Going to be brave and say

Fax 22 toulouse 10

If we still have the Leeds players that is

Much tougher test than Donny with pace and skill across the park.
As good as the much needed result was at the weekend the better start and going in front early and staying in front meant we weren’t as gassed for the defensive effort required especially in the second half when a few errors and penalties crept back in.
Squad wise depending on who’s fit and available I can see JWH coming into the centres, Kav or Barber into the second row or bench with only Johnson being sure of a start from the Leeds contingency.

If we have the same or similar squad Panthers 22 v Toulouse 18

As long as Toulouse don't get gifted any 'ghost try's' i'm fairly confident for this one. Fax 23v10 Toulouse.

The squad has been announced. With a new signing to be released at 7pm tonight

Squad announced with the welcome return of AOB !!

Also Cory is included but he's also included in the Leeds squad who also play Saturday. Very confusing, who did he train with this week and what if Ackers or Oconnor pull out at the last minute!

Also included is a mystery player to be announced as a new signing at 7pm tonight!

Will be a tough one. Toulouse seem to have been lucky with injuries - their starting line up last week numbered 1 to 13 with only number 16 missing from the bench.

Edit: sorry faxlore, crossed posts!

Thought Douglas looked to have injured his hand again on Sunday- hope it's not long term. If Mccormack available again id pair him with JWH in the centre and have Mccomb on the bench. Dont think O'brien will play this week although it will be great to get him back. Great to have the extra bodies back but sfter last weeks much improved performance would expect changes to be kept to a minimum

A gutsy fax wn hopefully

Half hearted first half display littered with penalties, mistakes, turn style defence and missed half chances not surprisingly = 30 nil down.
Second half much more intent gets us back into the game only for another mistake and penalty = game over.

At half time nearly walked out as I thought it was going to be worse than Sheffield. Defence in the first half was horribly passive allowing Toulouse a ridulous amount of time and space to exploit which they did. Combine that with Davies nightmare display at hooker which helped blunt any potential sttacking momentum and i couldnt see any way back. Enter Louis Jouffret at hooker, everything speeded up, passes were crisp and accurate and the whole momentum of the game changed. NoT saying we'd have won if Cory Johnson had started, but it would have been a bloody sight closer. Hope AOB is Ok - we need him back.

I know it were unfortunate that AOB got injured but it forced Finn's hand and the move of Jouffret to hooker meant Widdop got shifted and we ended up with JWH back in his best position and I know it was Barber who got the plaudits but JWH's movement had Toulouse at 6's and 7's and we looked a bit more like the class act we know we can be in attack.

Obviously the first half which was shocking cost us the game and its hard to judge how much Toulouse sacked it off. We were just totally dominated by Toulouse's big pack and you can only wonder how good Jouffrett, JWH, and Keyes could have been behind a pack like that. I watch in disbelief each week that Widdop is on a fortune for a player at this level and we are reduced to playing McComb and Davies in our pack each week. Also got to say Im not a big Ed Barber fan when he has played in the back row but at centre he very much looks the part and he shows what we could have had if we had invested in a centre instead of investing in positions we did not need.

Still very much in a relegation battle but at least there were some positive signs in the second half.

There's not much to add to Faxcar's review, it summed it up absolutely. Corey Johnson playing for Leeds was a right blow below the belt from our 'wonderful' dual registration partners.

Just shows what a farce this "loan agreement" re Cory is. Not worth the paper it's written on and I really do believe one or 2 players missing makes the difference between winning and losing. Davies at hooker was a disaster and our forwards got completely rolled over, especially by Hansen and Biscarro, and by the time AOB then Jouffret went to hooker we gained far more momentum but it was too late. I've always argued that Jouffret should be hooker and last night definitely proved my point!

Widdop put in plenty of effort, but really he can only play 1, 6 or 7, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that JWH, Keyes and Jouffret if fit should fill thise positions.
What was painfully obvious was that although Widdop still has a good rugby brain, his complete lack of pace means he doesn't pose any threat whatsoever, especially when playing at fullback. Wouldn't have a problem with him on the bench as he obviously provides cover for these positions. Don't know if Finn is told he must play Widdop, really hope we stop this messing around with 3 of our best players just to accommodate him.

JWH must play at full back. Widdop certainly played well and as gizempo says he opened up Toulouse several times down the right when he moved to half back. Ed And JWH certainly thrived from his passes.

Defence wins games and it let us down so badly.

We looked so far off the pace in the first half that i wonder if the travelling caught up with Olympique after 50 minutes or so.

I’ll have to watch it back to have a second opinion and I’m not having a go at Finn.
However we have Davies playing at 9 when he’s had his best games elsewhere and a make do second row in McComb whilst shipping out Olly Davies.
On the day we had Pons, McCormack and Ruan with just parts of one game together all playing on the left edge at the same time, why would you do that?
No prizes for guessing which side Toulouse we’re going to hit us on, yes the left hand side!!

In hindsight Louis at 9 might have been a better bet, but that would have left us light defensively. He was good from acring half when he went there, but we had most if the ball then and he didn't have much defending to do.

Having said that, defence couldn't have been worse than our first half efforts. Not sure that was all down to the outer edges on the left. Fairbank failed to move across quickly for the first try and the was stood in no man's land flapping his arms for one of the others.

I know a lot of team selection is based on stats but stats can be deceptive.
For example a guy does 40,50 or even more tackles a game, gets the hitman award and it’s what a player etc etc.
Now whilst that on it’s own might be a deserved outcome.
What about the stat if it was checked that shows 20, 30 percent or even more of those tackles were down to unforced errors such as silly penalties or dozy dropped ball by your own teammates, again for the umpteenth game?

As regards the 9 spot to me it’s more about foresight than hind-site and with A O’b being fit enough to be in the 17 he’s the specialist and should have started not Davies or Jouffret and if he goes okay then no probs if he breaks down then you can make the substitution which is better than bringing him on and having to sub a sub which did happen albeit for a different injury.
Why make do with a stand in until you’re forced to?



ARrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg frustration.

Come on puss, here kitty kitty I didn’t mean to boot you down the garden again.

How did McCormack play?

I think the big thing with Widdop is that he has mainly played behind dominant packs and like any half back when he has been behind a poor pack he has struggled. Ive no doubt if we had a very good pack he would have been a great signing for us but you just can't get away from the fact we spent a fortune on a player in a position that we did not need whilst ignoring positions where we are light. By all accounts this signing was somewhat forced apon Finn along with the Greg Eden signing.

For just a suggestion of how much Widdop is allegedly being paid, if you can put up with listening to and believe anything Mick Gledhill says, check out the Full 80 minutes “Assessing the Championship Club Season” from Feb 21st 2024.

Whilst not saying the exact amount the figure hinted at even had one of the other hosts saying “surely it can’t be as much as xxx k” with MG nodding oh yes it could.

My info has RD being particularly keen to get the Gaz deal over the line.
When it first surfaced on a brief online chat interchange with RD I mentioned asked / suggested that having achieved so much in the game that to go out playing for your home town club could be another important milestone / achievement and if there was any chance / truth in it.

The reply was, “ If not it wouldn’t be for the lack of trying.”

Ive heard figures of between 35-45k banded about by pretty reliable folk and the same story that it was RD that was very keen to get the deal over the line more so than the coach. I also hear our wage bill went up this year by over 100k which if true is crazy and shows agents had his pants down. Back to Widdop though that sort of money would bring in 3/4 really good props or a couple of very good centres and that decision is clearly been made by someone who does not know rugby at this level.

That's less than I thought it could have been and had heard. But also that half of his costs were being covered by a sponsor and not all out of the clubs finances. And that this money had been up up purely for getting GW in.

And I believe we have at least one player paid in that region, and if you were to believe all rumours, that's the sort of money Gwaze was demanding.