Quote ="St pete"Why on earth would he pick virtually new spine in the biggest game of the year and must win game ?
Ben barba hasn't played rugby league for nearly 12 month and he looked that way . He looked way off the pace, he was out of position on kicks and coming across in defence. He was really blowing after 20 mins but it's to be expected as not match fit and still rusty but he should have been on bench or not in 17.
Picking barba meant lomax goes to 6 to play in halves for first time in many years and first game in halves with the woeful matty Smith. We looked like a team playing first few games of new season when we trying to get used to new combos but to do this in a must win game is crazy.
He should have gone with barba on bench with fages and Smith in halves and used barba as and when needed.
You can't go with new combos in the play offs when we have fully fit squad.
We looked blunt in attack most if the year but we had no direction at all last night and nobody looked comfortable.'"
Spot on mate, a stupid thing to do in the knock outs, plus Barba looked like he needed a mobility Scooter after 20 mins, should have started on the bench to come on not play full game with two woeful haves. Bet Fage was kicking his Skull cap around langtree watching that, arguably our player of season and gets dropped! and for what?