In my opinion, i always thought of L'estrange as a hooker who plays best off the interchange bench but is Godwin really a starting 9????

Along with all our new recruits, time is needed for them to gel, learn each others games and I am confident L'estrange, Kearney, Orford, Ox and Reardon are all going to be useful additions and IMPROVEMENTS to our team!

I think if there's one thing we've learnt over the last few seasons it is that Macca's bench selections are poor and his utilisation of the bench is even worse. I believe we need to start with 2 Props on the bench most weeks and not rely on Andy Lynch playing 70 minutes, that tactic got old when we used to do it with Fielden. We also need to pick players on form, if they play poor they get dropped. As said before no special projects that last half a season. We have a big squad, use it fully. All that said it's still early days and the 3 creative players do need to gel with each other and the rest of the team. I just hope Macca has not spent all his money on the new players and forgotten to get a new playbook....

I like the sentiment, but odsal doesn't need to hold any more than the low 20,000s.

Yesterday did massive damage to the confidence i had growing in the pre season. I just don't want it to be the same as last year where the bad start never really stopped till it was far far too late. I think Macca knows he's under a lot more pressure than last year.

I kind of agree with this. I've been of the opinion for a while that the roles of starting hooker and interchange hooker are almost different positions. We seem to have two interchange hookers at the moment in the same way that England did when they played with Higham and Roby.

Perhaps we should ask Leeds for a swap, since they have two starting hookers



Saying that, Godwin did actually do quite well when he was starting at the back end of last year, so I think the option is there to swap it round if need be. However I don't think it's really fair to judge L'Estrange purely based on last night's match, so let's give him a decent chance first.

With Saints we will need to either use Hall at prop or put Crossley or G Burgess on the bench next week. They don't have the biggest pack, put they have one of the biggest benches and we will need to match them.

But does he? It seems to me that he can do no wrong in the eyes of the Hood.

Glenn Hall is a tireless worker and will work until he drops but he isn't an impact Prop and I don't think he would add much coming from the bench. I do fear we could struggle to contain some of the big packs this year.

Well surely he won't last if we have the same start as last year.

Just watching Hull now.. That is how i expected the bulls to come out.. They have a new side and after one game look better than last year.

Great to know we are facing a Saints side on the back of a home defeat.

My personal opinion is thatwe were undone by a brilliant defensive effort from Huddersfield and our own LACk of a defensive effort.

Offensively we were ok I thought reardon played well, l'estrange looked good (although could have done with rotating a bit better) and Orford and Kearney looks promising.

The fact is any team would have struggled against the defense last night and we dodnt help ourselves with the persistant erros.

I though we were a little ring rusty and Macca bottled it a bit by persisting with a semi fir Kopchack(sp) who idont rate anyway and could have risked a junior rather than the useless sack worrincy who seems to have rubbed his defensive errors off onto his attacking play.

Still positive its a marathon not a sprint....

The fact that we lost to Hudds, seeing where the teams respectively finished ladt year, Hudds' home record (and indeed H &A record) last year, as compared to where we finished, should hardly count as any sort of a surprise. It was a tough first fixture, and we came up short.

Thing is, we competed very well, despite the obvious deficiencies, and as an opener, it seemed pretty much OK to me. Obviously I'd love to have won, but things looked, overall, a lot more promising than much of last year's efforts to me.

Over the weekend, Saints have lost (at home) to a resurgent Hull, and Leeds have contrived to los at home too, to Cas, so we have a slight edge on them. Not many will relish the trip to the Galpharm. An away loss against one of last year's leading teams is hardly the end of the world, however disappointing it may be.

Er, I think you're safe.

Graham and Maurie both got injured in our joke of a match tonight, as did our remaining naff winger (the other one has scooted back to NZ) and indeed our brand new import who shouldn't be allowed to play centre as he clearly isn't good enough.

So I really wouldn't worry! You will beat us no problem at all.

I do think Soliola is better in the second row than at Centre, but bad for him to be injured straight away.

I fancy our chances if you don't have Graham playing as he does literally carry your pack alot of the time.

I'm not sure if having Gardner and Meli out will be good for you or not, often youngsters do very well on the wings and i'm sure Wheeler and Lomax could give it a good go for you lot.

I wouldn't say we'll beat you no problem at all, Saints will be hard to beat after suffering a home defeat in the first match.

watched game on friday and thought hudds played well think alot of teams will struggle to break them down at home.

did think if we can cut out silly errors we will cause teams alot of problems .think once kearney and orford gel they will be a handfull for teams and think forwards need to adjust to how orford plays game as think once they read the short passes we will rip teams up in the middle of the park.

man of match for me was sherrif if he can carry on like that could be a good season for him run in 2nd half was good and just showed if he has more confidence in himself will be a handfull.

Literally? Really?

Quite a few of us have been trying to communicate that to Potter and Soliola has been playing second row for the last two years so you'd think that Potter would utilise him there. However, he can't seem to figure out what to do with players who aren't built like the Dragons. He has an ankle injury but how long he will be out has not been stated. Gardner is out for 2 to 4 weeks with a rib cartilege injury and Graham is having a scan for a sternum injury. Maurie seems to be fine after all although he didn't exactly have a stormer of a night but then again he hasn't really played well since a match at Quins in 2008.


He does and he will be a major loss to us.


Gardner has been terrible since Anderson left and Meli, while great going forward (would be a real asset in the pack) is useless defensively, especially in Grand Finals! His size was missed last night but nothing else as we didn't look like scoring for most of the night anyway even though we put plenty of pressure on at times.


Saints don't have that passion anymore. They aren't a team at present and that really does show. You'll beat us no problem at all. Seriously; you will.

Mate, you sound like you have just what it takes to found a new branch of the NT over the wrong side of the Pennines. Go for it!

Potter is average.

My view now the dust has settled over the weekend.

Hudds were very good defensively and definitely outmuscled us in the pack. I don't recall our guys making really good yards and we don't seem to have any real grunt off the bench like alot of other teams do. Most teams now have a big impact forward off the bench (normally a South Sea Islander / Kiwi) who comes on and lifts the tempo. We have Kopczak. Might be time for Scruton to start off the bench again.

We lost the game in the first 20 mins by gifting Hudds a couple of soft tries. Hudds also bombed a massive chance late in the first half which would have killed the game off even earlier. Our goal line defence does not appear to have improved and the lads don't look confident in each other when defending on the line. Everyone got sucked in and Reardon was left in noman land for the Cudjoe try from the cross field kick.

I'm not sure why Macca kept L'Estrange on so long. Maybe he thought that he'd (L'Estrange) know Orford better and we might have a better chance of getting back into the game with the understanding they already have, rather than throwing in Godwin who has a limited understanding with him?

Field kicking wasn't great (although our kicks to touch were considerably better than Hudds!!). Was the goal kicking an issue - possibly, I have stated on another thread that I think it might be an issue longer term - we could have been 4 points closer at half time, which might have influenced the game a little more, but to be fair the kicks were both from the touchline, and even the great Paul Deacon may have missed both.

I thought Glenn Hall was poor, even if his body shape had me thinking Fairbank was on the pitch! He'll play better than that I'm sure, but is he a prop rather than a second rower? OK - he might do a job there but he needs to play his best position for us.

We definitely need time to gel, especially at half back. There were some promising signs and I thought we moved the ball quite well on occasions, however I was viewing from behind the sticks, so I can't tell how deep the line was and what effect this had on some of the dropped ball.

I think there is still a stigma of the failures of last season within the team and this needs to be eradicated, especially from the guys who were playing in that side last year. Confidence didn't look good when we were 16-0 down (which is fairly obvious) and there looked to be a resigned to the fact sort of attitude amongst some of the players - Lynchy didn't do any rollocking and Orford seemed to have a few words instead.

I didn't think we were that bad overall, just that Hudds were better on the night and with a settled side got more of the basics right. Hudds did really well last year and I think they'll go well again this year, although maybe not top 3 and a challenge cup final. They are a good side, and based on some of the other results over the weekend there are teams in a lot worse position that we are in now, and where we will end up.

Dissapointed - yes, suicidal, no.

Wish we didn't have Saints next, but might be the sort of opposition we need, espcially as they are in a bit of shock!

Lynch was having a word with a few, Langley was aswell, and Orford was.

I know its early but this shows through when looking at the stats :

Matt Orford 0 Errors

I'm still optimistic

Quote ="Adeybull"And as for our much-slated 3/4 line, where only Nero was (half)-rated by so many observers? Well all bar Nero seemed to have pretty good games tonight, I thought (barring Reardon twice in no-man's land but left exposed by the others in Nathan Graham style)?'" Sir, may I draw you attention to the fact that Nero has the third most try assists in SL, not bad after one game! May his reign never end www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 10&hp2=216

Quote ="Adeybull"And as for our much-slated 3/4 line, where only Nero was (half)-rated by so many observers? Well all bar Nero seemed to have pretty good games tonight, I thought (barring Reardon twice in no-man's land but left exposed by the others in Nathan Graham style)?'" Sir, may I draw you attention to the fact that Nero has the third most try assists in SL, not bad after one game! May his reign never end www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 10&hp2=216

Quote ="Ancient Provocateur"Sir, may I draw you attention to the fact that Nero has the third most try assists in SL, not bad after one game! May his reign never end www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 10&hp2=216'" Must be near the top of the error count aswell from friday I think we will be very threatening down that side this year, if we use Menzies in the right way aswell. I think (based on Hudds) our right side also has the attacking threat as Sykes and Sheriffe did look fairly sharp.

Quote ="Ancient Provocateur"Sir, may I draw you attention to the fact that Nero has the third most try assists in SL, not bad after one game! May his reign never end www.superleague.co.uk/statistics ... 10&hp2=216'" Must be near the top of the error count aswell from friday I think we will be very threatening down that side this year, if we use Menzies in the right way aswell. I think (based on Hudds) our right side also has the attacking threat as Sykes and Sheriffe did look fairly sharp.

I've just been thinking about our line-ups over the past few years and I think if we could have any player back in his prime it would have to be either Hape, Les or Vagana for me. The three positions we look lightest in atm, and tbh I'd probably have to go with hape to add our touch of class in the centres, but a fully fit Joe would put fear into dfences once more.

Virtually all teams could improve significantly in the 3/4s.

Leeds wouldn't take many players over

Hall
Senior
Delaney
Donald

Maybe if they could find quality players younger than Donald and Senior.