'Frayssinous answers pressure; heat no excuse for Saints'
Monday 16 June 2014 13:51, UK
TONY SAYS: I’m not sure Laurent Frayssinous had that many critics – certainly inside the game a lot of guys admire him – but he was put under pressure by his chairman a couple of weeks ago, who said “you’ve got two weeks to prove that you’re good enough for the job”. I actually rang him at the time to see if it was true and he said “yes, that’s what’s been said to me and I need to deal with it”. Judging by the way the team’s playing they’ve come out and dealt with that resoundingly well for him as a coach. For me Thomas Bosc is a real key to them - I was really pleased for him. I think he’s a talented player – he’s wonderful when they play well, and it’s good to see him out striking and doing so well for the team.
TONY SAYS: Saints will be really disappointed – they looked flat and tired. The defeat wasn’t as big a shock – it happens down there against the Catalan – but the score was a really big one. In an interesting season for Saints it’ll be interesting to see how they come back from that. They’ve got some work to do. The heat’s just marginal – it’s hot up here at the moment, around the mid-20s. We’re all training around that, so it’s not as if you’re going from the freezing cold to the heat, so it can’t be a factor. This is about a team not showing up on the day, and they got 36 points romped in against them in the last 20 minutes. We know the last 20 minutes of a game is a fair representation of your attitude, so they’ve let themselves down as a group and they need to respond to make sure that’s not the norm for them.
TONY SAYS: People are saying they’re in a bit of a hole, and the number one rule to get out of a hole is to stop digging. If I was Leeds I wouldn’t worry about thinking about it too much. I don’t think they’re playing that badly. They’ve played all the cup games and they’ve had a long opening part of the season. They look like they’ve still got some energy in their game despite the fact they lost – Kallum Watkins showed some great feet to score a try. But they’re just losing each other a couple of times and opening up little holes. There’s some lovely flowing football, there’s blokes under the line and they’re getting over and scoring tries, so they’re not far off form. They just need a break.
TONY SAYS: Shaun Wane’s a tough coach – he does a wonderful job with them. They play tough, they train tough and they prepare tough, and they’ve responded really toughly here. They’ve come out with all of their attributes. Sport only tells you how you’re feeling on the day with the score on the day, and they’ve just shown that was a bad day last week. There’s a wonderful balance in the way they play and they’ve responded as a team.
TONY SAYS: Tony Smith’s very clever – he’s brought in a lot of coaches over his time in the UK at three clubs now. He’s done a wonderful job at Huddersfield, Leeds and now Warrington. It’s great for the players at Warrington and for coaching in England that Richard Agar gets to work with a big club, a big system, work with Tony and get the best out of them. I can see them having a real impact over the next few years. They’re already going well and that’s another add-on while they’re on top. They’ll be delighted from the weekend. That would have been a real worrying one to go to – a big, strong Hull KR side at home. They’re all in sync – for a patched up side they knew their roles. I like the way there’s a calm team ethic going through tough times, and these tough times will make them strong.
TONY SAYS: Widnes aren’t on great form – they’ve only won one of their last six and aren’t defending particularly well. But Hull have made some big statements recently about how strong they want to be and they’ve responded particularly well. It could be a bit of a turning point, this one, for Hull. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond after this strong performance.
TONY SAYS: Bradford are fighting for their lives, but we’re 15 minutes into the game and the game’s over at 24-0. This was Salford saying we’re not getting dragged into the bottom five – we’re getting out of this. It was a really important one for them, because if they lose that game they’re in a relegation fight. They’ve been around the bottom for five years now, and finished bottom the last couple of years. I think they’re definitely in the Super League next year off the back of that result. That was a big day for them and a chronic day for Bradford. It’s a shocking performance when you’re fighting for your life.
TONY SAYS: It was a very wet night so there were always going to be points coming from scrappy situations. They got an early lead but London gave themselves a great chance, but unfortunately for them it was a bouncing ball and a scrappy try in the end that took the points away. It broke London’s heart and really lifted Wakefield, probably away from the relegation fight, while London will probably find themselves out of the league.
