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No defence for poor defence

27/ 8/2003

HORNETS' coach Martin Hall was left to reflect on a poor defensive display by his team against Salford City Reds at The Willows on Sunday.

The Spotland outfit conceded 10 tries in a 58-18 defeat despite showing signs early in the game that they might produce a shock against the league leaders. Hornets bounced back from a first-minute try to take the lead, but they then fell off the one-on-one tackles and allowed Salford too much space as they ran in four tries.

Hall said: "In the first half we competed quite well. We just came up with some individual defensive lapses which cost us dearly."

The Hornets' boss was none to pleased that Salford stand-off Radney Bowker who has been on loan to Hornets for almost three months wasn't allowed to face his own club team. This meant a re-jig for Hornets which saw centre Jon Roper move to stand-off. With limited resources at his disposal and only 16 fit men available Hall had to try something different. He admitted it didn't work.

"The fact that I couldn't play Radney had a massive impact," he said. "I don't think we would have won with him playing, but he has a great influence on the way we play. I had to switch things around and obviously it didn't worked. I only had 16 fit players and then we had Wes Rogers sent off, so we were struggling. The bottom line is we didn't play well and Salford did."

Wes Rogers 59th minute dismissal didn't help matters and on a hot day Hornets paid the price.

Hall added: "We lacked any sort of cohesion and composure and they got a few runaway tries when we were down to 12 men. The heat was the same for both sides. But it effects you more when you are one down. We play Featherstone next week so I've got to get the troops back on track. "Hopefully we won't have any injuries and hopefully we will be able to turn out 17 players."

• WITH four games left, rugby league fans will no doubt be contemplating the play-offs. Hornets are guaranteed a top three finish for the third season running and their final placing will decide their fate in the play-offs.

The scenario for the National League One is:
Week One: Game A Third place v sixth place - loser eliminated.
Game B Fourth place v fifth place - loser eliminated
Week Two: Game C First place v second place - winner to Grand Final
Game D Winner game A v winner game B - loser eliminated.
Week Three: Game E Loser game C v winner game D - loser eliminated.
Week Four Sunday, 5 October The Grand Final - winner game C v winner game E.

Points to remember:
1. The club finishing bottom of National League One is automatically relegated.
2. The eighth placed club in National League One plays against the ninth placed club with the winner staying up. The loser goes on to play the National League Two beaten Grand Finalists. The winner of that game is in National League One next year. The loser is in National League Two.