A record unlikely to ever be beaten!
So, we lost against Hull FC. That brought an end to our longest ever period that we remained unbeaten. The last time we had lost a match was in the ‘Million Pound Game’ away at Toronto on October 5th,2019 so that means that we went a total of 553 days without losing a game!
That Hull game
What a strange game it was! As kick-off approached we were, quite honestly, full of trepidation. With the exception of the Challenge Cup matches against Cas and Wigan in 2012 our record against Super League teams in recent years has been poor, especially when playing in the Qualifiers.
So amazing exhilaration in the first minute when we caught them on the hop with a short kick off and then an excellent kick put Josh through for a try within the first minute.
Unfortunately that really stung Hull and a combination of really good play by them and a very poor performance by us led to that 34-4 half-time deficit.
Into the kitchen at half-time to make a cup of coffee and for a moment thought whether we could bear to watch the second half. But, of course, we did. We’ve never left a Fev match before the end. Not even when we got beaten 80-14 by Bradford Bulls in the Challenge Cup in 2005.
So we settled down and were both surprised and delighted by a much improved performance. Instead of getting walloped in the second half for a blow-out score we ended up winning the second half 10-0.
Did we prove we could match it with one of the best in Super League. To be honest we are not sure about that. We’ll never know how much that second half scoreline was down to the much better ball retention and tackling and how much it might have had to do with the Hull players thinking that the job was completed by half time and becoming complacent in the second half.
Only time will tell but it was definitely another patchy performance from Fev. What a pity that we don’t have another chance this year to test ourselves out against Super League opposition.
Goal-Kicking
One thing that is certain is our goal-kicking really needs to improve. When the season started with Craig Hall as our main goal-kicker we were happy about that. Craig’s overall career goal-kicking record is marginally better than Dane’s. Up until the end of last season Craig had kicked 380 goals out of 513 attempts. A success rate of just over 74%. Dane had kicked 253 goals out of 347 attempts which amounts to a success rate of just under 73%.
Both of them are capable of kicking remarkable conversions from the touchline, but Dane also had a tendency to miss much easier kicks. Now Craig seems to have caught the bug and so far this season he has only kicked 10 out of 20.
If we are to realise our ambitions for this season we need to raise the standard of goal-kicking. There will be matches this year in which we can’t afford to throw easy points away.
So, please Mr. Webster, get our kickers really practising and becoming more reliable than we have been seeing.
Incidentally, there are two members of our squad with 100% career goal kicking success rates and another with an 82% success rate for Fev. Who are they? The 100 percenters are John Davies (2/2) and Luke Cooper (1/1). It is Jack Bussey who is on 82% (9/11) and we can remember him successfully kicking from the touchline. Don’t get us wrong. We are not suggesting that these three take over the goal-kicking. They would probably have an apoplectic fit if it was suggested!
We have no doubt that goal-kicking is best in the hands (or should we say feet) of Craig and Dane but they really do need to get back to their best in this department.
Rule changes
We absolutely loathe the new interpretation of the ball stripping law. It is becoming a farce and is now interpreted in a way that makes it extremely difficult for referees to get right. The previous rule was clear and simple. If two or more players are involved in a tackle and the ball is stripped that was a penalty. Now it’s got silly with three players going into a tackle and then two taking their hands away to enable the one left to do the strip. It’s really difficult for a referee to judge the exact timing of the strip and the players releasing their grip on the tackled player.
It used to be a rare occurrence but when it’s a clear one on one then it can be a great art. The best we ever saw was from Jamie Stokes. The ball was kicked down field and caught by his opposite winger. Jamie ran down the touchline as fast as he could (and that was very fast) timing his run to perfection. The momentum of his run allowed him to sail past his opponent a fraction of a second after the ball had been caught, snatching the ball as he went, and that same momentum carried him on over the tryline for a score. It was brilliant!
Brett Ferres 100th try
We were very surprised to see Brett’s try against Hull heralded as his 100th career try. According to our records it was actually his 102nd. We have spent several hours going back and checking our stats and we can’t find any errors.
This is what we have and we would be pleased if anyone can find any mistakes in this.
Anyway, congratulations to Brett for reaching 100 tries even though we think he actually reached that milestone in 2019! It’s a great achievement for a player who has spent the vast majority of his career playing in the forwards.
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