Tonights Game v Catalans Dragons

[Gerrumonside]

Hi all - has anyone got any info on why Byrne isn’t selected - is he injured?

Would have thought you’d use all your big boppers on a freezing cold, water logged pitch in the snow… not a pop at anyone at the club but thought it would have been good to have some size in the pack for the conditions last night.

[josie andrews]

Hi all - has anyone got any info on why Byrne isn’t selected - is he injured?

Would have thought you’d use all your big boppers on a freezing cold, water logged pitch in the snow… not a pop at anyone at the club but thought it would have been good to have some size in the pack for the conditions last night.

Back problem I think it is.

[moto748]

I knew King couldn't jump or defend properly but what I was worried to see was his sheer lack of pace. If you can't defend, at least be quick in attack and he seems to be neither.

That time in the second half when he was offered the outside; I swear I could have made more metres upfield than he managed!

[Charriots Offiah]

Appreciate that this was my impression but Ellis/Singleton didn't seem to have many minutes?

Our only options to fix the front row is to start with Ellis/ONeil/Mago and Farrell/Havard/Smithies behind them?

Byrne? Put Junior and Forber in the 17 they deserve a crack based on this season’s performances.

Yeh, is Byrne fit? I'd have picked him tonight based on the weather and not picked KPP (not just based on the weather ).

TBF, I think Forber and Nsemba would have struggled tonight but their time is surely close.

That we have a squad with deficiencies is down to the club but some of the decision making tonight is down to coaching and some of the poor performance is down to the players.

He is mate, he was made the scapegoat and dropped after our loss at HKR.

[Charriots Offiah]

Well, the club has a chance to do something about it come the end of the season. Singleton, Ellis, Cooper, Mago, Smithies and Isa are all out of contract and KPP is off.

I said at the time it was announced KPP was leaving he should have just gone I don’t like and never have liked this nonsense of seeing your deal out if he wants to leave let them,of the others you mention only Cooper is worth another year at present on form at least.

As for that tonight that was simply unacceptable

Mago had a 3 year deal so this is only his 2nd. Ellis had. 2 year deal.

That's worrying although, to be fair to Paddy, he was our best forward last night.

[Charriots Offiah]

What did I say let’s not get carried away with the recent two wins, even though nilling two teams on the bounce is brilliant, against two poor teams.
We play a good team and we look lost in attack, how toothless can you get!
Team needs changing asap! Or I might get shot down here but Peet needs to take a good look at himself. Picking Powell week in week out, let’s be honest he seems undroppable, he’s not good enough!
Mago got a load of stick last season and I’m sure he’s the only one who made yards tonight! Singo, Isa no good past it, Smithies needs more to his game and Smith isn’t good enough. And how slow is King!

Smith not good enough? Oh here we go again.

Besides a couple of errors when he was trying to force the play he was the one player who was looking to create and make something happen tonight, he can only do so much with no pack and a 6&9 who aren't a 6&9.

The fact he scored all ten of our points tonight tells you a little something as well, I’ve not watched the game back yet but I’m going to stick my neck out and say the experts will also recognise how well he did in difficult circumstances.

You are spot on about the pack and our 6 & 9.

[Charriots Offiah]

Smith not good enough? Oh here we go again.

Besides a couple of errors when he was trying to force the play he was the one player who was looking to create and make something happen tonight, he can only do so much with no pack and a 6&9 who aren't a 6&9.

The fact he scored all ten of our points tonight tells you a little something as well, I’ve not watched the game back yet but I’m going to stick my neck out and say the experts will also recognise how well he did in difficult circumstances.

Ialso thought smith had a good game

Good game he had a decent 20 mins but apart from that was shocking. Caused no threat. Kicked out on the full TWICE. I don’t know if it’s a confidence issue or what but he’s a slow starter in games and if it ain’t going well he does a Williams and go’s missing

At this point I'd settle for Cust and Powell having a good 20 minutes.

[Big Steve]

I think there a pretty big OTT reaction to that defeat last night.

Cats played very high completion and in defence they were really organised and aggressive on their line.

In the wet it's hard to work the space on the outside so the focused on the middle. Saying that they made some great defensive plays out wide to stop Field and Wardle in particular.

I thought Smith had a pretty good game. Only black mark were two out on the full kicks. His kicking cause them.plenty of problems and on another night we score from 2 or 3 of those easily, maybe more.

I thought we put allot of pressure on Catalan for long periods and probably didn't quite get what we deserved, albeit we weren't as smooth in attack at times, but Cats deserve lots of credit for that.

We'll be in the mix when the ground firms up a little.

We do have a problem in the back row agreed and we do lack an alternative at 9 to inject a bit of pace

I don't think we make enough use of our forwards though. Cooper made.some.strrong carries, I would swap out Smithies for longer spells, put Kade at 13 and have more Mago to move things aound as we are far too samey up front. .

[Charriots Offiah]

Our forwards are dominated every week. And we’ve not earned the lesson from last season. IMO Catalan are ok but not great and I don’t think they will make the top 4 and neither will we. At the beginning of the season MP said he was happy with his squad, to me that was a concern especially as we had lost Bateman from a pack which was not good enough in the first place.

So MP needs to deliver with what he’s. got. We’re in this position dare I say it because of poor recruitment and extensions everybody knows it except KR. Our overseas signings field and french apart have been poor compared to other teams. If you get it right you probably need 1 or 2 signings each season just to freshen things up a bit. Whereas last season and this we’ve got 6 or 7 to sort out. Probably just as well because we need a massive clear out. We invest a lot in youth but at the moment teams like Huddersfield, Leeds and Warrington are benefiting. Again poor management. Until this improves no chance of a GF win.

The truth hurts and you have just stated it Graham.

[EagleEyePie]

I really don't understand Smith being singled out for criticism. He scored our first try from a set play he almost certainly orchestrated. He put in one great kick that should have let to a try from French but was knocked on, another that French should have tried to knock back to supporting players but he fumbled trying to catch, his kicks forced turnovers, pinned Tom Davies back repeatedly which restricted his kick returns. Smith literally made two poor errors from the boot but also singlehandedly created enough chances for us to win the game. I could understand it if he's been terrible but he's probably been our most impressive player so far this year. Pretty much anything we did that was good was because of Smith last night. I'd take his occasional poor errors over Cust's anonymity.

Imagine how good Smith would be behind a talented pack. Unfortunately so far this year Farrell has dipped from his previous form (it was bound to happen at some point), we're getting nothing from Isa (no surprise) or KPP (a huge disappointment) on the other side. I don't think you can point too many fingers at Smithies, he regularly makes a large number of tackles and his metres made is usually 2nd or 3rd best among our middles.
It's the second row that has always been our biggest strength year after year but this season is the first in a long time where our back row has started out weak. The back row did a lot of heavy lifting for our front row and we're now lacking in both departments.

Our recruitment can be so frustrating. We keep hold of players who don't really perform at the top level which ties up salary cap funds meaning we miss out on some good players. Then when we finally do get players off contract we make some daft signings, particularly at prop. It says a lot about the clubs ability to scout props when the best we've signed in the last few years was because Warrington asked us to.

We all know how Ellis and Mago failed to live up to expectations last season - we saw that even with Cooper playing well at the end of last year our pack still couldn't dominate and was inconsistent, yet we've gone into this season without strengthening as if it's just expected that the same players will miraculously improve. There's not enough competition for places when players like Singleton, Ellis, Mago and Byrne know that as long as they are our 5th best prop they will play plenty of games.

Wire's big spending on props might not give them the success they are looking for but at least they've shown some ambition in that regard. We're tied up on quota spots and just seem perfectly happy that the quality of all but Field and French is that of fringe players.