Quote JINJER="JINJER"If I was a coach, with a team of limited skills, the last thing I'd want is my team going all out in a friendly, showing all our planned moves to the opposition. And I think BS has this in mind.
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Spot on matey. I’m surprised the super coaches on here didn’t spot it.
I don’t think either of us are suggesting Smith sent them out to play quite that poorly. However I suspect he told them to treat it very much as a training exercise and not risk any injuries. The fact that Cas were clearly up for it didn’t help the score line.
One of the few positives from last season is that we will in the minds of many opposition players be considered easy beats. You’re only as good as your last game and none of our recent games have been good. I’d much rather it be this way than teams preparing for us thinking we are good - it’s our only special weapon - certainly early season.
Once a team enters a game with the mindset that the opposition is easy it’s very hard to rectify that mentality in 80 minutes if they prove otherwise.
Might not work with Leeds, Wigan or Saints - fair doo’s might not even work with Cas but I can think of a few teams it might be an advantage.
Smith will know we only have so many good games in us and I’m sure he is wise enough to know when and where - and a friendly at Cas isn’t it.
We need to play well 8 times this season IMHO and if with a little luck they all produce wins we might just take 8th spot. Doesn’t sound many but from a base 3 last season it will take a vast improvement. We really need to keep our powder dry and as many players as fit as possible.
Of course it could just be that we are still poor but I'm still feeling that we have improved significantly - fingers crossed.
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