Just as a matter of interest, just how long was the pitch?

We played well, I thought our defence overall was much improved, apart from the left hand side, Sarginson cannot defend at all, we really need to employ some sort of defensive coach.
We were our own worst enemy in the second half, everytime we got the ball back we gave it straight back to them.
Channing impressed me, he has some defence to him, hopefully we wont coach that out of him.

Ref had a poor game, but when doesnt a ref have a poor game with us? He blew for the right reasons, but it was when he didn't blow the whistle, that's where he had a poor game, seemed bias at times, but then evened it up at other points. So overall poor game.

Gower is trying hard to help the team, so is Robertson, both looked annoyed by the final whistle with the teams performance.

Didn't realise the attendance was so low, great noise made by the home and away fans, good atmosphere.

Orient's ground is very short though, so not surprisingly we made our first 40/20 of the season.

Not sure on other points about the game at this moment though.

Tim.

Terrible crowd

You are quite right, of course I expected that the usual gang would be waiting to hear the attendance to knock it, wonder how many of them stayed away just to Try and Prove a Point, Pathetic! I was told 2844 before leaving the ground and that was what was hoped for!

What a start to the game we were on fire, but credit Luke Gale he came back and punished us, then the tacking started to fall away and to not score a point in the second half is disappointing!

That old chestnut we keep debating marketing, it is pointless totally pointless until we get the product right! are we just going to go through the motions now for a few more months and take it is acceptable that the season is now over? just hope not.

Just back now to hotel for the night, hope West Ham can finish the job tomorrow to make up for today's performance.

Right I have had to sit down, enjoyed the venue and despite the small crowd (second highest of the season?) seemed quite loud at times. Ticket allocation was a joke and swapped my ST voucher and given section g for the young un's and section h for me and told to move seats inside. Stewards not at all helpful when I pointed out half the family were on one side and could I cross to the other section! From a 16 nil lead we should have kicked on but seemed to switch off and started to play one man rugby. Classic example when we had a penalty under the sticks and twice run at the bulls, no idea to try and pull off any moves. Second half, how many times do we come out and in the first few minutes and concede a try? Simply not good enough and lacked any ideas to break down the bulls.

We started like a house on fire. 16 nil in no time and looking good value. The momentum was halted when a fourth try under the sticks was not awarded for a forward pass. Bulls clawed their way back into it using Pryce's height and our ineptitude on a sixth tackle play. 22-10 was a decent score on the turnaround. The second half was all Bulls. They completely dominated and our biggest failing - schoolboy errors in our own 20m zone - ensured that I guess 80% of the time the game was played in our half. Their kicking game was spot on. I have to say I am amazed our defence held strong on so many occassions. As ever some crumbs of comfort from the game but its the same old story.

As to Orient, I liked it. Nice stadium, could be good for rugby league. The atmosphere swung between buzzing to silence and back! Didnt try the bar so cant really compare to The Stoop, but on the whole good stuff.

Robert Hicks game us absolutely nothing, his performance was very poor.

Wi-Fi is not good here! keeps dropping out.

DaftDad & PC Plum I agree with you about the atmosphere in the ground, it felt like a much bigger crowd than it was, perhaps it is being more compact and close to pitch, Bulls fans felt they brought about 150 add to that season tickets, leaves quite a good number! Hicks was really poor, but that as I said earlier does not defend our tackling in defence.

I really enjoyed today and the team could and should have won. I couldn't believe some of referee Hicks' decisions. They were very dubious at times & from high up in the stand I thought he was watching a different game to me. But as easy as it is to knock the ref but I do believe he really swayed the 2nd half in the Bulls favour & turned the game into a bit of a damp squib. I thought we played pretty well too, not withstanding some of the usual & obvious defensive mistakes. I couldn’t believe our 3 tries in the first 10 minutes & felt we could have walked it from that point but alas, that wasn’t to be. I’m hoping Wheeldon will be a asset to the club especially now Hicky has left. In all good game, a shame about the final score.

The O's ground was pretty good too being 1/3 smaller than The Stoop, and a great atmosphere where I was sitting. I had no issues with it and if a move there is on the cards I'd be in favour. Season over for us now unless we perform a miricle and beat Huddersfield in the Cup quarter final next Sunday.

Hicks got most right for me. He was in a good place for some knock-ons and his touch judges pointed out some obstructions and offences. There will always be missed forward passes in every game, be it London Broncos or New South Wales, that is understandable. He was leniant with offsides for both sides so it would be very biased to say he needed to better for the Broncos.

2nd worse attendance for a game v bradford played in London in 17 seasons of Superleague...........f()&king disgrace no matter what way you try to spin it....


Insanity must be catching then..........basically, you're saying if the club state they expect 3,000, and then get a little less than that, it's OK?
How about 10,000 crowds and commercial viability? That was stated by the club 4 months ago..........

The only positive in this is that it has hopefully put a nail in the coffin of the east london scenario....next stop Kent

And back to the game.

First half fine, great start but we let them back into it. Bombed a couple of chances and same old errors in defence out wide. But I will admit its happening less often though that might have been the opposition.

Woeful start to second half again. Neck ache from looking in only one direction. Very impressed by our defensive effort for long periods and they were held just short on numerous occasions, but ultimtely too many silly mistakes in our 30 helped them. Sarginson twice failed to play the ball what do they actually teach them during the week. When we did have the ball second half there just was not a lot of variation going forward. One up and perhaps a kick if we get that far in the tackle count.

And what the heck is going on with our interchanges. What is Dorn doing on the bench? He popped on for a few minutes and that was it. What exactly is the purpose of having the player there if he is just there for a quick and rather ineffectual cameo.

However I will say I am impressed by the pack particularly our newer signings, Kaufusi, Bryant and Dave despite the dropsies. Thought Cook had another good game but too early to judge Wheeldon. Gower is a class act and Mr Witt has either decided to start tackling or just can't get out of the way but a marked improvement.

Ref was lets say unique in some of his decisions and quite inconsistent in his views. Penalised us for a head shot, then a head shot again by us and one by Bradford were let go shortly after.

First impressions of Leyton, bloody good stadium, good facilities, close to the action. BUT must have been close to being min length, made the 40-20 meaningless, as it the 30 mtr line which is the odd one out
As for performance, back to same old same old, cant play for full 40 mins! To get nilled in the second half after the first 20mins is unacceptable
2 decisions from the ref a bit confusing, ball got thrown in to touch by bradford on last, should have been a handover but given as a scrum
We got penalised for an incorrect play the ball! Bradford did exactly same in the second half and it was ignored.

The rest was our own making!

last impression of Leyton, would probably mean the club would lose a couple of supporters, the time it took me to get home was crazy (god help those going to the olympics) Ok i choice to drive but hey ho

According to the interweb a RL/RU pitch should ideally be close too 133 × 74 yards - which includes the in goal area. The Leyton Orient pitch was squat at 115 x 80 yards. I guess that's why the Bulls kicker was still practising his kickoffs while the Cowgirls were doing their pre-match routine.

Our three-quarter line are like the bear cubs on planet live, willing but hopeless when confronted by a top predator! How much better Gale and Pryce look now that they have a good coach. The ref was awful. The Orient experience was a good one, great view, compact stadium and a good atmosphere in the first half. How many chances is Powell going to get?????????????????????????????

Couple of blatant head shots by both teams ignored, then one that was round the shoulder was penalised!
As for Bryant running in after what our lads thought was a "late off the ball hit" when will players learn, the ref has not blown for it running in and throwing handbags aint going to make him go "oops missed that sorry lads"
we still gave away needless mtrs
And when oh when are SL officials going to start making packs bind properly in the scrum, the Bradfurt Loose did not even have his arms in the scrum!!

Rule book states that pitch should be as close to max dimensions as possible, but does not state min acceptable
Pitch dimensions are stated in Mtrs Not Yards
max being 122 by 68 with ingoal areas 11mtrs each end

I know that, but on the Orient site their pitch dimensions was stated in yards and I couldn't be bothered converting it to meters.

Powell has another 14 lives left. Anybody know wht his comments were post game?

Head coach Rob Powell said: "We played well in the first half but you can't afford to complete at 53 percent, which was out second half completion. They were simple errors, not through trying to play and trying to pass - just not coming up with the ball. We did that five or six times that, compounded with Michael Platt scoring four tries on our left hand side, was the game."

Apparently the Broncos coach, Rob Powell, said: "We had the game in our hands and we have let them off the hook. Bradford should not have been only six points behind at half-time after the way we started. We made too many simple errors in the second half and our completion rate was poor.

"I thought we defended well throughout but when you make that many errors it will always be tough. They scored four tries going through one man and that will have to be a learning experience for us."

Agree with some of those comments but one player responsible, rather than the coach being able to change tactics and structures during the game?

Quite right too....enjoy it whilst you can, because as it stands at the moment, 2,702 fans per game won't pay the bills once DH is gone and there isn't a line of other insane investors waiting to flush 1.5 million down the drain every year



We lost.....we should have won, but we didn't. The Club should accept the fact that the coach isn't up to the job and be looking to replace him...

FWIW, I believe we will be spanked rotten in Huddesfield, then attract a crowd of near 4,000 in Kent, with over 1,000 of those in attendance being local kids on freebies....the club will announce that it was a massive success and then we will get another sub 3k gate for the visit of Widnes......nothing ever changes at the club.....until David Hughes walks, I honestly believe it never will.

Back to the rugby...another 2am alarm call to listen to that dross.............I am thankful I didn't have a 2 hour journey home after the final whistle though

First Half was good second not so good

I thought it was quite an entertaining game watching from the stands and not being overly cynical about the performance. Hicks was the real damp squib today. Nice to see us lose at a different 'home' ground though

I do agree with some of your comments but disagree with a few of them too. Quite aware the clock is ticking and frankly feel nowt is being done to stop it ticking. Went to a local pub today and not a poster in sight it does make you wonder what if anything is actually been done. However just once on this forum is there a chance of discussing the 80 minutes rather than the 166 hours and 40 minutes of no planning, marketing etc that is the basis of this club



And for a change the journey was only 1 hour.

Different ground (was impressed with the O's ground, hadn't been there since about 1980!), good atmos - sounded like a lot more than 2,800 at times,great first 15 mins, don't think we had more than a couple of mins in the Bulls half in the 2nd half, same old mistakes, same old excuses, same old defeat from the jaws of victory! And Mr Hicks was .....Mr Hicks!
On the plus side only took about 45 mins to get home - stuff it let's move East!

High Points - First 15 mins & seeing some lady hanging her washing out on one of the balconies overlooking the ground!

Low Points - same old mistakes and defensive frailties and two hour plus journey from Haslemere to the ground