We certainly know how to put up a bomb when we get to the last tackle. Not very accuratly though!

Watched the game hoping to see you win, but have to say you were worse than FC have been and believe me we've been pretty clueless at times.

Edited for accuracy

Some seem to be disappointed at Addy. I actually thought that O'Brien was the better hooker, showing speed at the play the ball - had some urgency and look natural in that position.

Addy was just trying hard to create something and it wasn't coming off, our disappearing halfbacks in the 2nd half were of no use whatsoever.

Easy answer is O'Brien actually is a hooker whereas Addy is a loose forward who has yet to be played there for any length of time. Hopefully he'll get some more game time next season in his preferred position.

In reply to the OP's question yes - Wakey under Kear. If he is still in charge when we play you, you will see it first hand

I sort of agree with that. Addy was like quite a few others, loads of effort but large largely misused and no end product. Has any side, (even us) made so many, non-event last plays in one match? Kick after kick straight to the defender. If Addy had had a few more options he not have felt the need to charge pointlessly (and fruitlessly) into the KR line so often.
Bags of effort though from Platty who tackled like a demon and ran hard, Raynor who was simply Raynor, with great involvement, Elliott Whitehead who looked very at home in the centre on the whole and tackled with more venom and effect that of late. Andy Lynch and Langers, goes without saying, Koppy too.

As you say though, none of the halves really took control of the game; too many sixes and no seven. All that effort and nothing to show.

I can't help but wonder what they do all week in training in order to look so poor in attack and look so bereft of ideas on the last play. The performance from the two halves yesterday was utterly awful, they were non existent. So much so that the forwards were having to try and be creative players which led to aimless plunges toward the line (a regular occurance) or panic passing down the line without any dummy runners or structure.

It's schoolboy stuff.

Indeed, Stevo...



You would hope that next year's halves can only be an improvement? Surely?

Well we're still stuck with Jeffries. I fear Gale's stats of being the most error prone player in SL may prove to be a problem for us. Sammut adds a bit of impact but we're lacking that steadying influence. Out of Gale, Jeffries, Briggs, Sammut and Southernwood we're lacking a director of play, I hope I'm wrong but unless that lot are playing behind a pack that's dominant we'll struggle.

I'm not really one to call names or slag off players, I'd much rather cheer them on and hope they improve; at the end of the day they don't go out on the field trying to fail. That said, I have to say I'm a bit bewildered by the club recruitment policy around the halves.

We definitely need a half who is going to challenge the line (and look occasionally like he [imight[/i break through) or even an organiser in the Deacon mould, ideally maybe, someone with a bit of both. Undoubtedly we'll have a better idea what is going on when we find out who is [ileaving[/i as well as who is coming in.

Sammut is the one I feel most excited about; he's a very unpredictable player and will be a handful for the opposition...let's just hope we can get someone on the end of his breaks. Not sure about his defence. Maybe I've spent too much timing drooling over his attacking potential......

Gale and Briggs, I'll put together as they have similar assets and liabilities to me; both have great potential, ball in hand and both have difficulties in defence, in all honesty the thought them taking six and seven in the same side doesn't fill me with confidence as we might be spending a lot of time (and wasting energy) chasing their halves all over the field.

Southernwood for my money, isn't ready yet. I'm not going to say that's a euphemism for isn't going to be good enough though. He's still a youngster and they all develop at different speeds but unless he puts on some big improvement over the close season he's not going to be in contention for the first team any time soon.

Which, on the current assumption that Marc Herbert is away at the end of the season, leaves us with Ben Jeffries. Since he came back he's given us much as he did before, occasional superb little cameos interspersed with longer periods wondering if he's still on the field. To be honest, in my opinion, decent a player as he is, he's not really the answer to any of our problems and it does make me wonder why MP thinks he is. Still, the coach is the professional, he obviously knows more than I do, so we'll just have to wait and see how things pan out.

I suspect that we've only got the halfbacks we can attract/afford.

I don't buy that, as Awford won't have come cheap. And anyway, if you agree that the main thing which has screwed team performances over is the lack of quality at halfback, then you could say we can't NOT afford to solve the halfback problem.

I think with any sort of cutting edge in the halves yesterday we'd have been twenty nil up at half time. That said, the last two games aside defence has been a bigger problem than attack this year and it was in the season-killing games: Cas a, Hull h, Catalans h, Salford a. We'd be a point behind Leeds and five points clear of ninth had we ground out the points in that little lot, and it was the points conceded that did for us rather than an inability to get over the line.

In the second half we were hopeless with ball in hand. Potter himself says he was very ed off with the last play of each set calling them "pathetic". If you don't end each set by putting pressure on you just invite it on yourself and that gives the defence too much to do. Our crap attacking play actually helped build HKR's confidence and you could see them grow as the game went on.

a couple of repeat sets in the second half could have been the difference. the bomb stopped working and the little grubber kicks never materialised.

I think the balls up where our kick led directly to the 90m HKR try by Fox was another blow to the fragile confidence of our playmakers.

The kicking was very poor and the ball handling was crap too, no dummy runners, just throwing it down the line. We couldn't execute the "one out of the back" move either without making it obvious what was going on.

Whatever they do all week in training it gets forgotton on gameday once the pressure's on.

How many years now have we been saying that this lot just don't seem to be able to finish off sets? We can be camped on their line and still look clueless. Its been going on for years now!

And ffs get a bloody decent sports psychologist in! Something is messing with their heads! Either that, or a coach who can sort their heads out. Cos THAT has been going on for years too!

My favourite feature of the game was the look Raynor gave Platt(? - think that's who it was) for that, erm, flat, pass early in the 2nd half. You know it's a quality ball when the winger makes time to glare in disbelief even while diving to catch it and taking the tackle.

A bit of light relief if nothing else.

You know, that's the sort of thing which pigged me off more than anything. HKR got what..6 tries, out of that a couple were half decently worked efforts and the rest were from our, as you so eloquently call them, balls ups. At least a couple of those were worse because after the initial error, Bull's players stood around, as though traumatised, when they [icould[/i and probably [ishould[/i have regained the ball, or at the very least nipped the breakaway in the bud. I really do feel that confidence is shot at the moment, I know they can do much better than that.

When the pass by Platt had been made Peter Roe said on radio leeds if Platts a centre I will come out of retirement

Quality

HKR were there to rollover but gradually warmed to the task as they saw us flounder throughout the first half. I can't help but look at Potter tbh although the the loss of L'Estrange is a huge mitigating factor. Not only is the rugby dull, it is high risk. The number of times we've spilled the flat, crash ball should have suggested a change in tactics. Herbert and Jeffries hasn't worked and that has been obvious for months. It's a partnership not much better than Sykes and Addy.

One of the biggest problems for me is that the halves, whatever the combination, don't seem to offer anything different. Bring in a different half and the play is very much the same as before, they all seem to have a very similar skillset. There should be someone giving different problems to the opposition, someone to put a bit of doubt in their minds, but it's just not happening.

I've not seen much of Luke Gale but apparently he can break the line, which is something we seem incapable of doing at present, so maybe Potter has identified that weakness and taken steps to remedy it.

Yes and Sammut is a line breaker which makes it harder for the defence to simply slide across as they have to watch the inside channel. Where I think we've been truly awful is the speed and length of our passing in the middle of the pitch. I know not everyone is Wally Lewis but it's amateur standard.