All good and well having a back on bench but foster got 5 mins agaist wire and ten on friday and makinson got a couple at salford

they said the same about Millward!
Its way too soon to judge him, on that i think we agree, but he hasnt had a great start by any measure

Indeed. And he did wonderful things with Saints (as well as some pretty awful things!). Wello's favourite coach was Daniel Anderson. So there.


No, he hasn't. But he hasn't had a great set of circumstances to start with either. I would love to have seen what he could have done with Leon and Kyle at halfback, all our props in place, our backline fit and Wello not playing on injections.

Not many teams pick wingers ( outside backs ) anymore if any do. The game has now produced multi skilled players that just slip into many postions.

We have Scott Moore on the bench that can cover the halfback spits, roby can also fill in there as Jon wilkin can.

In our forwards we also have Sia and flannery that can fill the centre spots.

I agree with saint Simon, it's a complete waste of a spot on the bench.

Except that Simmons also stated that he wanted to slot players in to cover rather than swapping and changing players around, as per Potter. Jon Wilkin, for one, has come out in favour of that approach as he has been quoted as saying he is enjoying his rugby now that he plays in one position. Scott Moore also said that, stating that he didn't know where he was last season with all the changes he had to cope with. He played at centre once and he said he had never done so before and must be the slowest player in the team so never was that more unlikely a position for him to play.

We had too much instability under Potter. It was possibly a request of the players that they stick to their own spots wherever possible. I think that is fair enough. And like I said, Foster was used because he can cover wing and fullback. Meli shifted into centre, where he has played many times before, when Foster was needed to cover Lomax on Friday.

I'm not saying start with these players out of position but if need be they can slot in, that way we can have an extra forward on the bench.

I think it was 80s in the day of only having 2 subs that teams had a outside back on the bench.

I'd liked us to have brought a smart coach in, a coach that thinks about the game and get the message across to the players about what he wants from them.

I think it's pretty obvious from looking at Royce that even as a player he wasn't into the sweet science of the sport as he looks like a old style boxer.

Trouble is theres not many of them about

You say some right daft things sometimes, you do!

You think I say some daft things? Have a listen to our coach talk after a game.

I like our coach. He sounds very sincere and humble. I like sincerity and humility. He can't help being an Australian.

bit harsh this thread imo it must be extremely hard for royce, altho its not a terrible start if am honest, having the factors of injuries, temporary ground ( all games feeling like its away ), a disinterested eastmond and lets not forget we have lost to very good teams aswell

He does seem sincere and humble and looks a very likeable bloke and I actually feel sorry for him as he looks out of his depth at the moment.

That was me being honest and not sarky by the way.

To be fair, nobody is saying sack him, I'm Defo 100% not calling for him to be sacked and I think he looks a good bloke but there are things that look to be wrong through poor coaching.

Everything has gone backwards in his first five games and I think he's had pretty good teams out in all five games. Even saintsfan deep down knows we've started 2011 looking poor.

I hope it all works out but I just can't see it at the moment as he looks way out of his depth.

I suggest we all give Royce some slack, let him get on with it and grow into the job. I would probably past judgement when we,ve had 6 consecutive games with an almost full strength squad, and not this disrupted team we have at the moment.

We will never be able to judge him then as we won't get almost full strength team playing 6 weeks in a row.

He's come to the club at a difficult time but I think he needs to show stronger management with regard to the Eastmond situation. Its all very well saying that he's a professional and will do his best but the reality is its like someone serving their notice at work, yes they carry out their duties but theres no enthusiasm and thats the difference between winning and losing games.
Assuming Simmons is in charge of team selection he should have the courage to leave Eastmond out or move him to another position where his role is less pivotal.

I know we have got injuries and we haven't got a ready made replacement but in the interest of team spirit and unity Simmons needs to take charge of the situation

I'd agree that if Eastmond isn't really putting in for the team you'd be better with someone else playing, even if on paper it weakened the team. But wouldn't the players and coach already have picked up on that? If they had, surely he would have been dropped?

I think its pretty clear that no-one is calling for Royce's head, just asking him to bring the performances up to scratch. Besides, sacking a coach mid way through a season is a fairly certain way to guarentee your side not to win a trophey.
If we're 12 weeks in and not in a play off spot, then Royce should be worried, but for now, he's going to rightly get the benifit of the doubt.

Lack of options is a problem for us this season. If we drop Kyle then at present we could replace him with Gary Wheeler or Jonny Lomax. Except Wheeler was injured until this weekend and Lomax went off injured on Friday. There is no-one else to replace Eastmond (and Kyle will know that).

Jamie Ellis, you utter berk.



I've been very happy with what I've seen from Gaskell and think he would be a good foil for Pryce when he's back.

He signed on a 2 year deal with Leigh beginning of this season.

No, I wasn't calling SaintsFan a berk for missing him, I was calling Jamie Ellis a berk for getting himself binned off (allegedly) by Saints.

There is no point dropping Eastmond for anyone else currently available in the squad. Neither Lomax nor Wheeler would do any better than him at the moment, and would pile even more pressure on Gaskells shoulders as neither have a kicking game.

When Pryce is fit then we have an option, until then forget about it.

I'm also thinking that, although I do agree that he's been half hearted when playing, not all of this is down to Eastmond. Neither half back is really getting involved in play until the last tackle, instead the forwards and the wingers are driving it forward. There is also a major lack of dummy runners causing confusion in the opposition defence. Eastmond has made runs, but only late on in games when gaps have started appearing (him running with the ball led to one of our tries on Friday).

Whilst our attack is stunted from having two inexperiences half backs, there is a lack of defensive intensity and that falls squarely at the feet of the coach. There are no excuses for that.