We'll recover from last night and learn a few lessons but I do have a few concerns about Currie when the chips are down (no pun intended). Past 2 games we've been short in the forwards and to me he hasn't really stepped up. In fact the opposite; he seems to back away from involvement in the hard yards department leaving others to take the knocks. He's a good player with a strong set of props, but more of a passenger without this.

Him and nicholson are a bit too lightweight, its noticeable that saints have batchelor that can do the hard yards for them, and Isa for wigan last week, picked up the slack after singleton went off

I would like to see Currie replaced with a player in the mould of Mike McMeeken. To be fair to Currie he did a lot of tackling against Wigan, but then so did a lot of our forwards.

I agree with the lightweight comment. People used to say Liam Farrell was too small to play for GB/England. He may be but he brings a heck of a lot more oomph than our second row.

I can see a need for Tanginoa coming down the straight

Scapegoat klaxon.

I don't think he is a scapegoat, he's just not the attacking threat he was pre-injuries and is in the final year of contract. He is ineffective in brutal, tough games and yet is our longest serving forward. It is reasonable to discuss his performances. He's had a good innings with us and a testimonial. We have done right by him.

And he has been very good when our pack have been on top. Isn't he in the England squad?

He’s the same player yesterday as he was last week or all season. He is also the only (maybe one of two) players to be picked for every game Powell has taken charge of, so he must be doing as instructed, or he would have been replaced in the pack rebuild.

Powell even went out and bought an exact replica for the other side of the field, so the plan for that position appears to be a player in that mould.

He’s not a barnstorming back rower, but with momentum he’s really effective. Gets through the line, creates and scores tries and assists line breaks. But behind a hammered pack he can’t do much, especially with the halves don’t create space.

If we’re judging performances based on whether on not he changes his entire game and goes away from the instructions of the coach, then he’s on a hiding to nothing.

George Williams has been alot less effective in the last 2 games since we lost most of our props, should we get rid of him as well?

williams was still pretty good against wigan,

I've Said it for the last couple of seasons, he's no longer good enough. His refusal to tackle people in front of him last season was disgraceful in itself. He will have perceived good games when and only when the goings good, he will be around threatening in attack. But when the stuff hits the fan he isn't going to make the hard yards. Shame his injuries put paid to what was looking as an outstanding career.

I've heard he's signing a new contract, but on hugely reduced terms. Personally, I would've let him go. Especially if we bring in tanginoa.

Common myth. Missed at a rate of 7.6%, comparable to Farrell and McQueen (6.72 & 7.9) significantly better than Bachelor (12.09) but far behind Bateman (5.13), who granted spent a lot of time in the middle, where misses are less frequent, statistically.

Currie is a cross between a back and a forward and needs a strong pack to perform at his best. When you are short of props like last night this is what you get.

I am much more concerned about the back up of our forwards even though we thought we had lots at the start of the season. The fact that our coach won't select our youngsters says so much.
& so does the composition of our bench. We are always likely to be short of a few of our better players & it is going to bite us in the bottom. Currie & Nicholson are fine & it would be good to be able to give them a few minutes rest every now & again.

I don't give a stuff about stats. There was umpteen occasions last season where the opposition were heading for the try line and currie made no attempt to stop them despite being in attendance.

But this is the same going back to last season! Currie was getting criticised from all angles for not being effective, as was Peanut. Backrowers and centres require defences to be pulled towards the middles to create one on ones or gapes on the edges.
If currie has to come in to share prop work, he isn’t being used to his forte. He fatigues, he’s out of position etc.

Put him behind a dominant pack, both him and Nicholson are
Internationals!!
I said behind a top pack Currie will be an England international again, and I was right. It’s not his job to be a prop.

If that was even close to being true, why is he getting picked?

How many players could you say that about over the years, countless.

The suggestion is that Currie is actively avoiding tacking and deliberately conceding. In an era where the games are recorded and analysis undertaken by a suite of people, how, if it was true, can he still get picked?

The truth is, that’s nonsense. There are times where defenders will do different things (instead of sliding, they get drawn to the ball, see Walker last night), but that is not a deliberate act and often isn’t even that persons fault. Back to the Walker example, I think it was Clark that didn’t slide where he should, Walker did the right thing. If you scrutinise it, Clark is at fault, but first glance you look and think Walker had fell for a dummy or not got his man.

watch havards try for Wigan at the hj last year, that's a prime example of what I'm talking about.

Is that the one where Williams shoots out of the line, runs in-front of Currie but pulled out without putting a hand on him?

That’s what I mean about players doing the same thing. The job is there, given that numbers were short, is either all to shoot in, or to quick slide off. If everyone went in, Havard would be Williams’ man. If everyone was to slide, with the pass being so far in front of the line, Currie could have started to slide off and Thewlis could have had led the contact on Havard given the momentum of his slide.

It’s tough to attribute blame to one player when a system fails. It’s just plain wrong to say that someone deliberately missed tackles. That’s just match fixing.

nope, it's where havard runs straight under the post and currie just puts his arm in front of him, no attempt to tackle.

You don't need to go back to last season. Just have a watch of sneyd's try for Salford a few weeks back.