Spot on, I agree completely.



Agree with all that. Can't believe Wood wasn't in the side. He's a big lad and can play long minutes. When we were without Magrin or Green in the 17 I couldn't believe Wood wasn't picked. Krasniqi is a waste of space and if I was Wood I'd be wondering what I'd done wrong to not get picked.

Storton for me offered more playing at prop than Farrell did in the second row.

Chisholm had his usual mixed bag of a game. That's what you get with him. It does put pressure on the other half back and I thought Lilley had a better game than he's had for a couple of weeks. He ran a lot straighter and his kick and chase in the second half to force the drop out was excellent. He did also come up with some ordinary plays in the opposition 20m. When we get there we seem to lack ideas.

I've a feeling 5 drives and a kick is the Kear way. While we scored a heap of points last season it was more down to us wearing teams out than slick attacking play. Against tougher opposition we're being shown up as a bit one dimensional. It's frustrating because we see glimpses of better things.

So frustrating, it must be down to Kear`s tactics. With a fit rosta of props that style of play would be OK but with our lightweight forwards at the moment why not change things to accommodate our lack of size. Our defence from PTB is at times abysmal, York made yards virtually every play. Farrell is all heart but like Hallas isn`t big enough and never breaks the line. Pickersgill cannot beat a man on fielding a kick (if he catches cleanly). Chisolm to me is coasting and pinching money, he is a quarter of the player from when he was first signed for us. The three-quarters are more than adequate, in fact Ryan must be the best winger outside SL. Hopefully Kear will change tactics against Toulouse or we will be beaten again.

The only reason I'm going to watch the Toulouse match is to see Jon Ford in action. Easily the best half outside of SL, and if he's on form he could play in a dinner suit and cause us no end of problems in the process.
Something's not quite right with Toulouse at the minute though, they shouldn't be losing to Leigh and scraping past Swinton if they are serious about pushing for promotion.

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll click into gear next Sunday

Just watching back on the "highlights" footage. A few things I picked up...

Firstly is it just me or does Ethan Ryan score a perfectly good try in the corner in the first minute? For me he grounds the ball and its a decent try? The TJ has a brilliant view and he has had a nightmare there by not giving the ref the correct call.

Next up the Massive "try"... Pickersgill doesn't ground it, but then again neither does Massive. Another wrong call.

That said we get a huge bit of good luck (another bad call from the ref and TJ) with the Ethan Ryan try just before half time. The ball from Chizzy is a good 3m forward and not 100% he actually grounds it.

The main thing that stands out for me is when the ball goes through the hands we looked dangerous and shows that we can do it but just aren't been given the freedom to play (Kear to blame for me).

I've been a big critic of Chisholm on here and in the past but maybe Kear's tactics are actually stifling him and goes to demonstrates that Rohan Smith was very willing to let the team play what's in front of them

With the first min try I thought at the time the TJ looks to be heading for the corner of the dead ball line which I think means he is happy and the ref has a poor obscured view and gives no try straight away without reference to his assistant

With Ryan's 1st try I think the ball hits the flag while he has hold of it I don't know if that is classed as out of play or not

Flag doesn't matter now if the player is in possession of the ball.

I thought Ryan's try just before half time was a bit dubious so I suppose getting it cancels out the 1st minute try that wasn't given.

These things tend to even out over the season.

Pretty sure the the flag is still classed as touch in goal if the ball hits it whether or not in a player's possession and the 'not touch in goal' rule only applies to body contact with the flag. The corner flag is still defined as 'touch in goal' in the laws of the game.

I think if the ball is kicked and hits the flag then yes, it counts as being dead in goal. But if a player is in possession of the ball then the flag is essentially ignored. Bit of a weird rule but it makes sense in my opinion.

That's my understanding too. Anyone got a rulebook?

Yeah, that's how I understand it.
Coming back to earlier points, on the disallowed 'try' the touchie was clearly going to the corner, which is the signal that he has no problem with it, but before he got there the ref came steaming in and said no. He clearly had a different position to view from so he obviously saw it differently and he thought it wasn't a score. On the 'forward pass', yes I thought it was too, however there were a number of 'forward passes' throughout the game and none were pinged so why would they give that one?

Forward passes are a bit like being within the 10m at the play the ball. It happens quite often but his rarely penalised

I think the ball touched the base of the flag and the touchline simultaneously. Which I think is touch in goal.

To be honest, it's difficult to say EXACTLY where the ball touched from the replay. So far as I understand it though the current rule is that if the ball is in possession then the flag is out of the equation.

I've actually stopped bothering about 'forwards'. With the speed of the game and players playing to the line there are just so many close ones in the average match you'd go mad if you let it get to you - they invariably go both ways so who cares?

Watching the highlights of the game, I think the referee got the Ethan Ryan no try decision completely wrong, and the Pickersgill ground in goal is inconclusive from the video footage.

Already been said many times but the two barge over trys were shoddy and frankly unforgivable. We won't win many against the good teams defending like that.