General How to beat the Knights

[mosh_old]

Personally, when I think about the Knights I think about the Knights of old (2000-2003) where we just have had problems beating them. But this side I reckon is slightly better when you have players like Thaiday playing so well and their forwards have belted the other teams out of the game.

Would be interesting to see how Price and Wiki go up against the form props of the comp at the moment Smith the 90 year old and Josh Perry and Steve Simpson is just awesome in the second row this year.
So I think it would be good to see if we can match them upfront and dominate them because we wont be able to match them in the halves.

I would also ask Hame Lauaki and Tuimavave to run at Andrew Johns all day.

Your thoughts?

 

[Becs_old]

It may be dangerous to run at Johns all day as he is protected by the refs, especially with the home town crowd.

 

[madbaz_old]

The Kiwis have tried to tatget him in years gone by but have found he is defensively sound. I think it would be just as good to target Buderus as it might reduce the quality ball Johns recieves.

I also noticed during Fiday nights game that Johns wasnt taking the ball to the line before a kick. He was kicking almost as soon as he got his hands on the ball. Pricey can put a ton of pressure on him here. We realy need to watch his 40 - 20 kicks too.

As tough as Johns is we need to aim all tackles at his knees. Even though he only played for 65 - 70 min he was still limping after the game. he only trains 3 or 4 days a week to reduce the strain on his kness so I reckon that is realy his only weakness.

 

[KeepingTheFaith_old]

Dominate the ruck, control posession, keep good discipline. Anything less and the Knights will have too many opportunities in our half. Not only that but they'll have less defending to do. Johns and Buderus will kill us.

 

[JonB_old]

We can't match them for points scoring ability running up the score won't work.
Of all the teams to play three games we had the best points against us, I thought our defence was pretty good on Saturday.
Keep the game close for the first 70 and anything can happen.

Maybe this is the game to unleash someone like Sonny Fai. Chuck a wild card into the mix.

 

[PHANTOM MENACE_old]

First we need to tidy up our kick chase game. Nothing to Carney Siege and Thaiday on the full and a 7-8 man straight line to greet them.

Fifth tackle options need to be picture perfect, no mid field bombs to give away good territory.

I reckon try to upset them as well, get in some niggle like maybe a late hit or heavy tackle hear and there to get them rattled

 

[*Kimmy*_old]

Hmm..it will be a hard task to beat the knights.

Tbh(to be honest)....im sorry but i think the knights will win, especially if Joey is playing...and playin on form like he has been.

Good luck to the warriors!!

 

[KeepingTheFaith_old]

How about we send Ropati straight at Johns? It worked last year when Johns discovered jaw on shoulder collisions aren't a fun way to play the game.

Aside from that we have to do the basics. The Knights play some fancy football but that can be limited by not allowing the Knights to lay any sort of platform. Don't care who is the halfback, dominate the pack and the halfback is going to find it difficult.

 

[Iafeta_old]

A few basics

* whoever is playing wing on Gidley's side stay on his winger, Gidley has a habit of attracting and then flicking passes for tries. Have confidence in your inside man.

* A hell of a lot of communication

* Good ball skills like last night, you have to try and tire Johns out, while I'd be happy to run at him I'd use a bit of sublety running a few men at him and creating options.

* Chase in a nice straight line, Thaiday is a great broken field runner

* Attack attack attack! The Knights will score points, no two ways about it, you have to be confident and score more...

 

[Becs_old]

We have some great broken field players aswell, and if Webby has found some confidence after this weekends game he could do some damage.

If you can fustrate Johns then you can beat the Knights. Nothing fustrates him more then his side dropping the ball. Therefore you need to put pressure on them and put in some big hits.

Our boys are going to need big defence next weekend too. The defence was great against the Tigers, with no softies.

 

[KeepingTheFaith_old]

A few basics

* whoever is playing wing on Gidley's side stay on his winger, Gidley has a habit of attracting and then flicking passes for tries. Have confidence in your inside man.

* A hell of a lot of communication

* Good ball skills like last night, you have to try and tire Johns out, while I'd be happy to run at him I'd use a bit of sublety running a few men at him and creating options.

* Chase in a nice straight line, Thaiday is a great broken field runner

* Attack attack attack! The Knights will score points, no two ways about it, you have to be confident and score more...

Good point there. My first thoughts there go back to the opening Tri-Nations game where we scored straight from the scrum. Waterhouse came out of the line and that didn't help, but we had options, Webb got on the outside and had too much pace for Johns. Running straight at him doesn't always work because Knights players around him are expecting it and Johns is a solid head on tackler. We need to isolate him and using either speed or power to force him to do the majority of the work when we attack down his side. Greatest player or not he's not got the same agility and speed in those knees that he used to.

 

[edguy_old]

how do we beat the knights?????

with cricket bats to the knees ..hahahahahaha :wink:

big hits ,, on a few key knights ....solid d .....and we play like we played saturday and control the pill, stand deep in attack and run onto the ball... and we can beat those suckers ...
go warriors

 

[sebastian_old]

Johns will have memories of how he got his last injury, US. The whole forward pack have to turn into terry hills, LATE CHEAP SHOTS & CONSTANT VERBAL ABUSE . The backs just have to play like last weekend. Its our forwards who determine if we win this game & i do believe we can win.

 

[northwarrior_old]

Focus attack on forwards protecting Johns....look for the off loads

 

[mattyj_old]

The whole forward pack have to turn into terry hills, LATE CHEAP SHOTS & CONSTANT VERBAL ABUSE

Got to be the stupidest thing i have ever heard. Sebastian give yourself an uppercut, your an idiot.

 

[ozbash_old]

"""" The whole forward pack have to turn into terry hills, LATE CHEAP SHOTS & CONSTANT VERBAL ABUSE . """"

you are joking,, right ?

 

[Iafeta_old]

I'd seriously have a good look at the game plan Bluey McClennan implemented for the Kiwis in the first test in Sydney. The fact is, Australia were reliant on Johns and Buderus that day, and the rest of the team were arguably better coin than the Knights team. But McClennan realised this, realised you can't point blank stop them, but minimised their effectiveness. From memory, he didn't so much target Johns, but make sure his defenders were focussed on the blokes receiving the pill, and when they got it, there was usually a Kiwi right on top of them. The thing is though, you have to watch out for a chip kick coming up that quick.

 

[big taniwha styles_old]

I dont think the Warriors should focus on shutting down Johns, they should play a solid forward game. I think our pack is our best weapon and is huge. If we dont make errors in the first 20 of each half and simply grind out the sets with a decent long kicking game oppourtunites will arrise as the Knights tire. Their halves will have trouble without a forward pack going forward. The Knights pack looks good also but in my opinion this the area we can compete with them.

 

[sebastian_old]

The whole forward pack have to turn into terry hills, LATE CHEAP SHOTS & CONSTANT VERBAL ABUSE

Got to be the stupidest thing i have ever heard. Sebastian give yourself an uppercut, your an idiot.

Why is it stupid, how did we win last time SKILL??? WE BROKE JOEYS JAW!!! WE SHATTERED IT. We need to have it over them mentality & phisically cause if we just try & play our normal game we'll get thrashed.

 

[Esoj_old]

the same way where every game starts and that is upfront in the forwards. with no forward platform the likes of fien and toopi etc can do nothing. so firstly we need go forward and following on from that is good ball control to take advantage of the go forward that is created.

on the otherside of the coin is the defence. it has to be rock solid and not let in soft tries. also it needs to be agressive so that the knights cannot get go forward and just roll down the feild.

there is no way you can shutdown a player like johns only limit what he can do with the ball. the way to do this is to have good defence and also make sure that you take your opportunities down the other end of the feild. also if johns has to tackle on defence alot he will tire like all players do so running at him is one way and also be using speed against him he is not as quick as he once was.