I hope it’s not bad but I know you don’t do rumours HRJ. If it is longer term (but he will be back before the end of the season) I believe we still need to move Mortimer into the halves and go with Hood and Cunningham if ready and if not then try Reynolds at 9.
Mortimer and Hutchison are a pair that can create mayhem in the Championship and unlock the SL teams in the 8s.
If Baptiste is season ending we need to move now for a quality 9.

MOM by a country mile yesterday, must say he did not convince me against TWP but hopefully v Batley is more of what is to come. He probably gave more telling passes and took the ball to the line more yesterday than we saw with Drinkwater for 2 years.
Reynolds still prooved for me why he should be nowhere near the No 6 shirt, the lad gives 100% but is truley lacking in the abilities a good stand off should posses, was Mortimer dropped? not heard anything that he was injured, if so and he was dropped it must be in direct reflection to his performance v TWP, was he actually worse than Reynolds in that game, not in my opinion and quite a lot of people I either spoke to or have read comments from.

Personally I thought Reynolds went ok. Mom for me either Mason or Larroyer.

No disrespect to Reynolds but going OK is about the best he will give us, bombed 3 clear cut opportunities with badly misdirected passes something we can ill afford in tight games, and he just seems to be void of ideas, BUT he could very well be playing to instruction keeping it safe, may very well be whilst he is still the favoured 6, expansive play will never do in this regime!

Wow

Do you know what impresses me with your post VL ? you can see Reynolds shortcomings from Vancouver Canada and, we have a Coaching team, in East Stand, who cant see it!

If whoever I say picking the team thinks that Mortimer (and hall for that matter) isn't good enough to make our best 17 then something is seriously wrong.

May be more a case of needing to give Reynolds a run to try and improve, because we might need him at the end of the season. Trouble is he doesn't have the speed of thought and we don't have the coaches to develop a half back.

Who says our coaching team won't try something new - they are sat in the West Stand this season

Safety among numbers!

That’s a good point Leythig but as you say I think he is simply not what the club needs at 6. Also a game where we had over 5000 spectators wasn’t the game to do that. The club had the perfect stage to show the fans what we are all about this season and build a larger championship fan base for the season. Anyone who was on the fence about spending their hard earned money at the LSV this season probably fell off on the wrong side. Don’t get me wrong, it was an indisciplined and error ridden whole team that lost the game, but a talented strong leader at 6 who can boss the team around could have changed that.

Couldn't agree more. Just trying to make sense of another ludicrous selection, especially given reports of Mortimer and Hutchinson training in the halves together in pre-season. Would've given Jonah Cunningham a game off the bench and played the first choice halves, in the absense of Baptiste, then given Reynolds a run further into the season.

Having watched the game on LCTV I agree with Atomic that Reynolds didn’t have a bad game but he just doesn’t unlock a defence with ball in hand. I know very little about Jonah Cunningham but if Baptiste is out (looked like a right shoulder, maybe collar bone from how he looked) lets give him a go and get a halves partnership on the field that can worry the better teams (Mortimer/Hutchinson)

So it should be,he's left handed.

Structural VL. Reynolds set to the right,Hutchison to the left.Never changes.

Agreed Atomic. The problem of course is it’s easy for the better teams to shut down. That’s when a quality 6 adjusts on the fly and opens them up.
Is Reynolds not capable of that or is Jukes holding him too much to script ?

can't be too much to script or he wouldn't keep kicking the ball 10 yard out from the try line on the 2nd or 3rd tackle when we've got a great attacking position to score through a pass would he

Opinions ? isn't it strange that the general opinion of the posters on this Forum and indeed, many of our fans on the Terraces too is that Reynolds, does not have the ability at halfback to lead our team out of this division!
Imagine my dismay when I read this extract of League Weekly's Match Reporter, Steve Manning, of our game against Batley on Sunday!
Steve Manning quote; The Centurion's played as a Team, led around the field by Man of the Match stand off Ben Reynolds whose[u sublime silky skills [/u with ball in hand, kicking game and five conversions from six, with three from the touchline saw him edge it ahead of halfback partner Drew Hutchinson. unquote.
Well I don't know about you, but I don't agree with him

Strange how much a half back's performance is judged on goal kicking. If he'd got 1 out of 6, but with the otherwise exact same performance, it would have been described as an off day.

He was most definitely under instruction along with Hutchison. Quite bizarre to see a 6&7 very rarely within 15 meters of each other in the whole that game. Most passes were right to left from Reynolds to Hutchison and very accurate passes to be honest given the distance.

Both for me followed the instruction and never strayed from it. For some thats not acceptable. But the result says different.

That script with that pairing worked against Batley, I believe it will not in the 8's.

I call it boring rugby that’s what we will play against lesser clubs in the league going through the motions to pick up the two points but against the bigger better clubs this won’t work we got to stick to a game plan and play some expansive rugby. I would have the lads doing this all season so we ready for the 8s

Looking right back to the title of this thread has made me think.
Personally I don't hope we lose against anyone. I hope that Ben Reynolds proves me wrong and that my doubts about our coaching staff are also slapped back in my face.
I will go on supporting my team.
Up The Comics

A new team like we have at the moment needs to bed in and get acquainted with each other. Keeping their game simple untill the are acquainted is in my opinion the best thing for this group. We may loose one or two more games in the league but come the business end of the season I think we will be unbeatable. Even the way we play now we will beat most in this league just because of the class of player. I really don’t understand all this Ben Teynolds bashing myself. The lads defence is excellent, he can kick goals and isn’t afraid to take on the line. It’s not really his fault if there is a player out of position or no one to pass to.
It’s a team sport folks.

You do not select a 6 or a 7 based on someone's ability to tackle. You have to have so much more in the locker than that.

I will be travelling up to Barrow, I will be hoping he has a break of luck and stamps his authority on the game. I have mentioned this before but this is a huge huge season for young Ben Reynolds. A defining one.

A break of luck on that pitch H..

Nowt changes.

As bout as creative as Lowry polishing a turd !

Mortimer on the bench. He's laughing all the way to the bank !

What a top coach