im working nights so cant go or watch it live. ill be cracking a few beers open at 7 o clock tommorow morning to watch when i get in. if any nob jockey tells me the result at work i think i might actually take their head off

Cue the Monaghan jokes

I don't want to find out 24 hours after the event.

I'll tell you now then, as I told Brian a couple of hours ago.

Your wrong, Finch plays.

Geoff Toovey springs to mind.

I agree. He seems more heart and guile, that flair and pomp.

Madge has just confirmed he is.

On North West tonight

Isn't match fit & it showed tonight.

Can't fault the effort though.

Got better as the game went on, especially when he replaced Leuluai (who looked much better than McIlorum at hooker) and became the organiser. I can see the Tim Smith comparisons.

I'd like to see him take over kicking duties too, seems to have a good pair of boots on him.

I thought he had a good debut. Once the rest of his team mates lean where his passes are going he will be our best player.

I thought he was very poor but understandably so. Just didn't seem to know where to pass the ball and when so he clearly wasn't familiar enough with our attacking play. He must be lacking match fitness and had to come straight into the side in our toughest game of the season and it made things worse for us.
Once he gets more games under his belt he should become an excellent signing for us but it definitely seems like playing him in this game was a poor idea considering Sam could have easily gone to stand off and Roberts remain at fullback.

Said in the week he should have been played from the bench so he could be kept out of the hustle and bustle of the first 20 minutes and not get tired out with thr pace of the game in that period. He sadly did start and my fears were proved correct as he looked really rusty in that first spell. He did however get better as the game went on and he'll be so much better for the hit out.

The team just didn't look right tonight and I think alot of that was because they weren't used to playing with Finch and he wasn't used to playing with them. To say just he looked rusty would be unfair as the whole side did due to a lack of organisation.

Tonight will do not only Finch a world of good but also the team in the long run.

He'll come good, you can tell he's thinking ahead of the others and once he gets to settle in with the forwards I'm convinced we'll see more good things to come. You can definitely tell he's not match fit but there's enough there for me to prove he'll be a vital part of our team.

Are you joking, he was shocking tonight

Bollocks, he wasn't shocking at all. Some plays didn't come off but that's more to do with our runners not being used to him yet. I suppose you expected him to be all guns firing when he's a good couple of months behind the others? Get real.

load of crap , how long has he not played for ? did he not score our only try ? he was nt up to full speed but what can you expect under the circumstance hahaha i knew i d get home and Finch would be getting the bullet of people , So predictable

But


And as I said


QED

My source was wrong and has been sacked.



Makes a change for you to actually put it up before the event - well done.

Well seeing as I touched a nerve and he actually came through at last (although it was still about an hour before kick off), I should just have listened to Tiny Tim who got it spot on about three days ago.



QED.

According to the people sat behind me tonight, Finch is "worse than Tim Smith and only here for a holiday". Pathetic, give the lad a chance ffs.

Thought Finch tried a few different things tonight, but the team were on a different wavelength, it will improve in time. I don't know how people can expect him to be 100% fit and firing on all cylinders in his first game for about 6 months! Overall, I thought he showed some glimpses of quality and will only get better.

No he wasnt.

Exactly.

Get the lad some runners, get some players on his shoulder and give him time to get match fit and he'll be a quality player for us.

Spot on, it's always the same though with a new overseas signing, especially a 6 or 7. They're expected to hit it straight away and he's at a disadvantage to by missing a few games already, he's very similar to Smith in some ways but better in defence ( which isn't hard ). If I'm honest Smith was a very creative back and had he of been in that team last year he'd of had a field day under Madges coaching, Finch will prove to be a good signing. I seen enough from Finch tonight to prove to me that he'll be a good player for us, we might not have got the result we wanted tonight but you can see he's always thinking further ahead with plays and will direct us.

Remember what I posted on page 1.



I saw that reaction coming.

He was average tonight. Most of the things he tried didn't come off apart from the kick. Looked very rusty and can't help feeling that he shouldn't have started such a big game after so long out.

Showed glimpses and a sign of some inventive plays that will start to come off through practice. The attacking kick early in the tackle count with a minute to go in the first half was a good idea but poorly executed, attacking down the blind side creating space for Charnley a couple of times and of course his solo effort for the try.