Is it a case of a mindset I.e. When we play teams that pose a greater psychological threat, the team will have to move up a couple of gears and perform or get thumped. London (who are improving) Sheffield, both of who will be difficult away. Posting big scores seems to be the demand from fans, where there is little value in that thinking. We actually have had relatively minimal injury problems so that is a bonus.

Teams in Super League tend to come into their own just past halfway in the season. The same for us. I am not too worried right now.

There are some extremely negative opinions elsewhere on the interweb.

I would say that the team are where you'd like to see them in terms of league position and results.

They are where you'd expect a fairly new side to be in terms of performance and have improvement in them ahead of a (hopefully) attempt at promotion through the super 8's.

In my opinion.

I can't comment on anyone else as that's their look out and know enough about them.

Obviously teams raise their game a few levels when they meet us, probably more than they do than when they play Leigh. As far as the coaches are concerned it's stupidly early to make any kind of judgement. We've had 14 new players to integrate into the team including a new halfback and fullback. Of course it will take time to gel. We seem to be winning games without ever really cutting loose so I'm happy with where we are at the moment. I hope to see us looking more slick later in the season - when it matters.

Personally I am not remotely bothered about thrashing teams week in week out.

It is a long hard season and I would rather we did what we have to do with the minimum of effort rather than go all Gung-Ho in order to humiliate sides.

That way we can be fresher when the middle 8's come around and may well have the advantage over the bottom 4 SL sides who will be scrapping each week to avoid finishing in the bottom spots.

Points difference will not matter in the weekly rounds. Do what is required at minimum cost then go all-out in the play-offs.

We looked yesterday like we were trying to score on every set of six. Whether that is just a mindset the players have developed themselves, Jimmy has coached into them or maybe just because it was the first time they'd played with the sun on their backs, who knows.
We played well for about 20 minutes collectively, and that was enough to win the game. Gaskell doesn't throw that ridiculous pass and we don't switch off for the last 30 seconds of the game and Dewsbury are restricted to just one soft try under the posts in the second half. We defended a handful of sets on our own line throughout the match but were never really threatened that much.

For me the entire match was typified by one passage of play in the second half. Adam Henry took a pass on our own try line, and managed to sidestep and dance his way past at least six Dewsbury defenders until they finally brought him down on our 40. It was a great effort. We then dropped the ball in the next tackle.
Complete rocks and diamonds all afternoon. Frustrating to watch, but at least we're still winning the games.

We did defend quite well but the amount of holding down and the laughable 10m made fluent rugby a challenge. I thought the way we worked for the first try by Pitts was superb with both halfbacks working together really well – hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.

The offloading for Uaisele’s try was excellent too. Pitts has a great offload and given he’s not the biggest it’s a great asset.

We did make far too many errors and I expect Halafihi will get a telling off for the penalty he gave away while we were in possession.

Some of our big lads are a still a bit off the pace (I’m thinking Fleming and Lauaki). From what I’ve seen they’ve missed out on the pre season so have some catching up to do.

Any news on Davies? He looked good versus Leeds in pre season.

Nothus ... I think Adam Henry is gaining more confidence with game time. Dropping the ball overall in good weather is a bit mystifying. It is well known about my views on defence. There is nothing wrong with having the "opportunity" to defend our own line, we will have too come more determined and skilful sides.

Which other players are going to appear to take responsibility for running the game outside of Gaskill? I thought Addy would be more decisive and influential.

Bullseye ... Is it that Refs are allowing a slower play the ball because it is recognised that teams are part time and given the differences in fitness?

On what I've seen so far, it is that the Championship refs and the Championship teams have mutually become accustomed to laborious PTBs and to them, that's just how it is. And if that's how it is, and everybody does it, then it's easier to just let it go than try to swim against the tide. Compared with watching SL the difference is really obvious. In this league you generally would have to peg the guy down with six guy ropes before the ref would blow.

I think that's about right to be honest. And I think it's a big reason why we're not posting big scores.

A lot of our players aren't used to such a slow PTB and are struggling with it at times. Perhaps need to start playing like they know it's going to be slow, instead of complaining when it is.

There's no doubt there's a difference in this league with the PTB speed, it's clear to see. So adapt to that, rather than expecting the referees to adapt to our style.

It can't be that otherwise Leigh would be having the same problem.
I think the refs in this league have to allow some compensation for the fact that the majority of teams are part time. It is only natural that their fitness levels will be lower then SL, so some leeway is given around the ptb for this fact.

Speaking of refs we've got Joe Cobb on Sunday.

That should be a popular appointment.

Sure it is. We should all be willing to be welcoming to those of a lower mental ability that ourselves

You can't get any lower than you lot.

The fact that Leigh are posting big scores means they’re having less problem with the slow PTBs than us – but then they’re a well drilled side that has been used to playing together for a few years and they’re very familiar with all the opposition teams and grounds. They’re a shade ahead of us and this is reflected by them being top. We’re not a million miles behind them though and we have plenty of improvement in us.

I think the speed of the PTB in the championship is probably suited to the part time sides. It’s just a fact of life. There’s a heck of a difference between that and SL. It’ll be interesting to see how games are refereed in the middle 8s. Will those matches be assigned to SL refs? Or will it be a mix of Champ and SL refs? If it’s a mix will we see the championship refs asked to speed things up or the SL refs to slow things down? Could be a real recipe for inconsistency…

On Adam Henry I thought he had his best game in a while for us on Sunday. He takes the ball up strongly but I do have reservations about his defence. Halifax managed to score through the gap between him and Siejka twice on Friday. I’d say when everyone’s fit he’s behind Baille, Blythe and Purtell for the centre spot.

On taking pressure of Gaskell I think it’s also a matter for Gaskell himself. He obviously pushes himself forward but I think sometimes he needs to take a step back or allow himself to be used as a dummy runner because opposition teams have him marked as our main playmaker. I think Addy, Siejka and O’Brien can play a role here but it’s down to Lowes to make sure It happens. Sometimes players need to be told to “butt out” when they want the ball too much.

Why would they? They've been in that league for years and have adapted to the slow PTB. The only other team that might be struggling with the difference would surely be London, who had a poor start.

It may even have nothing to do about PTB and simply a fact that Leigh are a better side and score more because of this.

It's clear to see the official's intent...

I think that may probably be the case. Even so they're used to playing this opposition and are used to the grounds and the refs which certainly helps.

Why should the PTB be kept to the lowest level? I can't think of any sport where referees are used to 'even out' the competition. SL refs [largely keep the PTB to the speed of the quickest sides and that's how it should be throughout the league, you can't seriously have parts of the game downgraded to the lowest common denominator.

May also because we're not fighting hard enough on the ground. If we're just accepting the tackle and going through the motions of playing the ball, we're not going to get penalties. I thought we were particularly guilty of this in the first half on friday

It can, because obviously having played at this level for several centuries, Leigh [ihave[/i had the chance to adapt to it




You may have a point. But they do seem to ignore it from minute 1

Daft as it may seem we probably didn't need as many Super League standard players.....The ones we recruited with Championship experience have generally shown up well. Leigh have several of the better Championship standard players and hardly any of SL standard. It's an entirely different ball game in the Championship and that's where we have gone wrong. Perhaps we should hold back the better players until the middle eights when they will play a game that suits them.

I don’t think our front rowers have a problem dominating the collision but our back row is a little lightweight sometimes and can get turned over. Versus Fax we had Pitts, Olbison and Addy in the backrow which I think is too small a combination and as a result we got dominated in the tackle and lacked a bit of go forward. This meant we were kicking on the last tackle well inside our own territory during the first half and hardly created any chances.. Fax had some big lads and they got numbers into the tackle. It was a bit reminiscent of last year when we played without any bona fide props. I hope Lowes learns from this.

If you add Walshaw and Ferguson into the second row we’re a different proposition. I’d say we need those two fit going into the 8s. If you look back to when we used to win trophies we had 4 big props but our second rowers were capable of playing prop too plus they were very mobile.

There’s no denying the PTB is much slower in the Championship. That might not be by design but just a symptom of having players that are slower due to them being part time as Nothus says. Refs have to be pragmatic and they aren’t going to set unachievable standards and turn matches into penalty festivals. That said I think some of the lying on is comically OTT. I think the 8s will be step up if we suddenly got to SL speeds.

I bet if you timed the PTB in both competitions the Championship PTB is on average at least a second slower.

Well oviously Leigh do have more experience of the teams and opposition players in this league. They're also accustomed to the difference in how a game is refereed so that has to be of some advantage. I'm not quite sure quite how big that advantage is but I think they're worthy of being labelled the best team in the Championship (the table doesn't usually lie). But I'm pretty comfortable with Leigh building up a bit of hype and allowing us to cruise under the radar a bit more than perhaps we would of. Their fans and head of rugby seem to be doing a good job of ing off other clubs so let them be a bit of a target that they're setting themselves up for.

I've seen supporters moaning because Leigh are putting teams to the sword most weeks but we've had a few games where it's been close. There are no prizes for being in good form now, we have to pace ourselves and build slowly for the important part of the season. You could argue there is perhaps a small advantage for finishing top in this league but even that is questionable depending on how you see things.