got a tough road trip to Canberra next week, but we'll knuckle down. We'll work hard. We've got to bounce back."
Asked for his view on the Broncos, who have made a stunning start to the season with six wins from seven games, Farah replied: ''I don't care about the Broncos. I'm just worried about us.''
Greg Prichard - SMH
April 23, 2011
WESTS TIGERS weren't making any excuses about what happened to them last night. Instead, they made admissions: that they conceded soft tries, were bent backwards by the opposition forwards, had brain explosions, gave Broncos captain Darren Lockyer too much latitude, didn't compete hard enough in the rucks, and have a lot of work to do.
''We talked about winning the second half and we did that [and] got ourselves back into the game, but we were just continually playing from our own end all night,'' Tigers coach Tim Sheens said. ''They won the battle of the field position, so all the ball we got was mainly deep in our half - in the first half - and it was hard working out. Our kicking game under pressure didn't fire where we wanted it to go, so we played a lot of our football under pressure.
''We gave Lockyer too many shots at us near the line, and that's always going to hurt you. We had our chances but a couple of brain explosions and a couple of issues there that might have kept us in the game [had decisions gone their way], and those sort of things come back to bite you.
''Their right edge is a big, strong edge, and they worked us over. No excuses - the blokes missed tackles they shouldn't have. They really drove through the middle of us, and although they didn't make too many line breaks, they just bent us, and bent us, and bent us, and they were starting their sets 30 or 40 metres off their line. That made it easy for their forwards, and we didn't really turn them around.
''The penalties we got, we weren't really effective from them. They didn't turn over much ball and give us many opportunities. When they did, we scored. They were pretty frugal with the ball in their own half.''
Unless the Broncos make the finals and play a game at the SFS, last night's encounter was Lockyer's last appearance at the ground. If it was, he went out in fine style, scoring a 68th-minute try that put the game out of reach for the Tigers. Brisbane second-rower Sam Thaiday, one of those right-edge players Sheens was talking about, was man-of-the-match - mainly because of his destructive efforts in attack. ''We knew that the ruck was an important battle tonight, and they just went through us,'' Tigers captain Robbie Farah said.
''Their right edge - we made them look like superstars. They were going 100 metres in a set, and Lockyer and [Peter] Wallace were putting up attacking kicks. It was a tough first half, and at half-time, the boys, there wasn't much said. Everyone was pretty disappointed, heads were down, but I guess the pleasing thing is the first 20 minutes of the second half we did give ourselves a chance.
''But it was too much of a head-start. You can't give a side like Brisbane 19 points start. Our first half wasn't good enough, some really soft tries and you can't do that, you can't give away easy points against a quality side. We've got a lot of things to work on. They were bending us in the middle 20 minutes of the first half.
''We're not there at the moment. We've got some work to do, and we've got a tough road trip to Canberra next week, but we'll knuckle down. We'll work hard. We've got to bounce back."
Asked for his view on the Broncos, who have made a stunning start to the season with six wins from seven games, Farah replied: ''I don't care about the Broncos. I'm just worried about us.''
