James Roby - thoughts?

[NRLMad]

The English seem to hype him up quite a bit & I just don't think he offered anything in attack like last time we played them for the 4 Nations...

Thoughts?

 

[8Ball]

Yeah, he was virtually non-existent in the games this year. Maybe Australia have worked him out.

 

[morgan123]

He was a player who was brought through in SL to work off the back of Keiron Cunningham. Up until last season in SL the play the balls were ultra quick and Saints could go 60 metres following a collision win through a run from Cunningham and a scoot from Roby. Their combination was a large part of the reason why Saints won something like 21 trophies during the SL era.

Internationally once Cunningham was gone there was no one for him to support. He isn't an 80 minute hooker like Smith. The sport has slowed the play the balls down dramatically in recent seasons meaning his dynamic running from dummy half is now at a solid line coming forward at him, rather than one scrambling back in all directions.

He is still a good player (Obviously not in Smith's league) but the Roby of old went with the slowing down of the play the ball.

 

[KiWi_BoI_15]

I really rated him last year when he played in the WC, never really noticed him at all during this tournament.

 

[thommo4pm]

He didn't do much tonight.....but then neither did Gareth Ellis.
Ellis for all the wraps on him, and the fact that people had talked him up for competing in the NRL was really very poor in the final....hardly made any impression at all.

 

[NRLMad]

He didn't do much tonight.....but then neither did Gareth Ellis.
Ellis for all the wraps on him, and the fact that people had talked him up for competing in the NRL was really very poor in the final....hardly made any impression at all.

I didn't agree with that. I thought the English forwards really took it to the Australian forwards - Ellis, Morley, Peacock, Burgess they all played well.

Compare him to the backrowers for Australia (Watmough, Gallen, Lewis ..)

 

[morgan123]

He didn't do much tonight.....but then neither did Gareth Ellis.
Ellis for all the wraps on him, and the fact that people had talked him up for competing in the NRL was really very poor in the final....hardly made any impression at all.

What more could Ellis do? He made a couple of try saving cover tackles, tackled well and put Burgess in for his second half try.

 

[thommo4pm]

I didn't agree with that. I thought the English forwards really took it to the Australian forwards - Ellis, Morley, Peacock, Burgess they all played well.

Compare him to the backrowers for Australia (Watmough, Gallen, Lewis ..)

The rest of the English pack did....but Ellis was poor, and really should have had more impact.
I don't think you can say Ellis outplayed Luke Lewis tonight....
Ellis was close to the worst in the English pack.

 

[thommo4pm]

What more could Ellis do? He made a couple of try saving cover tackles, tackled well and put Burgess in for his second half try.

He was rarely noticed taking hit ups at all.
I would of expected him to at least bend the Australian line back a bit more than he did when he had the ball.
He had a nice passing / offload game for the Wests Tigers here in the NRL, rarely seen tonight.
There were plenty more influential players for England than Ellis.

 

[NRLMad]

The rest of the English pack did....but Ellis was poor, and really should have had more impact.
I don't think you can say Ellis outplayed Luke Lewis tonight....
Ellis was close to the worst in the English pack.

England definitely outplayed Australia in the forwards. The backs for Australia made the score what it was.. Just my opinion.

 

[thommo4pm]

England definitely outplayed Australia in the forwards. The backs for Australia made the score what it was.. Just my opinion.

Totally agree with you.
Just thought in my opinion that Ellis could have done more.....in the game thread I made the comment that it was England's forwards vs Australia's backs....
In the main I thought the English pack dominated our pack.

 

[j0nesy]

England definitely outplayed Australia in the forwards. The backs for Australia made the score what it was.. Just my opinion.

It's interesting I didn't think they dominated the forward battle at all. I'm not prepared to say that our guys outplayed them in the forwards, but they certainly held their own. I was most impressed with Hannant's performance, probably because I have never rated the guy.

England regularly tackled in numbers and held our forwards while they waited for the 3rd and 4th tacklers to come in to smash our boys. The problem with that tactic is that it leaves room out wide - which Australia capitalised on. I thought our boys stood up to this well, and did not retailiate. The Australian pack tended to tackle in pairs, and didn't miss many tackles, making it hard for England to make room out wide. The inside ball and offloads were working well for England though, but Australia seemed to shut that down a lot better in the 2nd half.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

Roby reminds me a little bit of Issac Luke. A dummy-half with no passing or kicking game.

Roby doesn't seem to do the little things well (which is symptomatic of the entire English game really), like engaging the markers and proving quick, succinct service.

Compared to Cameron Smith, who is simply a rugby league genius in every department, his inadequacies are stark.

 

[Nook]

Don't know what game you were watching Thommo but I thought Ellis was all class tonight, as he always is in an Eng/GB jersey. Plenty of grunt work, and a couple of nice touches, one of which set up a try. He's not the kind of player who is going to tear teams apart, but on club and international form this year he's easily in the top handful of backrowers in the world.

 

[1 Eyed TEZZA]

Roby appears to be a victim of being limited by his coach or he isnt being encouraged to take ownership of his role in the team. Exceot for Sinfield, he was the probably the most senior play maker for England.

 

[Charlie124]

In all seriousness, I had absolutely no idea that James Roby played in the final at all. I honestly cannot remember hearing his name mentioned.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

When you play a specialist lock at hooker and you have a specialist hooker on the bench you are really reaching tactically. Tony Smith is trying to emulate his brother. No question in my miond. Problem is Brian is a far better coach.

 

[Hanscholo]

I have learnt to completely ignore the English hyping someone. Its probably a good idea to take on board.

 

[Hanscholo]

I didn't agree with that. I thought the English forwards really took it to the Australian forwards - Ellis, Morley, Peacock, Burgess they all played well.

Compare him to the backrowers for Australia (Watmough, Gallen, Lewis ..)

lets not get carried away with the pommies opposition. Watmough, had a brilliant origin game and a good late season. His early season in australia was just terrible, and he cant tacke for sh*t. Gallen, is a garden variety backrower and thug. Lewis is a winger.

So considering australia hasnt picked a decent back row in about 4 years, i wouldnt get carried away with one off performances against them, because they are no yard stick.