Taking the 2 Points from Penalties

The taking the 2 points perspective

At the end of the night we were not good enough to win with 26 points

and were out scored by 5 tries to four
Um?! It was 5 tries each, the only kick Holmes missed was his last try which was his hardest of the night - but realistically didn't matter if he missed or not.

Both kicks Garrick missed were from the right hand side less than 10m in from touch.
The other 3 were gimmes.

Holmes had 4 gimmes - letting him run around closer to the posts from his first try is one of those 1%ers that may well have cost the game also.

Taking the 2 right in front is a gimme which to me is why you should take them, no matter how good a kicker you are or how well you're hitting them 2 points is 2 points and there's nothing like scoreboard pressure.

Holmes average this year is 81% so his 4/5 is on par
Garrick 75% so his 3/5 is below par, so is 4/6 if he takes the 2 in front but proves crucial when it counted.
 
There are a lot of "what ifs" in taking that penalty kick.
Who knows, if he takes the kick we may have won by 10, but conversely everything is reset & we may have lost by 10.
Unfortunately, time machines have not been invented yet.
Maybe we should try the time tunnel:

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Depends on the game every time. And on which year. And on which ref.
Eg last year take the tap, keep the pressure on, provided you can hold the ball then there's a fair chance of a 6 again, after a few 6 agains someone is off to the bin, then you score a few long distance tries.
This year, not so much.
 
Yeah I’ve found our decisions this year to be very frustrating. We are a good side but not a very smart side. So many penalties earlier in the year. We seem to have got better in that dept lately. Then the keppie and Lawton send offs. That cost us games. Then last night we should have been smart enough to win. We are actually a top 4 to top 6 side but our lack of game management will probably see us miss the 8.
There's those words again, game mgmt.
 
Taking the 2 with 25 mins to go, would of given our boys a chance to take some oxygen, a fast or up tempo game was always going to play into their hands and they were always going to have running in their legs coming home, we should of been slowing the tempo and controlling the speed of the game at every opportunity, that was a missed opportunity along with the 2 points. In the end they were full of running and we were gassed. Smith and Cronk were 2 of the best game managers at closing out games under those type of situations, DCE with all his experience should be capable and able to manage that aspect of our games.
 
A couple of years back. The stat on l being the next to score a try after taking the 2 was huge.

Be interesting to know if that's changed since the 6 again rule.
 
I agree with @bob dylan my opinion, unless your being by more than 2, always take the two when in front of the sticks. Perplexing and frustrating why they don't.

I know the argument about 6 agains and tries etc, but before they scrapped the scrum for kicks out of touch, leading teams would look to do so just kill time, suck some oxygen in, taking the two, not only gets us the points but a break.
Ball back and away we go again.
 
Sorry, the 2 points there is irrelevant. We scored two tries to go 26 -12.
The biggest decision was the overrule by the bunker, when Robson was offside from the kick.
How he could say that the run and the pass equaled 10 metres is beyond me. Especially as the ref called no try initially.
Also Hess was in front of the kicker before the try in the first half.
 
Sorry, missed a bit, just released from psychiatric care after our performance on Friday.

What happened to to the adage of taking points when on offer?

Btw the first try the guy who pushed the ball back from the cows was 2 feet offside to the left at the bomb. Should have been a penalty. That came from a ref who was pissed with what the bunker dished out.
 
Depends on many facors -
  • Are the opposition struggling
  • Momentum at the time
  • Scoreboard
  • Clock
  • Confidence
I'm kind of a foot on the throat type and have always felt both playing or as a fan, if you take the 2 it gives the opposition confidence you didn't feel you would score a try and often - will lift from that point and come home tails up, for mine even without scoring and trying for a repeat set or tackled 5 out on the last you have them lined up to smash with the ultimate field position.
I say keep the heat on and this includes early in a game where many a team taking the 2, get smashed from that point.
If it's a 1 or 2 point ball game and your behind, I say kick the 2 if there's 7 mins or less on the clock, but if in front...even by a small margin on the attack play field position and even not risk a kick and challenge them to run 95m, which 99% of the time leads to a mistake or desperation kick down field.
 
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Poor captaincy pure and simple. Its rolling the dice and disrespecting the opposing defence. Sadly its usually an error that simply hands the ball to the other side with zero result. Its just dumb arrogant footy.
 
I agree about the short drop-outs and re-starts. We are poor at catching them. We need to work on getting better at both receiving and delivering them. Mind you, not having Turbo available for these short kick-offs/drop-outs is a big factor.
Shouldn’t have to rely on Trbo mate…..we have Saab & Olakau’atu
 
We would have lost the Cowboys game and Parra game regardless. It's just the way it was scripted.

If the final scores were 6 -4 or something like that I may take more notice of not taking two points.

Re the Parra game we had a one man advantage and they decided that was enough reason to go for the try.

Re the Cowboys game - There is logic in not taking two points when you are 14-12 in front with 25 minutes to go because a successful penalty can be nullified straight away with one scoring play by the other team. If you are 6 ahead, or even 12 ahead then a successful penalty is viewed to be more important because it means the other team need another try to beat you.

I'm not dirty on the team for not taking either penalty goal early in the game in reasonably high scoring games. And lets not sleep on the fact Garrick missed a heap of conversion kicks in both games.
So now let’s blame Garrick for the losses. You expect him to kick every conversion? Other kickers miss goals as much as he does. FMD he’s won us more games with his kicks than lost!
 
So now let’s blame Garrick for the losses. You expect him to kick every conversion? Other kickers miss goals as much as he does. FMD he’s won us more games with his kicks than lost!
I think Garrick's a really good goalkicker and when he misses it isn't by far.

I just simply pointed out he missed quite a few kicks in those games.

Why do you have a problem with people stating facts?
 
I think Garrick's a really good goalkicker and when he misses it isn't by far.

I just simply pointed out he missed quite a few kicks in those games.

Why do you have a problem with people stating facts?
It’s a fact in every game that goals will be missed….whether it’s Garrick or whoever. He’s missed goals in games we’ve won & no mention of it. Plus he’s the leading point scorer currently so yeah must be doing something right.
 
It’s a fact in every game that goals will be missed….whether it’s Garrick or whoever. He’s missed goals in games we’ve won & no mention of it. Plus he’s the leading point scorer currently so yeah must be doing something right.
Garrick's a really good player and a really good goalkicker.

The reality is he was below his career and yearly average in kicking in both of the games mentioned. He shoots at 75 percent and was 50% and 60% in those games. Yes that happens and yes it depends on where the goals where taken from as well.

Not sure why pointing that out has got you so irritated.
 
What if? I s a good question when used as a learning tool. 2 points is two points and another 2 points last week puts us into extra time if nothing else. Geez we are good at making excuses for dumb decisions on this forum.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
2 2 0 36 4
2 2 0 26 4
2 2 0 23 4
2 2 0 19 4
2 2 0 12 4
2 1 1 13 2
2 1 1 10 2
2 1 1 3 2
2 1 1 0 2
2 1 1 0 2
2 1 1 -14 2
1 0 1 -20 2
1 0 1 -24 2
2 0 2 -8 0
2 0 2 -17 0
2 0 2 -22 0
2 0 2 -37 0
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