wirecation:
But watching the highlights back 20 years later we were a joy to watch. We were never water tight in defence but we put on some great tries. Such a world away to todays game in general. I think even then that team in 2005 would wipe the floor with our 2025 squad.
A feature of the Cullen era was how good the rugby was that we played. Under so many Wire coaches we've complained about being formulaic and predictable. When Cullen was here we always spread the ball around and looked to attack. I remember Cullen being interviewed about the new stadium and he said he asked for the pitch to be built to maximum width dimensions because he wanted it to suit the way he wanted us to play - to attack and stretch defences. He had a bit of Kevin Keegan about him.
Gleeson was unplayable that year. Every year after that he declined slightly but he was such a good player at that time. You always felt when we had the ball in an attacking part of the field that a try was on.
At that stage of Briers career he still ran the ball a lot and spread it wide, although he was starting to develop the precision bombing kicking game that became a hallmark of the TS era, back then his favourite target was Fa'afili who wasn't especially fast but was great at competing for balls in the air.
The other added dimension we had at the time was Bridge, who was still young and in his first full season as a starter in SL. We hadn't worked out what was his best position yet but he had some big games, including against the eventual champions Bradford when we beat them at Odsal.
Nat Wood was such a key part to that team and an incredible competitor. He had a similar warrior vibe to Greg Mackey, but he was even more of a player who could make a big play himself when we needed lifting. He was another guy who wasn't especially quick but he was very good at beating people with his footwork and he was strong enough to shake tacklers off. He left at the end of 2005 and the Cullen era was never the same after that, we never worked out how to replace him.
