No were rubbish cos were crap and not going to get any better any time soon.... simples

I'll reserve judgment until I see Briggs and Herbert. The best I've seen us attack this year was versus Leeds, Briggs was class.

I aren't having a go at people, I just think we need to be more appreciative of where we are as a side

So why not play Briggs when he's available then!!??? Poor decision

I don't think you should read too much into the Saints side being overly weak. We were only missing Wilkin, Pryce and Clough. We were hardly on our knees for injuries.

Much better than we where 2 weeks ago.

Because the team only had two training sessions this week due to the short turnaround. You can't just slot a new player in to form yet another half back pairing at such short notice and expect them to work well together.

The team had to stay the same with us only playing on Sunday and yes because the squad have so many new players in it.

Can't really comment on the performance tonight because I wasn't there but I can comment on the selection.

We've got ten days now to work on what the coach thinks is the best 13 from the players now available. But I'm afraid you have to be patient this season. At least the finish to the match shows the players have heart and pride in the shirt. That bodes well for later on.

Well said MBBB.

Anybody know if we picked injuries tonight?

Cant say much coz wasnt there, but I said it before, id like to see Whitehead rested for a couple of weeks. Get Walker in at SR and helping Platt and Ainscough out.

Only listened on the radio tonight, but I don't feel too disheartened.

It sounded like we matched them for spells, and were lot down by some poor kicking and cheap penalties. Remember this team battered Leeds at Heandingley last time out.

It's easy in hindsight to criticise team selection, but I didn't see too many people suggesting wholesale changes after our great win last week. Most people thought Sykes did not deserve to be dropped, for example. I suspect there'll be a few changes next week - Walker and Briggs in at the very least.

Mick Potter also needs to get a grip on the cheap penalties, especially basics like not being square at the play the ball. It's costing us dearly every week.

Its just disheartening to realise we really don't have class to compete with big boys. We don't have a go to player in the backs. We performed well. Saints are a good side but not two top for me. Some of our attack was inept. I'd still want Briggs in if he's fit. Couldn't have done any worse. Defence was strong in the one on one.

I think im fed up of going to away games as watching us lose pretty easily. My last win was Salford last feb. The score line was respectable, but it was over at half time. Saints were well on top.

Plenty of effort but we struggled to break down the St Helens defence at times tonight. Too often we resorted to a short flat pass to try and break through instead of trying to confuse Saints with several runners.

I thought we had a couple of questionable tries given against us in the 1st half and that took the game beyond us.

Kicking game was pretty poor once again. Ainscough and Platt were excellent, that partnership is improving each game. Platt in particular had a stormer and made some big tackles and looked the most likely to break for us.

Not too disheartened. Lost by 12 in the end - the two tries that never were for Saints in the first half. We lack a killer edge in attack, we should have done more when Saints were down to 11, we didn't even think about going wide to stretch the defence.
Thought Sykes sinbinning was harsh and some of Silverwood's calls verged on bewildering at times, but even up against it, they kept trying. I went expecting a tonking as usual, so not too unhappy!

That's just about what I was going to post.

Never gave up, last season we'd have let the frustation take over and that would have turned into a tonking.


losing by 2 scores to Saints isn't bad, especially when there were 2 dubious saints tries.

I'll also add that Ainscough was great in attack today.

Briggs kicking for the 20's was as terrible as Herbert's for the first team.

Lets hope Potter works on it all next week.

Were Saints sinbinnings any less dubious than the Bulls one.

We where all warned that the CEO's had asked for grapple tackles to be clamped down on. That's what we got tonight.

All three were poor calls from Silverwood IMO as was the 11-5 penalty count in your favour.

This is the big problem for me rather than whether a couple of team selections should have been different. Yes kicking could've been better and some decision making on their line but giving away cheap penalties (esp at the end of their sets) is suicidal. Were we getting pinged for markers not being square again?

I do want to see Briggs back in the side but we're just setting the guy up for a fall if we think he's going to change the team one game in. In all likelihood he's going to take 2-3 weeks to get up to speed in the team.

Its not good having a poor away form but making Odsal a fortress again will get us in the top 8 by itself.

From T&A:

"They were not helped, though, by the absence of Langley, who looked to be carrying an injury as he went off."

Not good if he has picked up an injury.

Few words , not too dissapointed about the results and some players worked really hard, but the ref tonight was shocking, and on that note so was the linesmen!! they give a kick that went 2 yards wide!

I thought we played quite well agianst 14 men last night. The first 10 minutes we were awesome. We just need to stop trying to get the ball out of tackles in impossible positions. We've certainly improved since the Huddersfield game anyway. I thought it was a pretty even game, we had a try disallowed, Foster 1st and Wellens 1st tries shouldnt have been given, and Ah Van could of gone in for his 2nd if Sykes would have give him the ball at the end, but he tried an impossible inside pass with 3 defenders near him, his decision making at times his shocking. Ainscough as been an absoulute bargain for us, he's a crisp finisher, and he has been brilliant under the high ball and in defence. I just think were lacking a player who has that bit of class, can turn a game, and can make a break from nothing. I wonder if Saints will let us have Pryce now, Gaskell and Lomax looks a brilliant partnership, and Eastmond can play again now and they also have Gary Wheeler.

Nope!



Although if he's going to spend the whole season on the physio's bench then we may well change our minds!

The more I see people say this, the more I reckon I was watching a completely different game. Briggs was decent for the first thirty minute and complete gash for the remaining 50 minutes.

Class??? You and I have differing opinions of class then.

Briggs was GOOD in our first game against Leeds, however Class is like Robbie Paul who was class for the whole 80 and did magical things. Menzies is class, his awareness is second to none. Briggs is not class, he is a good player though.

Langley was immense for the first 20 mins before he was injured. He was like we had signed an amazing ball playing loose forward. His opening burst led to an accurate Herbert kick for Ainscough to collect for the first try - brilliant

It must the Bulls website giving the wrong subliminal message that "Hey Presto" wave a magic wand and everything will be o/k!

"The we want success and we want it now" isn't going to happen!

Looking at some of the comments, it seems we have got some T & A muppets migrating over to here with a bad case of nappy rash!

This Team is still very much a work in progress and against the the usually percieved top 4-5 sides will struggle, certainly in the first half of the season. I expect results to be a lot closer and a win more problable second half! the other sides around us we should be capable of winning against and more comfortably as the season progresses

There seem to be a lot of impatient people surfacing on here that like to have a whinge when we lose but say nowt when we win.

Apart from the Huddersfield game we've looked a better side than last year in every game we've played this season. We're playing better rugby and look like we're going to improve as the season goes on. We've a young side but also have 11 new players including new players at hooker, scrum half and stand off. That was always going to make it difficult to suddenly challenge the teams in the top 4 who've had settled sides for longer.

I always said we'd be doing well if we finished around 6th and I stand by that. We've had a hard start to the season playing 4 of the likely eventual top 5 in our first 7 games. We've done that despite injuries to both our new halfbacks and our best metre making forward.

Ok, we still have fundamental things to work on like discipline and ball control but these are bad habits picked up over the past few years with many of our players and will take time to eradicate. As has been said we're a work in progress and are lacking a bit of quality in places.

I know there are some "glass half empty" supporters out there but we appear to have more than most.