fevnut's musings 2024/#13: Widnes, Watch live or on TV and Loans and DR going mad

Much, much better 

As we pulled into the Millennium Stadium car park last Sunday there was a degree of apprehension.

This was partially engendered by the scars of Fev v Widnes matches many years ago, but more so based on the fact that in this year’s Championship Widnes had played four and won them all whereas Fev had lost to Wakefield and Bradford before beating Doncaster with ease. But Doncaster are a very different proposition to Wakefield, Bradford or Widnes.

The big question for us was how would our halfbacks go? We had guessed that it would be Bowes and Turner as neither Reynolds or Lacans were available. One of our feelings about the Bradford match had been that we lacked leadership from the halves and that was the same combination.

When it came to it, we had a really good first half performance. It was particularly pleasing how, after conceding a try to take the score to 10-6 we came straight back and scored again for a 16-6 halftime lead.

As the second half started we felt that we needed to score again in order to stretch that lead and Brad Day obliged by running a good line and then using his strength to get the ball down despite being tackled. But then everything went pear-shaped and when Widnes went into the lead after 68 minutes we (and many other supporters sat near us) thought that there was no way back. All the momentum was with Widnes and we were looking out on our feet and the flowing rugby we had seen earlier had completely disappeared. And it wasn’t just the supporters who felt that way. James Ford had come down to the touchline and was stood in clear view from our seat and he was very agitated!

We shouldn’t have been so downbeat after the displays by this Fev team against Wakefield (twice), against Leigh in the cup and the comeback we produced in the latter stages of our game against Batley at Mount Pleasant. Perhaps the very poor performance against Bradford had taken its effect on us! To our delight our players showed remarkable resilience and despite our misgivings turned it around with those two late tries from Connor Wynne.

Well done Fev! This may be a team with less stars than last year but their resilience is remarkable.

 

 

Watching Live or on TV 

We would always prefer to watch a game live in a stadium. There is never the same thrill sat in front of a television without the atmosphere generated by fans and particularly being with friends.

Watching on television does have some advantages although it is never a substitute for being there in person. You get to see details of play that you sometimes miss when you are in the stands. In particular, last Sunday we hadn’t truly appreciated what a very big influence Paul Turner had on the game. 

If you haven’t done so already I would urge you to take a look, at least on the 'trylights' on FevTV. Paul made a major contribution in several of our tries and none more so than the first try of the game scored by Gareth Gale. From the main stand we were a long way away. It looked good, very good, but seeing it in detail on the video showed that it was a fabulous try. It was created by a magical offload in the tackle from Turner to Greg Minikin, then on to Caleb Aekins who came into the line, and finally out to Gaz who produced one of his spectacular finishes. The second try was again created by Turner with a great loop pass to England leaving the line clear for him to score.

For the Brad Day try early in the second half Paul Turner didn’t touch the ball, but what you see clearly on the video is him organising the play. It’s really heartening to see him taking such an active part in organising the team which he did well many times during the match.

We must also mention the part that Connor Jones played that was much clearer on the video. Unusually he didn’t score in this match but he made those two Connor Wynne tries at the end. The first with a great pass and the second with a kick.

When you watch games that you have been to on video, you often find that what you thought was an error from the referee was, in fact, a correct decision. However, from the stands, we thought that the first try from Ryan Ince was off a forward pass. Watching it on the video confirms that it was definitely forward. It seems to us that it was primarily an error from the touch judge who really should have seen it and communicated it to the referee. It could have been disastrous for Fev because it put the momentum right back with Widnes. Still, All’s Well That End Well!

 

 

Loan and DR going mad.

fevnut spends Mondays computerising the results and scorers for all matches involving Super League, Championship and League One teams. That is what enables us to produce the full career records for current year Fev players.

In the last week we have been overloaded with making changes to all the squads brought about by loan and dual reg moves. It can be difficult to keep up with them all but we try our best and so far this season we have recorded no less than 59 loan signings and 37 dual reg moves.

That’s a huge number and indicative of the way that Super League clubs snaffle up such a huge number of promising players and are then unable to give them the gametime they need to develop. Surely it would be better if these players were actually signed by Championship and League One teams giving them regular playing opportunities alongside the same players week after week and learning to play with them as a team.

Our attention was drawn this week to the situation of Lucas Green, a 19 year-old prop forward with Warrington. 

In 2023 he got the opportunity to make 6 substitute appearances for the Wolves. So far this year he hasn’t made any but instead has played a couple of pre-season games with Widnes on dual reg, 2 dual reg appearances with North Wales Crusaders and one loan appearance with Bradford Bulls. While trawling through the TotalRL website this week we see that he has now gone on loan to Swinton Lions! Does anyone really think that this is a good way to develop young players? If he gets to play for Warrington that will be his 5th club in 2024.

 

 

Postscript 

It’s good to see that the appointment of Tara Jones to be the referee at the Oldham v Cornwall match a fortnight ago wasn't just tokenism. She is back refereeing the Midlands Hurricanes match this weekend. She won’t become a regular appointment for the simple reason that she is still playing for St. Helens and was doing so last week in their match against York Valkyrie.

It’s a little bit intriguing to know why she isn’t playing for Saints in their match against Huddersfield Giants on Sunday. Presumably she is fit or she wouldn’t be getting the refereeing gig.