Didn,t Saints force him out to the centres and he left the club because of it.

Saints are really struggling for the next 9 at the club below James Roby. They have signed a number of potential half backs and hookers amongst the crop of u16's recently signing for the academy but obviously it will be a number of years before they are ready for the first team.

I think Eastmond was the last 7 we developed but Offiah got his mits into him and turned his head to RU. The rest is history. Lance was a panic buy when Eastmond told saints he was leaving - he was bigged up by his agent as the man to fill our half back vacancy - as a World Cup winner with wealth of experience, we bought it.

It's a real shame that it didn't work out for us and him, but I doubt the club will ever offer an overseas player a 4 year contact ever again.

Yes they signed Bob Prosser from Wales RU and Tommy Bishop from Blackpool.

I do like the look of Rob Fairclough, he is a real tough little scum half, a bit scrawny at the moment but he will probably fill out with full time coaching / conditioning. As with all academy kids it's difficult to tell how they will turn out. What are your thought on Joe McSperitt?

I think Brown puts the anonymous display in the halves down to a poor pack performance on the basis that it is very difficult to look good behind a beaten pack;
[i"To help them make life easier we need our forwards to do a little better," Saints coach Nathan Brown said. "I didn't think we were as good through the middle as we've been in the last five or six weeks.

"Hull have got some good forwards but I'd like to think we could have done better. I thought they rolled down the field very easily."
[/i

It's a chicken and egg situation though. Yes the pack dominating makes the halfbacks job easier, but if poor kicks allow the opposition a simple, quick start to the set, then no matter what our forwards do they're gonna get a role on and make ground and put yet more pressure on the kickers. This limits the space halfbacks can work in, but they aren't creating the gaps to put people through.

Adam Swift is playing 6 today for Rochdale #justsaying

Saints have time off this week, few lads gone away.

I would have though it would have been better to approach this two weeks as if we were playing each weekend, given that we will have another week off for the CC final in a few weeks' time, since we need to be working on our halfback combination for the next match. But I suppose that would have been to fly in the face of the culture at Saints which isn't to work too hard I guess, especially when we actually need to.

The low meters made would seem to bear out some truth in the pack not doing their role.

Flanagan and Mose had the best average gain in the pack. But Mose had low number of carries, slightly more tackling than usual for him

Good idea, they can all cone back approaching the remaining games as a mini season with new targets rather than being stuck in a rut.

What rut are we stuck in? Losing 1 on the bounce is hardly classifies as a rut

Having said that, none of the Hull forwards made amazing meters either.

I wondered about that myself.

I would have thought it far more beneficial to spend the next two weeks working on our combinations bearing in mind we have no halfbacks, especially when we will have another weekend off so soon in the calendar, when they can all go off on their jollies, preferably after a win against Wakefield.

I thought exactly the same. It's only this week off.

Would rather they had two weeks to prepare vs Leeds than Wakefield?

Well, firstly, I imagine they'll have a break around the CC final as well but I would have thought it more important to get our halfback question sorted before we play another game. By the time Leeds is upon us it will be too late if we want to finish top. We needed to be working on that now to give ourselves a chance surely?

I was referring to being stuck with having no suitable half backs rather than wins and performances. I,m hoping Wheeler who perhaps we could say is stuck in a rut will put in some satisfactory performance against Wakefield.

Don't think Brown will be preparing for Leeds just yet, its one game at a time and we need to beat Wakefield first.

I think you'll find they made considerably more than the Saints forwards. The following is taken from twitter.


Difference in metres made in props is alerting: Masoe 55, Amor 58, LMS 64 and Walmsley 67. For Hull, Paea 82, Watts 84, Green 88 & Feka 126.

Maybe our 6 for next game was getting some practice in playing for Rochdale today and bagged two tries.

Lots of missed tackles in the pack around 22 in total, back line almost zero missed Percival with 2. Which might suggest it was a forward game played down the middle.

Maybe. But that isn't working with Saints first team is it?

I guess I just thought it might have been an idea to put in some extra time working on any change in halfback pairing before a winnable match. It was an opportunity to be prepared.

IF Swift is being seriously considered to be brought into the 6 role, it gives us more flexibility how we line up.

My guess is were having a contingency plan if wheeler breaks down... A sensible move I'd say!

deserve a place.

There is not too much about deserving a place at the moment.

If you can play 6 or 7 your in.

Swift might improve the current options, but we'd still have no kicking game and therefore no hope. A less dynamic player with a solid kicking game would do fine.