We’ve also shown we can pull out dross on the big occasion too. There’s only a small amount of hope left for this season but certainly no expectation. No one coming off that ground tonight can possibly think we have a realistic chance of winning the whole thing. Fast forward to the future and we have a semi final where it’s chucking it down and we blow it because that’s what this team is built for unfortunately.

Our game management from the stands was very poor. Both sides were awful as was the officiating. One to forget.

Asking Dupree to play 30+ minutes in the first half was a big mistake, when he returned in the second half he was still goosed.

If French is a 6 then we have major problems. The next time he dummies and doesn’t take on the line I would drop him, King was getting some hospital passes. Why our coaches continue to put Smith at first receiver all the time and run the same plays is beyond me. We were lucky to get away with that tonight against a very average Hull side.

Asking Dupree to play 30+ minutes in the first half was a big mistake, when he returned in the second half he was still goosed.

If French is a 6 then we have major problems. The next time he dummies and doesn’t take on the line I would drop him, King was getting some hospital passes. Why our coaches continue to put Smith at first receiver all the time and run the same plays is beyond me. We were lucky to get away with that tonight against a very average Hull side. Did Faz fail his HIA? He looks a shadow of his former self.

Few names we don't normally see after a win so that's one thing.

Not sure what game the ref and West Stand TJ were watching. Hope it was better than this one.

Our game management is awful.

2 points won, move on.

Both sides completions rates were horrendous, yet another home game ruined by awful weather.

Our effort to win was there massively but our skill to execute was so poor, the amount of chances we had to win the game but didn’t take.

Field got a 70m break to get us under the sticks in the first half of GP and somehow against 12 we couldn’t score.

Another night of growing pains for Harry Smith, I’m a huge fan but his missed goal kicks and bad drop goal set ups were worrying.

Miski was our best player again.

King and Wardle are very good, disappointed to lose King next year (don’t think Keighran has anywhere near the same work rate).

KPP is better at prop than backrow. Plays much more direct and just runs straight and hard. Shame we’ve not got another good option for second row (Shorrocks not good enough to start in a grand final winning team IMO).

Nsemba very good, I’d been worried about him defensively but he put himself about. He solves the above problem as he comes on and KPP can go to prop.

French had a stinker and literally didn’t sprint with the ball once. We need to give him more freedom and switch him to fullback for a few sets when we have the ball.

2 points but not looking good.

Thought Byrne was good after his weeks off. Ran the ball in hard and was knocking people over.

He needs to be massive for us going forward.

Very poor game. Hull wanted a slow game and boy, did they get it! A mixture of dropped ball, terrible conditions and an incompetent ref contributed to a dire spectacle.

It's not the first time this that we've got sucked into this type of game. Last years play off semi defeat, KR semi, Catalans at home, Catalans at Magic and last night were all unbelievably stop start. When we go set for set with teams and keep the ball in play, we are at our best. Peet often speaks about getting fatigue into the game and he's spot on IMO.

Hopefully we learn soon, as you can just feel a similar night will be round the corner in the play offs.

Maybe just maybe peet isn't the man to take us to that next level of being a champion side.
Maybe and hopefully I'm wrong but can't be doing with another repeat of this season next year

It's been happening for a couple of years so clearly it's a deliberate tactic that we don't take the dull but safe option and play the percentages. We don't drive the ball into the corner for the opposition to try to run the ball out from right on their own line, or try to force repeat sets. I know it's not very exciting but they used to call it wet weather rugby for a reason. We try to score on pretty much every set which is a tactic some teams adopt but I've really got to question whether it actually works for us.

How many matches have we watched this year where the team tries to overplay at the wrong time or tries too hard to make things happen on the last tackle and comes up with an error or a play that allows the opposition to recover the ball and get out of danger?

Teams that can grind their opponents down and then be clinical with attacks at the right time tend to do well in the playoffs but we don't seem to want to play the percentages. I don't see how we'll trouble any top team playing like we did last night.

I don't think it's players going rogue or not following instructions - they've played like this most of the year and Matt Peet seems perfectly happy with it, so this is obviously coached to some extent but I'm really not sure it's getting the best out of the team. I've seen Harry Smith play the dullest, most predictable, no frills but effective rugby in the past. It's not like it's something he can't do so clearly he's being instructed not to and I find it baffling. He's not gone backwards in terms of game management we just don't seem interested in it.

It was frustrating because I thought we were the better team and made such a meal of it. Rather than having a bit of patience and trying to wear Hull down it was throw the ball wide as soon as possible and score on every play. We had some good territory and yet Hull didn't suffer as a result and their forwards weren't made to work hard enough because we just let them off the hook.

It was just a dire game from start to finish and I don't know which god we angered for us to have to sit through golden point extra time after that turgid mess.

Maybe I’m just getting more chilled or maybe it’s because I’ve got far more important things to worry about in life.

Yeah, it was a poor performance but it still resulted in a win. By a long way we are not favourites for anything but on our day I still think we can beat anyone. The effort and commitment was there & we certainly won’t win anything without that.

The Smith at first receiver is one I have mentioned a few times on here - it puts so much pressure on him to organise/start everything that it effects his game and means he cannot be anywhere near as creative and often gets hammered. The lack of a proper 6 kills us sometimes and this is one area where it does - a decent 6 could go in at first receiver and take some of the pressure off Smith. The French at 6 is ok in open games but in tight games with little space his lack of knowing how to play 6 is obvious and causes as many issues as it solves.

Peet obviously knows more about us than coaching a professional side so surely he can see that French at 6 is completely disjointing the team and completely nullifying his skill set. You have to wonder if French's contract negotiations went along the lines of "Sign this Bevan, we will give you more money, if an NRL side comes in we will let you go and don't worry, we will get you off the wing and into the halves where you want to be"

I am sure i read somewhere he was dropped at Parramatta because he didn't want to play on the wing. Somebody needs to tell him just how good a winger he is. I was ranking him up there with Offiah last year, he was THAT good. Big decisions need to be made. No way we win anything with French at 6, he is a strike player who is being stunted and there is no flow to any attack, aside from that, French keeps trying these flick passes that 8 times out of 10 hit the deck or go in touch. He is clearly uncomfortable there.

The question then becomes, where does he go? Who gets dropped? That is why Peet is paid the bucks though, we can save this season (Sounds stupid with us being in 2nd) but some big calls need to be made.

Is there not something of an overreaction going on to a win in poor conditions? It was the first game where French could be said to have regressed in a game where virtually everyone was poor. Every game previous has been a better than linear improvement. I'm not sure where this is coming from. We created the opportunities. We just didn't finish them. Had we finished the clear cut chances we had we would have won by 20+ points! Miski tripping over his own feet, for example, is not French's fault. Neither is all the dropped ball or the sheer incompetence from the referee.

The bottom line is, handling aside, we were by far the better team. Hull rarely made it out of their own half. We win in atrocious conditions whilst not playing well. We move on.

That was his best performance for months.

Played well and ran hard, was better than their highly rated props

Just watching Leigh/Catalans. At least goal kicking is taken care of next season.

Agree
A couple of extra points

I mean it's not like we were missing our best 3 props
Conditions were atrocious
This Hull team butchered Saints 6 weeks or so ago
We need to solve the 6 problem and I fear its too late to change French and go with someone else due to time (it's become obvious Cust isn't going to force his way back in, an injury to one of the wingers though coukd force his hand so as a positive its good that we have options if we need them), French in the wing gives usnso much more threat than Miski for all his yards and effort. I'm not sayingnthe current set up is bad or Miski is poor, he's not he's playing well, but if we play him he offers very little threat from over 20/25mtrs out

If results go by current form until the end of season then it’s likely we will either finish 3rd or possibly 2nd.
I’m assuming Catalan will finish 1st and Saints will finish 2nd.
To win the GF we would have to beat Saints away and then Catalan in the final in consecutive weeks. I don’t think that we have it in us at the moment to do that. We are consistently inconsistent. The one consistent is poor starts to a game.
We just have to move French from HB. It just isn’t working. Not sure what Peet will do but if he doesn’t change things then a repeat performance of the Wakey away could well happen again and very few supporters would be surprised if it did.

If it was a one off then yes, but it isn't. We've underperformed too many times for it to be brushed under the carpet as one of those games, it's yet another one of those games.

My concern is Peet won't move French from the halves because if he did it would be an admittance that he was wrong to put him there in the first place.

We are desperate for a quality 6, we had enough field position to win the Hull game comfortably. It is our Achilles heel.

I understand what you're saying but other poor performances were not uniquely with French at 6. The point I'm making is that in all previous weeks he's made strong progress and because we had one poor performance in atrocious conditions when nobody played particularly well, it's all because French is at 6. We've won the majority of games when he's played there.

It's interesting that there's been, quite rightly, some good things said about Jake Clifford on these boards over the weeks yet even though he was busy being largely ineffective and kicking out on the full etc on Friday, no one is suggesting Hull should move him as "it isn't working". I bet Clifford would love the win ratio French currently has.

I’d like to think that Peet is bigger than that.
Basically we are playing a “project” player at 6 in the hope that he will eventually click. It’s verging on the absurd and wasting a wonderful talent. You can’t learn how to be a HB in half a season.
As I’ve said not sure what Peet will do. I thought Hampshire was the real deal a few years ago but he seems to have regressed over the years and unless he has some sort of resurgence he appears to be very much a squad player who will only get a game at HB in an emergency. It’s a pity young Farrimond isn’t a couple of years older.

Spot on with Farrimond, he looks a star of the future.