We did have a very good scrum half in Luke Gayle who we had to let go due to the mismanagement of the club. I'm confident that we would now be in Super League had we been able to retain him. Since his departure, the recruitment of a suitable replacement has been a shambles. I feel that Ferris and Co are severely undervaluing the importance of a good scrum half and seem unwilling to put aside a decent enough chunk of the salary cap to secure one.

We've been linked with plenty of scrum halves recently but still haven't been able to lure one to Odsal. The only reason that I can possibly give is that they won't pay the asking price. That pot must be a lot smaller now we've signed Mather's and Lovegrove. I'm expecting a bargain basement signing if they ever make one.

We did have a plan A, and it worked, and we signed a great scrum half from Warrington. Then we had (correctly imo) an attack of nobility and let him go back. We've been scrabbling around for a plan B ever since then.

Since Robbie Paul moved to hooker/FB in fact....

Indeed. Did the right thing by the player but has left the club up a certain creek.

Good point, well made.

Hopefully these arguments will be put to bed when we announce our new top quality scrum half (hopefully before 2020!)

I think Addy is coming off worst in all of this - I've heard a few fans getting on his back the last couple of games but I honestly think he's doing his best. He has had more games at half back than in the pack but he's still a forward. I know a lad who is quite close to Addy and he does not see himself as a 7 by any stretch of the imagination but will continue to do whatever is best for the team.

I feel sorry for Addy and hope he can ignore the knockers, they'd be off his back if we had a 7 as we should do, and that lad will do whatever job the coach asks so you can't say fairer than that. It's hardly his fault that he's not a specialist 7 nor ever will be.

Agree about Addy. If he could get a sustained run at 13, I think he'd be brilliant. Instead, he's constantly asked to do a job that he's not 100% up to doing, but never fails to put as much into it as he can.

I really can't understand the morons that slag Addy off for playing poor at scrum half, the guy is a FORWARD end of story.

Who else could you play there ?

Surely to god, the club will address the scrum half issue soon? I can't believe we didn't manage to find anyone of the right quality during the off season and we still haven't sorted ourselves out now.

Saints have two players in Fages and Burns who I assume aren't injured but still don't seem to be getting picked, what's the situation there?

Think getting someone like that would prove difficult. Only way I think saints would let either go would be a loan, but then there's always the risk of then being called back so signing a HB on loan would be pointless.

Just got to hope we have some luck for a change and a player becomes available. Poor that we've still not got a HB.

Why didn't we just see what Jacks could do. He wouldn't have cost a huge amount and if he didn't work out, we could still be on look out for another.

Unfortunately I can see us going into the middles with Addy at 7.

Glen Morrison article today saying his heart is still at Bradford. How many Bulls fans will now be hoping Green is listening and this gives him an option in October.
Also as a talking point, do people agree that Wakey making Kear their D.O.Rugby is a very good choice and would have been my choice if Jimmy goes in October followed by Ferres after some unconvincing signings over the last season of players who cost us plenty of cash to hardly or never play for us.

We should have appointed Glenn at the first opportunity.

I think it's a bit of an odd one from Wakey's POV to announce it so early when there is so long to go this year and it doesn't exactly scream confidence at the coach they've just appointed. Although you can almost write the script now - Chester keeps Wakey up at the death again, gets sacked 3 games into the new season and Kear becomes the defacto head coach again.

As for Kear himself, I can understand why he's done it, it'll be more money for less work to begin with and there aren't many clubs in the country that can't learn something from the situations he's found himself in. Would have loved Kear at the Bulls, but don't know what it is there is just something I can't put my finger on that tells me he wouldn't quite be a good fit.

I think Kear is an excellent motivator and he's been around the game, seemingly forever. Much as I've got a lot of respect for the guy, I'm not totally sure about him as a day-in-day-out coach, to be honest.

He seems to need something, or somebody to rail against to get the best out of him and his teams, and that simply doesn't work on a day to day basis. Some decision from the authorities or a slight from an opponent that he can work into an, "everyone hates us, but we don't care", mentality and he's in his element and he'll do wonders. It just doesn't work over an 8 month season though.

He reminds me a little of Darryl Van de Velde the old Cas [and Wire coach, who may well have been JK's coach when he was a player down Weldon Lane - both are well regarded and produced some fine teams, playing good rugby but, at the end of the day, never actually won very much.

what he said

I think JK & his perm had both left Cas just before DV2 started.

I posted at the time I would have taken a shot at Morrison ahead of Lowes, still stand by it, if we don't retain Jimmy for 2017 for whatever reason and assuming the given that we wont bring in a proven top rate coach from the NRL, then I think we should appoint Glenn if he's still available (he'll get a bigger gig than Dewsbury before too long I suspect.)

Hopefully though Jimmy will make this thread look daft as he leads us to automatic promotion in the middle 8's!.....#holds breath#....

> Jimmy will make this thread look daft as he leads us to automatic promotion in the middle 8's!

Whereupon we become a bigger gig than Dewsbury.

I couldn't remember JK with hair, so I took a look at some photos - ye gods! Is it the same bloke?

He looked like Zippy with a perm wig, now he just looks like Zippy.

Taxi for Lowes.

I'll put some towards it. What about Rowley or Haggerty who will probably get his team further in the cup than us!!

After last season and making the MPG I thought Lowes had just about done enough to deserve another shot this year on the proviso that he developed the team and learnt from his mistakes. So far we've looked no better than last year and the same problems keep on recurring. Not sticking to the game plan, unable to close a game down despite leading going into the final minutes etc.

I think we can all accept the odd blip and despite being FT there will always be occasions when a part time team edge it. But have we looked the business for the full 80 so far this year?

I suspect the next couple of games might be crucial for the team and Lowes. Facing two quality sides who we will be competing for the top 4 with we simply have to see some performances. Personally I've lost confidence in Lowes and would like to see a replacement brought in sooner rather than later to give a new coach chance to actual make his mark.

I think if look deeper into us getting into the middle 8's how much was that down to Lowes? Were we really that good?

Shefifeld - Comfortable victory at home, but we were playing against a part time team.
Wakefield - game over after 20 mins
Salford - Best performance of the season. Fair play
Widnes - Hammered by 50+points. Decent first 40 but completely fell away as thing got tough (sound familiar)
Hull KR - Awful performance and Hull KR were there for the taking that day. Dire selections in Chev Walker and Mendieka cost us.
Leigh - A good win but i think Leigh were completely gone by that stage. they had just lost to Fax and were more or less out of the 8s even if they had beaten us.
Fax - another humiliation

Wakey - MPG - Our coach completely panicked with strange tactics and he was completely out coached by BS. His use of the bench was horrendous that day and lost us the game (Not Danny Addy missing a conversion as we could have still lost as our players were out on their feet from playing virtually the whole game) throw in humiliating losses to Fax, Sheffield Featherstone and Leigh. In fact how many games last year were we sensational? Not many.

Ask yourself this simple question. Based on James Lowes' general demeanour and attitude, would you want to work under him and bust your gut for the bloke?