This new advantage law is wierd. I can see what they're trying to achieve, but taking plays back 80m just doesnt seem right. Wouldnt it be better to be defending on the opponents 20m line rather than having the ball inside your own 20m?

I think with the Bulls 2nd half performance it's a case of 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other.

A combination of over-confidence and the stacking up of injuries left us with a little egg on our faces, however that's not to take anything away from Widnes, they stuck with us and kept battling and deserved their point.

But let's look at the positives. We're 3rd in the table and we've the 2nd best attack in the league. Who'd have thought we'd be saying either of those at any point this year?

Hopefully the players who picked up knocks last night will be able to shake them off before next weekend and we can look to consolidate our position.

On the whole it has been a very encouraging start and I'm pleased with how the team has performed. I just think it is a bit of nonsense statement to say the crowds will suddenly increase because we're 3rd after 5 games. Lose against Hull KR on Sunday and we might well be out of the 8 again, that is how tight the table is. But whilst I won't going ott about being 3rd, I also won't be slitting my wrists if we slip down the table after a loss or two.

There will be a huge increase for the HKR game taking into account the 10,000 that they'll bring.

I think we're likely to be inconsistent for the rest of the season. I still see us competing for a playoff place with the Hull clubs, Wakey, Cas etc rather than staying where we are.

We need to perform at home next week against Hull KR or following on the back of the Saints capitulation, crowds will begin to drop off. To make the top 8, these home games against "similar" teams are must win I feel.

Any updates on the injuries?

At Leeds last night Rhinos dropped the ball, Brough was on it in a flash, kicked down field immediately for Murphy to chase, he was fully aware of what was going to happen & skinned the pedestrian Vickery. He didn't quite manage to recover the ball however so it went back to the offence. I must say it's the first time I've seen anything of quality come from that particular new rule.

That's what happened twice in the bulls game. The team that kicked on ended up losing the ball but they did so 60-80m upfield from where the ball was knocked on. It seemed like they were put at a disadvantage. Surely it's preferable defending deep in your opponents half rather than having the ball close to your line?

Would it not be better to do it at captains discretion;

Scenario 1. Widnes lost the ball via knock on bradford recover and run 40m up field and are tackled on the opps 20, the captain on the team who gained advantage can then say they want to play at where they reached from the advantage, or go back to the 1st knock on.

Scenario 2 Widnes lost the ball via knock on bradford recover and run 40m up field and are tackled on the opps 20 and then they lose it so then the captain is of the team who gained from the 1st knock on is asked if they want to play from the point they lost the ball or from the point in which the 1 knock on was performed then the players are brought back, if that is what they choose.

letting players run 60m and then for them to come back and do it again is bonkers.

Ok so we threw it away but let's not be too critical. We would all have been delighted to get three points from four away to the giants and Vikings last week. We will be all the better for it as the players will get a bollocking and personal pride should see them hurting badly. Big game next week and hopefully HKR will see the backlash.

Long as we finish in the 8 i dont see how any fans on here will complain, after what we have been through these past 5 seasons culminating in last years near vaporization.

I would like abit of pride and for them not to feck it up when we can win seems like we always do.

A point won but, from 20 - 4 up, definitely a point lost. A great fight back by Widnes, who could have won it with a bit more steadiness, but we had enough chances to put the game out of sight over the game. Overlaps are difficult enough to create, and we had two man overlaps too many times to remember, they are are there to be used but time after time we failed to put the ball wide.

There were disruptions with players going off injured which clearly didn't help but the change in mentality after half time and the 20 - 4 lead, were obvious to me; we were no longer knocking them back but letting them come to us in defence, which only gave them more confidence. However, you [hopefully learn from your mistakes so let's hope we can take something from the errors.

To be fair from their 2nd half performance with 12 men Widnes probs deserved to win it,

however we should never of let the lead slip to 12 men like we did a very steep learning curve,

And what was Addy doing with his DG attempt the guy was right in front of him, should of taken a drive then back to Sammut but oh wel,

A point is a point and we are 3rd so cant really complain so far this season.

Thought exactly the same. I think teams need to learn to show a bit more composure and take the tackle having made some ground though. As I recall, Bradford eventually gathered possession from the kick but then threw it away in a panic and with it lost the opportunity of a set of six close to the Widnes line. Similarly, Widnes made a useful 30 metres or so from a Bradford knock on but then aimlessly hacked ahead with no particular prospect of scoring and the 30 metre gain was gone.

To be fiar i think the one you refer to was when Scruton offloaded to Diskin and the Ref deemed he had knocked on although the ball clearly went backwards,

Not surprised both Coaches were nto too please with the ref after the game tho

The players are hopefully embarrassed after that and give a good response next week

Spot on M.E , if you were offered 3 points from these two games you would take it every time. One thing occurred to me last night, we seemed to lose a lot of our direction when Heath was replaced by Diskin and can't be a coincidence that we looked far better last week when Diskin was out injured?

I'm not sure I get what you mean. How does what you describe equate to being put at a disadvantage?
It's quite simple really, if a team knocks the ball on, then the opposing side are deemed to be playing advantage until they take a tackle. So essentially they are allowed to take a risk with the initial possession of the ball, knowing that if they mess it up, play will always be brought back for the original knock on anyway.
I think it's a great rule, and once teams get more accustomed to it we should see some decent attacking flair while they essentially have nothing to lose.

I just dont agree with the presumption that possession must be better than field position.

I felt more comfortable at the thought of the Bulls defending close to the Widnes line than having possession 60m+ closer to own own line. There was always the possibility that we'd turn over the ball close to our line, and even a reasonably good set of 6 was likely to result in Widnes gaining possession further upfield than if they'd started from where they recovered the ball. Which is how it turned out.

This. While i'm disappointed didn't win from 20 -4 up, with an extra man, Widnes threw everything at us in the second half. Sometimes a red inspires a team (remember us against Wigan when Raynor was sent off)

We looked extremely tired towards the end, not making excuses at all as we had an extra man and should not be losing, however Widnes were superb in the second and i'm relieved to come away with a point.

Can't be too negative, look what Hudds did to Leeds yesterday, we're 3rd in the table.

Part of the problem is reading the rules as the team having "nothing to lose" by pushing the pass to try and score.

They do have something to lose as there is the option of not pushing the pass, taking the tackle and getting the play the ball where they ended up and not back at the original knock on.

What they aren't risking is losing possession but as a couple of examples from last night show they are certainly gambling with field position.

I think it means they should be making different decisions depending on where the original offense was. On your line, well get as far up the field as you can without risking too much. On halfway then go for it.

EG. Bradford got to the widnes 10m and had 3 player overlap, quick PTB and we where in and that was game set match, but instead we tried to fanny about with it and then we knocked on.

Also really glad we played Hudds last week instead of this we would have been mullered i recon.

Seems to be a continuing problem we have when we lose a player to injury during a match. We don't cope well when we have to reshuffle Mid match. Sounds like it was a problem last night and was an issue in hull game too. Certainly something we need to look at in training.

I must admit I wasn't at all confident when we decided to go for 2 when we were awarded a penalty on 58 mins. We had barely touched the ball in their half at that point. If I had been a Widnes player it would have spurred me on even more that the opposition weren't confident despite the man advantage. At the time I hoped the 8 point advantage would settle us down and relieve enough pressure to get back to what we were doing in the 1st half, unfortunately that wasn't the case and the errors continued. Time to move on, I just hope that we don't look back at this result in Sept and realise it was a costly slip up!

Plenty of points up for grabs though, let's hope with Gale back we have somebody who will steady the ship a little.