It going to take time for the new rules to settle in the minds of players, coaches, refs and fans. Not ideal to lose the first game, but its not season defining.

Its a shame we saw nothing different from last season and in the case of attacking in the final 30 metres nothing new from multiple seasons past. Nice to see King putting himself about, hope it continues.

We need to play Hayes at 7 ASAP.

Burgess is giving Drinkwater a chance to prove himself, but I didn`t see any difference on Saturday.

Hayes will make a big difference once he is given a regular gig.

I’m hoping the attack sorts itself out, Gleeson has a good rep, so hopefully it will start to improve as these first few weeks progress.

I think next week's match should give us a much better idea of where this team are likely to finish over the season.

I

Hull FC are a basket case aren't they? They consistently under perform based on resources and following. They were way off the pace vs KR. Beating FC with a number of their forwards out is not going to tell me much.

This is nothing new for the Wire ,it has been a major problem for the last 5 years or more. We are getting marched down field too easily in defence but are unable make enough progress when in possession. Defence really can win games.

If we lose it might well do.

I will be looking at the self-enforced errors, set completion, coordination between Williams and Drinkwater, defence, team spirit etc. ie all the stuff that we have control over and must have been practicing for weeks. Saints always seem to do these aspects better than us and until we have upped our standards we have no chance of beating the better coached teams in the league.

Question will be how long will Burgess persist with certain players before shaking it up. It seems the likes of Currie / Drinkwater / Dudson / Philbin have carried on as they were last season. I'm all for a settled team but for me it is same old same old. He should lay a marker down and drop for example Currie and Drinkwater for the Hull game and bring in Hayes. Maybe cover back row with Harrison and bring Bullock back. We have nothing to lose and although Hull could easily bounce back, i'd expect us to beat them especially at home.

I thought Drinkwater tried and did ok.
It was clear to see that we were second best in pack weight and the backs always then suffer for it and look bad.
I expect Drinky & Williams to look like world beaters against a decimated Hull.
I won’t get carried away with a big result though because of the suspensions.

I didn’t notice anything different from last season.

Same guff attack options when in the final 20m.

Same soft defence in the middle.

Big holes in defence on both fringes.

Currie, Walker and Drinkwater offering up the usual ordinary performances.

Same structures.

Can’t play against 12 men.

I didn’t get a sniff of anything new or innovative, in this or the Leigh game.

This what a completely rebuilt Catalans team, worryingly.

And that's our first choice pack with the exception of Nicholson.

Pack isnt fit for purpose, neither is the halfback pairing

Whilst watching Tariq Sims put that hit on it made me ponder when I had last seen a wire hit like that.

Likely not since Benny Westwood.

Sort of alarming that a former prop as coach couldn't see that our pack is featherweight. Or even that Chambers couldn't see it at the back end of last year and push for a big signing in the off season. Cue another year of being bullied by the bigger boys and we all keep coming on here every week to say how we couldn't dominate up the middle so our backs couldn't flourish. Even a resounding win on Friday against a depleted hull will be no indicator of where we're truly at.

Think the coaches know that. There is still quota and salary cap space available for a prop. Just need to find the right one.

I don’t think the pack will be that much of a problem, the more we can get Vaughan, Musgrove and Harrison on the field the better.

For me, the issue keeps coming back to the way we finish and start our sets. Our kicking from deep just always seems so panicked and unprepared, and when we are near the line too often we come up with an awful kick in hope rather than expectation. I sometimes think it would be better to just run the ball in on the last simply make sure we don’t kick it dead, every week we struggle to keep the ball in the in goal area.

And on kick return, Dufty is hesitant on catching, and often stalls to hand off to a winger. We’d be much better served if he just got on with it and got us up the field. I don’t want to be too negative on Dufty, but watching Sam Tomkins do it is one thing, he is essentially a half back moved out of the defensive line, but Dufty wants broken defensive lines and a bit of space to run into, this is the exact scenario where he should thrive. At worst, the threat of him running the ball back would ensure that the kick chasers can’t get lazy or have a break.

If we could get on the front foot, get Dufty, Ashton and Thewlis on a roll coming away from our line, the packs job becomes much easier. But they’re constantly being challenged to start against a set defensive line.

+1
We’ll probably have an indication away at KR.

I suspect they would have loved to have done a 'Kasiano out/Mikaele in' move but I suppose Kasiano took longer to sort out meaning Mikaele had to look elsewhere to sort his future out.

No offence to Mikaele who did ok for us but I think we're going to need better if we want to challenge the big boys. We could, also, really do with adding some size to the second row by replacing Currie with some raw-boned beggar like Louis Anderson.

For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.

Currie should never have been given his recent contract extension by Wire.

We are now stuck with him, or we will have to give him a huge pay-off to get shut..

When I saw that 3 year extension last June I was left scratching my head at both the [itiming [/iand [iduration[/i. A legacy of Powell.


I was hoping that things had changed under Burgess but the same approach to Phibin recently has led me to conclude that not much has changed behind the scenes.

Quote ="Moe syslak"For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.'" Thing is we are top (after 1 game admittedly) of the off load stats. https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club-stats

Quote ="Moe syslak"For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.'" Thing is we are top (after 1 game admittedly) of the off load stats. https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club-stats

Agreed. Mike McMeeken would fit the bill. I'm sure the DoR has it all in hand.

Still a bit miffed we didn't get Tanginoa (though I think his medical record had something to do with it). McMeeken would be just what we need, but we'll probably use that money on a 4 year Dudson deal.