Larroyer is signing and 2 kiwi union forwards playing in France but both have plenty league expierence on the way.

Before kickoff it was clear that with the weather it was going to be a forward dominated game. No throwing the ball out, just classic drives and a good kicking game.

We knew the starting line up as soon as they released the 19 man squad. So to put it into perspective FOUR or the starting six in the pack are 18-20 year olds with 22 first team games between them (including this Rochdale game) then off the bench there were a 20 year old and TWO 18 year olds to replace them. Plus the fact that Magrin is only 22 as well. So it was always going to be bloody hard.

Rochdale have a big pack and played together last season and have a full pre-season this time around. At least two of their pack are internationals. And many have SL experience. If not battle hardened at the lower levels.

The inexperience showed today as we coughed up possession a lot. And as mentioned before we couldn't make many yards.

Yes, tackling the legs would have stopped them from gaining 5-10 yards per tackle but to be fair at this level if you go for the legs you don't dominate the tackle 90% of the time and this leads to many more quick play the balls which gets them rolling against a retreating defence, then penalties come for slowing down the ruck. So I get the need for them to go high and try dominate. I do agree however that we need the 3rd man to chop them down a bit more!

The game plan (weather permitting) would have been to spread the ball often. When we actually got a chance to do that we ripped their defence apart on two occasions. We just didn't have the personnel to combat a pack in these conditions.

And for those slating Pryce. Yes he wasn't at the races. But in fairness in this sort of game your halves are there for basic game management and kicking well. Lilley and Thomas controlled that, and Lilley's kicking game was spot on. I mentioned this at the game but when we got Pryce he would be playing behind a winning pack and could direct the game at leisure whilst Chisholm did the running. We didn't get him to be the main half behind a pack that is full of kids before it gets on the pitch. He'll get better when a platform can be laid (pack reinforcements).

For me, the moment where we lost the game was when Thomas dropped the ball. Up to that point we were on top and were winning. That knocked the wind out of us and gave them belief and momentum.

Overall I thought it was a spirited effort from the lads and they have my full support after facing a uphill battle today against a big experienced pack. They showed glimpses of what they can do and I am looking forward to getting some names in to fill the 10, 12 and 13 shirts. They were in control at times but as I say inexperience and youth showed in the end. How good is Bentley by the way? Need to sign him up long term haha!

Onwards and upwards and can I just finish off by saying



Well done to Bulls fans, 4,051 in that weather watching a relegation placed Champ team is outstanding. Fantastic effort!!

PS. The less said about offsides, 40/20's and the ref the better. Not blaming the ref. But didn't help when we had a mountain to climb anyway!

I think I may have just thawed out after today's game.

As many have said, we were bullied by their forwards all afternoon. Rochdale gained easy yards on the back of us being unable to stop their big lads driving our defenders back after the collision. I thought we showed some good glimpses of attacking threats but lacked the composure to turn them into points. Individual errors at key parts of the game also killed all our momentum. Thomas's dropped bomb and Magrin knocking on after back to back penalties scuppered any chances of a fight back.

Some positives to take away from the game were the Leeds loanees. Lilley and Oledzki looked very handy going forward. I hope we can keep hold of them for a few more months if not the entire season. Wishful thinking. Bentley also impressed me again. Hopefully with a couple more additions to the pack we should see an improvement in our ability to win the arm wrestle in games like today's.

Roll on Swinton!

Well done to Bulls fans, 4,051 in that weather watching a relegation placed Champ team is outstanding. Fantastic effort!!

Anyone we may know?

Are these RU lads coming straight away? I hope we don't have to wait for their season to end

What's up with Campbell?

If we don't recruit some forwards in the next few weeks relegation is a certainty.

I think it already is.

We need some forwards. Need to play Campbell at fullback next week.

pretty much agree with everything thats been said. We lost forwards battle pretty comprehensively. They were making an extra 5 metres after the tackle and we were getting pushed back when were tackled. Ref gave a few odd decisions but didn't cost us the game. lots of individual errors that cost us.
If Keyes is fit next week then Pryces spot must be under threat. He offered nothing today and certainly wasn't leading by example. Noticed he made a point of positioning himself directly behind hooker at most PTBs so there was no chance of him getting ball and actually having to do anything.

Pryce was poor. I haven't seen him do owt yet in 3 matches.

Campbell needs to be in, in front of Thomas.

I think Pryce is struggling with injury.

It had crossed my mind that this might be the case, he has a fair boot on him but he hasn't taken on any of the kicking responsibilities. Didn't he have a knee injury?

No old Father time.

Signing for Cas according to League Express. Currently on trial with them while he gets over his injury.

I tend to agree with most of the comments on the thread already regarding the game. Out-muscled in the end which was always likely with the size and power of the likes of Bennion & Tahraoui up against our kids. It's largely a physical issue at the moment, especially in those kind of conditions.

Oscar Thomas I honestly don't understand what people see in him. He is really REALLY predictable and just generally quite poor. He's one of those who occasionally has a good game which makes everyone forget about the 5 p*ss poor ones before it. Johnny Campbell must be wondering what he did wrong in the friendlies to be dropped for such a useless sack of...

Leon, we all knew this is what he does. When the going gets tough, Pryce turns invisible. Everyone has known that for years, so it was hardly a surprise to see it happen again today. If you watch him, he hides behind the PTB, knowing that if he's directly behind it, he won't get passed to. It's why I had such reservations about him being captain. I'm sure off the field, he's a massive help to the kids. On it though, he's captain by default because there isn't another option.

I'm afraid today I saw nothing to make me change my mind that we're going down and will likely be down well before the end of the season. I don't think any of it is through a lack of effort. But we're seriously lacking in skill, size & experience. Doesn't matter how much heart you have if the ability just isn't there.

I suspect Leon did a bit of pre season "training" with brother Karl!!

On the post round?

When we held onto the ball we competed. I thought we did ok working up the middle. The back row is a little light and although they are up for it and don't shirk the work they are stopped easily on a day when the step is nigh on impossible. We made no yardage away from the ruck.
I believe if we had held onto the ball better we would have won.
It isn't all doom and gloom.
We will need a couple of props for when we lose the Leeds boys and probably a back row to allow the coach to give Bentley and Wilkinson some time off maybe rotating them every week so they can recover and build some confidence.
Experience would be nice.
Overall it was disappointing to lose when we were in with a shout.

How many times did our players slip on the surface? Longer studs needed!

Scooting from dummy half also works best if you have a dummy runner at 1st receiver. Scooting when there is no runner at all is too obvious and a reason we got pushed back on occasion. All due to a lack of experience.

Same goes for the couple of occasions in the second half when Lilley got the ball on the last and got caught in two minds as to whether to kick. Both times we gifted possession over, once leading directly to a try.

The errors on the 1st tackle when we’d got field position in the second half killed us. We got no momentum up and spent most of it defending.

It was disappointing since we played very well in the first half.

This is becoming the theme though. It was certainly the case at Keighley and I believe was at KR last week (although I wasn't there for it). At Keighley it screamed of the young lads being fine when they're full of energy, but once they're tiring, they just can't handle the big b*ggers on the other team. It's totally understandable and isn't their fault at all, but this is where you really miss the size in your pack.

It's not coincidence we have a small pack and are losing it in the second half of games.

You say they can't handle them, and to an extent you're right - lord knows we are all banging on about getting some big props in from somewhere, anywhere - but if you look at the closeness of the final score and if you see the various things that went against us, and yet we were still in with a shout, we are actually far more competitive than I had dared hope we could be, certainly at this stage of th season. With a fair wind our young lightweights could easily have ended up winning yesterday, outmuscled as they were.

Makes it all the more frustrating eh?

The young lads won't be physically up to playing at this level consistently for much longer before an 80 point stuffing is given out.

I hope we have some reinforcements before that happens.

Yep, there will be some bruised and aching bones gingerly staggering about today, and they acn only (and should only be expected to) take so much.

Absolutely. And as Bullseye rightly says, that's what makes it even more frustrating.

On the plus side of it, does it give us a little hope that it may not need THAT much to set it right? A couple of good signings in the forwards and it may just make a big difference with how those scorelines end up.

I fear not. Bullseye made the very fair point that you can't keep playing all the youngsters for 80 mins week in week out as they won't be able to handle the physical aspects, early season is one thing, all fit and raring to go, 10 straight games in they'll not be able to walk.