Unfortunately you cannot speed up Visa's. Im sure finding good experienced Ozzies with UK heritage is something TR will have been looking for for some time but it's not easy, and looking at the team they are joining will be very hesitant now. Other than signing asome good French players i'm not sure what the next step in recruitment at short notice is as we have to try and keep up with Bradford and Wakey until the signed players get here. Does anybody know when our new prop Slyney will be fit to play?

No, ACL unfortunately.

Danny Tickle was superb! even at 30, he and Kevin Brown will work well! Yes it was late in the day we started recruiting, but we can't afford to get left behind in points. Still no word about the Bulls situation with points reduction?

Well done to the lads, getting to the startline.
Salford next, an even tougher test, and more to follow. We have a team, Supporters, new ground, tons more positives than the prophet(s) of doom would have us think. I didn't know if London Broncos could even make the new season just a month or so back.
In life your glass has to be half full rather than the other!! Its a lot more fun.

whatever the bulls lose to the RFL they'll get 4 back against us.

Last year was embarrassing when we finished 13th purely down to a technicality....it would seem that some posters are hoping the misfortune of others will benefit us twofold this year...classy

I didn't expect Widnes to score from a tap penalty when half our players turned their backs to the play.

Just seen the highlights. Rea's teams really do love to feel sorry for themselves.

When you look at the side we put out you could note that there are some possibly stronger alternatives to come down the line e.g.

Duckworth or Solomona rather than O'Callaghan
Farrar rather than Gigot
Greenwood rather than Wicks
Slyney rather than Lovell
Dollapi rather than Kransniqi

What led to the huge margin was that the opposition were on most plays making about twice as much distance on their attacking runs, probably about 10 metres rather than 5 metres. They were starting sets near our half way line and we were bringing them down, but they were starting the last play within our 20 metre zone.

They must have chipped the ball over our line at least 5 times for tries by simply out-jumping us with defenders in reach of the ball close to the tryline and putting the ball down.

Two more tries were due to us resting after a penalty was conceded and an individual error dropping the ball within our own try area.

Several other plays were really good ones where they ran the ball and we just weren't at the races due to the high skill level of Brown; tries that were hard to defend against. Widnes have a settled team and they were good plays that we can't easily get ready for. We can't let any playmaker have so much time in future that is for sure.

They weren't running in tries from all over the field which is at least one small relief I suppose.

We look desperate for a bit more size and if not we'll need to be more expansive than sending in a medium sized man 'one up' against a bigger line if we are to compete more in the next game.

We need to also be determined to catch the ball when chipped over and to fall forward over our own tryline rather than surrendering in goal in the remaining games.

Crikey, 10 hours on the road, it seemed like a long trip that is for sure but it is nothing compared to the 8 or 9 hours one way on a Friday night I've done in the past, so I will have to get used to the trips again.

We need 'em both. They are the two best props we have - indeed two of the better props in the comp.

I've only seen the tries on Sky but some of them were awful defensively. As Mark says, chips over the top where we didn't even leave the ground to contest the ball in the air...players standing still in defence if the ptb was within 5m of the line and not even attempting a tackle. Very poor, skill is one thing that takes time to work on, but effort and fitness must be sorted very quickly or it will be a very long season.

Hard to judge anything from the highlights but what struck me was the complete lack of tackles being made by LB, lots of running around and flapping of arms but naff all else. Some of the tries were pathetically soft.

Groundhog Day

Strangely, our tackle success rate was pretty good, compared to other teams and Broncos efforts last year (out of 371, we missed 26, so a success rate of around 93%).

Alex Foster did well...made 42 tackles and missed none (Cook made 42 also).

Think our main problems lie elsewhere.

(Probably Gus, before anyone else says it!)

It seems our main problem was defending inside our own 20m then. I'm sure TR can fix that.

No sign of it last season.

Thanks Stato, I stand corrected...........just did not come across that way in the highlights.

I think the thing with the stats is that they will show that we were making the tackle most of the time and especially on the first five plays.

The highlights will make us look terrible rather than just terrible on the sixth tackle that is for sure.

The reality of the game is that we were losing the collision and that we were kind of desperately hanging on to a more powerful player so technically making the tackle but then either allowing a quick play the ball or conceding a penalty.

The stats will show also that we were driving forward with the ball and completing our sets at a relatively high completion rate.

But they will not show that virtually all the plays were a simple one up pass from the ruck which led ultimately to guys running into three or bigger blokes and taking an age to play the ball. When we did get the ball a bit wider from the ruck the excellent Caton-Brown did real damage.

On the video, we did not look sharp, but that is what happens when you build a squad at Xmas!

He was unable to spot and correct defensive errors with international/SOO quality players last season, so i fail to see how he's going to magically remedy it this year with our current squad.

word to the wise....if you're going to keep on about they short time we had to assemble a squad, other posters will (and are perfectly entitled to) go on about the causes of that particular problem.

Has the coach changed ?

No, but he now has two experienced assistants.

=#FF0000UPDATE: He now has one experienced assistant.

Not sure I'd go that far but I agree we definitely need them both. Was impressed by Dollapi last season in particular

And the Stats' prove........?

That Stats' are meaningless when your being mangled by a better prepared, higher quality opponent!

It would be interesting to see the average metres made per set between the teams. Seems to be that Widnes are making way too much ground per play of the ball. That is all down to our size and perhaps us not slowing down widnes momentum on each tackle.

Watched the vid. Then read the stats on: www.superleague.co.uk/report/9908 What do you make of them? GF, you love a stat.

Watched the vid. Then read the stats on: www.superleague.co.uk/report/9908 What do you make of them? GF, you love a stat.