We have to aim to win every game. Talk of resting players for against Hull KR is nonsense. These players have a maximum of 320 minutes of rugby to try and earn a SL contract for themselves. Going to Hull KR is on paper our toughest test but who knows which Bulls side will turn up!

We have just had a weeks rest because of the challenge cup. The brutal truth is that we are not good enough and should we get to the million pound game and somehow win it then we are in for a long season next year. As for the officiating; unless something is done about the standard it will kill the game stone dead.

We go all out to win at KR. Our season now comes down to the next two games. I think we will beat Leigh at their place (providing we get a competent ref)

I am hoping we can catch KR cold. Hopefully they will go into holiday mode now they are safe and they have got a win after their Wembley debacle. Plus minus Campese and Kelly from the team that beta us at our place.

Tough place to go is Craven park though.

Why are we in for a long season next year if promoted. I'm not normally a betting man but I would be willing to put a fortune on that it would be a lot different team on show than this year.

Where does this notion come from that Addy is a good 13 come from seeing as he as a 3 to 1 rate of playing half to loose.

By seeing the obvious good attributes Addy has and what i personally like to see in a 13. Goods hands, good footwork and decent defence. He often puts in big hits to lift the team and is capable of great moments of skill to set up of score a try. Like i say Pitts is decent as well. Just rather him be in second row and addy at 13 if given option. Don't know why this sounds so ridiculous to you?

And he's clearly been forced to play in halves due to injury and lack of cover there. I would imagine we would have seen him at 13 a lot more if not for our half back issues.

Thought Cobb was most obviously biased ref we've seen at odsal for a number of years. Widnes probably still had enough class to win game but we'll never know whether they could have done it without refs assistance. Chalk off the 3 tries from blatant forward passes and ah vans knock on for his 2nd and it could have been a very different game. Pretty much guaranteed we'll get Cobb for Leigh away game too IMO.

Doubt that very much - we seem to have been nailed on to get Child for all our home games now - now there's an 'eccentric' ref for you! Penalty count 4-3 in favour of Leigh, who are issued with a team warning on the 4th penalty awarded to Sheffield. (that's 4-4 but no warning to Sheffield) Next set, Ridyard - of all people - is yellow carded. Yet Sheffield went on to concede about 15 penalties, but no team warning!

Agree entirely. It's funny how he spotted our forward passes (one when he was 30 yards away) but missed all Widnes' forward passes despite a lot of help from the crowd. The game is being ruined by unpunished forward passes not just at Championship level but all levels. Perhaps it should be made an offside offence and a penalty awarded. The touch judges would have to be more involved and do something else as well as waving their flag when the ball goes into touch. The quick tap is another bone of contention. Why do some refs allow a quick tap - as attempted by Clare but others disallow it? There is a clear lack of consistency here and it's high time it was sorted out. One thing is consistent though and that's whenever The Bulls attempt to take a quick tap it is disallowed.

Having said all that though we were woeful in the second half and not Super League material on this display. Our pack is too soft and we need one or two enforcers. I think the Hull KR game will be a damage limitation. Onwards and upwards?

Wrong incident. Never mind.

The quick tap 'incident' was correctly pulled back.

The winger (Danny Williams?) is only allowed to take the tap quickly if all your players are onside, and they weren't Danny Addy (I think) was offside and even held his hand up to say sorry.

I agree Cobb was dire, but that was the correct decision.

No that was the correct decision, but I was referring to one where James Clare took a quick tap after we has a penalty.

The ref actually did us a favour there. Clare would have made 20 yards at best with a quick tap. Instead we made 40 yards by kicking to touch.

If you know these things, could you post the next winning Lotto numbers for us? Clare could have made a break, or he could have passed and created a break. You don't know. Anyway the point is that it is just yet another example of Cobb fecking up, and depriving us of a legitimate chance to play and get on the front foot. Whatever would or might have happened, it never got the chance. Just one more major rick from the bulging Cobb catalogue.

Well if you want the actual reason why he stopped the play, it's because the referee has to give the mark first before you can do anything. Cobb hadn't given the mark before Clare tapped it and ran (Clare also took the tap from the wrong position).
The Widnes penalty was different in that they waited for Cobb to mark the spot and then tapped it from the correct position, so they were allowed to run it.

So no, it wasn't a Cobb 'feck up'.

Sounds like a lot of people have got a "Cobb on". Fair enough some of the refs are crap but until armchair officials put themselves forward it will ever be thus. If you can do any better get signed up!

We also appear to be clinging to ifs, buts and maybes with regard to promotion. I've said it before and I'll say it again we are not going up with Lowes in charge. We have no hope against Hull KR and I don't expect us to beat both Championship teams. No one should be surprised if we lose to Halifax.

Fact is that we've got a Championship side with a few SL players. You cant really do any better with the salary cap available so any chance of winning is remote.

You need a SL side to turn up like Salford but that's always going to be the exception.

We must get Gaskell back to have any hope of getting 4th or 5th. The next three games will be very tough and are all vs teams that have beaten us this season.

Got you!

And i agree with you, i'd much prefer the ref to let the game flow.

Why do people keep saying this?

Let's look at yesterdays team

Clare - played SL with Castleford
Caro - top try scorer for Hull KR in SL last season
Neilson - played State of Origin
Purtell - played SL with us
Williams - played SL with us
Mullaney - played SL at Salford last season
Addy - played SL with us
Sidlow - played SL with us
O'Brien - played SL with us
Clough - played SL with St Helens for years
Ferguson - played SL with us
Olbison - played SL with us
Pitts - played SL with us

Mellor - played SL with us
Blythe - played SL with us
Crossley - played SL with us and Cas
Lauaki - played SL with Wigan and Hull

Doesn't seem like 'a Championship side' to my eyes, and certainly shouldn't be getting 56 points put on them at home against a side that couldn't make the Top 8

Yes the team does have a lot of players that have played super league but I still believe the issue is the 23 rounds of championship rugby those players played which was nothing more than a very long preseason in terms of preparation for 8's. It doesn't offer enough intense build up for games against super league sides. I know we beat Salford but I think after the Wakefield result they vastly underestimated us and never recovered.

Oh yes, I definitely agree with that. The issue then becomes one of preparation and squad management, rather than simply saying we have Championship players. That may have been true when we were playing the likes of Shaw, Uaisele, Mendieka, Taharoui etc - but not now

The make up of the current side is irrelevant when thinking about any promoted side. If we are promoted we get double the salary cap, and whilst I accept that some of the squad may well have enhanced deals on that basis for next season, the idea that our current squad, in its entirety, is somehow going to be our SL squad is barmy imo. There's no way we'd go into SL with a championship squad.

Here we go another arm chair head coach claiming it's because the coach isn't good enough.

If you can do better why don't you put yourself forward as coach?

People like you need to realise without coaches we don't have a game etc etc

See it's a garbage comment isn't it? Everyone can complain about the ref same as they can complain about the coach and players.

In a lot of people's opinion the red was garbage.

[urlhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJHy77A3Um8[/url

Here's the tries.

Right. After all the criticism and bickering, nothing wrong with a single one of them. Joe Cobb has been slaughtered from the offset yet you were just destroyed by a better side. Anything to say? One marginal decision that looked forward thanks to momentum and not a single other issue with any of the tries.

"All the criticism and bickering"

yes, a bit of criticism and bickering, but also plenty of acknowledgement that Widnes were the better side. What i would like to show you, but of course it is not available, is 23 games of Championship quality refereeing, apparently designed to reduce any championship team with aspirations to play SL standard rugby to the level of amateurs. Widnes, due to better sharper SL quality refereeing, knew more precisely what they could and could not get away with. that is what is behind the outpourings against the refereeing, not just one game against Widnes. Of course the proof is, would you want Cobb to referee every single one of your SL games next season? Trick question, you cannot answer because you simply do not know.