Byrne has stepped up this year.

Havard his usual self

Smithies has stepped up as well and he was involved in one of our try’s against Salford potentially two.

Partington should be shown the door. He’s just not big enough to be a prop forward. He has great intensity in defence and is super league standard but that’s at a club like Salford IMO.

It wasn’t just the minutes, it was the lack of carries, not being in the defensive line and being carried from that sense and honestly looking like he was going to pass out after 5 minutes.
I’m not a negative fan/poster you can check my history and see I’m very much glass half full but from what I saw from Mago on Sunday (I’m sure the schedule didn’t help) I’d expect more from a professional sportsman and I think he could do with a rest this week going off that. I’m not expecting massive minutes because we have forwards who can help take the slack with that but we should be expecting a decent amount of carries and yards because he’s not like some of our other props who put up big defensive efforts.

I watched the game on TV yesterday, and his lack of play with the ball (start of 2nd half) was due to Salford starting the half well and keeping the ball. It reminded me in a way of how sides took Feka out of the game, run at him in defence and tire him out, so he is less effective with ball in hand.
In the 1st half when he came on he took in some good drives and caused Salford problems, 2nd half i think he only took it in once, but was made to work in defence. Whether that was good management / play on Salfords behalf, or just the way the 2nd half panned out, i'm not sure, but he certainly wasnt as effective as his stint in the 1st half

Mago is a luxury player from the bench that I think we can afford because of grafters like Ellis, Singleton and Byrne. There will be games where you look and say he’s not been involved enough but there will be games like Leeds at home and Wakey away in the cup where he throws up some wow moments. The Good Friday game didn’t work out at all for him in terms of the flow of it when he was on but there’s nothing to say he doesn’t come on in the semi final and helps crack them open.

I don’t think he’s come here for any sort of holiday. To the naked eye he looks in better shape than last season in terms of the weight he’s carrying. I just think we’re using him in a certain way but after us being so poor last season in attack and us being so easy to handle through the middle, I’m happy to have the guy as an option to bring from the bench and potentially break teams open for us.

No disrespect to the grafters that you mention, but if Mago is a luxury player then we need more from them. I've been massively impressed with Ellis and I'm a big believer in the potential of Byrne. Not sold on Singo, despite others saying he's playing well or I should say I don't think he warrants being our most experienced prop.

There’s Havard as well and he eats the ground up, although there is something inside me that keeps wanting more from him (even though he’s playing pretty well). I do think Singleton is playing well tbh and Ellis is showing some really good signs. We’re in a funny position with the prop rotation really. Against the vast majority of sides it’s now winning the battle and that’s huge progress from 2021 but can they do that against Saints or Catalans packs? (more so Saints) I’m not too sure we will. What we need to keep doing is progressing, the young lads keep improving, the overseas props to get better as they settle and a guy like Singleton needs to keep pushing. It’s an area I’d still like to sign one more in but I do think that’s unlikely.

Exactly this NK. It may not sound like it but I do fully understand those who are perhaps a little frustrated at not getting more minutes from Mago. I just think it's the wrong way to look at it given our current rotation. We have plenty 'minutes' out there. Injuries notwithstanding, that isn't an issue. What we should be looking to do with Mago is maximising impact not minutes. There's an argument above that getting more minutes would equate to getting more impact and, whilst that might be the case at the margins, I don't think it is over a longer period. To put it in its simplest terms; turning him into a 60 minute prop would not get you 60 minutes of impact.

That's not how it works with players like him. I could liken it to saying "wouldn't it be great if Field could break tackles better. We should bulk him up then maybe he could". I doubt anyone in their right mind would advocate bulking Field up as it wouldn't be playing to his strength which is raw pace.

Mago is a luxury player as you say but one we need in our current rotation. We have plenty grafters in the other 5. We have a couple able to make good metres. They are an excellent defensive unit. What we perhaps don't have is X factor. Someone able to turn a match. That's where Mago comes in.

This is where Sunday's match is pertinent. You don't get the best out of him (or Byrne for that matter) by playing them 3 times in a week. To criticise either because they were struggling in that game, for me, is simply missing the point. Especially, in Mago's case, as he had just played decent minutes in the previous game.

I'm just not sold on Singleton. I see the effort and, undoubtedly, he's having more impact than last season. I'm just seeing better output from much younger guys. Byrne and Ellis do, for the most part, what Singleton does, but better (maybe less confrontational granted). I just want more from our senior prop, who's now in the peak period of his career. Imagine how good we'd be if he had two Ellis's as an example.

He finished last season really strongly Singleton, which was over looked a little due to how poor we were. He then actually started this season quite slowly but he’s been playing well recently. He’s blown a bit hot and cold for me at times and there’s no way I’d sit here and say we shouldn’t keep looking for better players but he’s going pretty well overall.

I’m intrigued to see how Ellis goes this next couple of weeks. It’s these games we really need everyone to step up and show what they can do.

Singo looked to be playing bust at times last year and he started this season quite slowly but he is growing into the season and I really like how he has gone about his business of late. He was a big miss in the Salford game in my opinion.

He may not be the superstar in the rotation but he is as tough as they come, works his socks off has more experience and is the natural leader of the prop rotation.

In the current rotation he plays every week as far as I’m concerned.

Thought Singo was mom against Wakefield.
Had a great game.

Singo was our best player in our last champion season in 2017. Does all the small things that fans don’t notice. Letting him go was one of a list of terrible decisions we have made…

Good efforts again last night-

Singleton
Carries-9 Metres-61 Tackles-16

Ellis
Carries-8 Metres-93 Tackles-24

Bateman
Carries-11 Metres-102 Tackles-24

Farrell
Carries-13 Metres-119 Tackles-26

Smithies
Carries-11 Metres-73. Tackles-36

Mago
Carries-9 Metres-73 Tackles-12

Havard
Carries-9. Metres-104 Tackles-24

Byrne
Carries-8 Metres-60 Tackles-15

Good metres per carry from everyone and a real team effort between the lot of them. They’ll need to raise a couple of levels next week, especially in the middle but they should feel confident after this last couple of weeks.

Havard churning out over 100m every week even though he starts from the bench is remarkable.

Still think we need Ellis or Singleton to step up in attack a tiny bit more.

To be fair to Ellis he is only one carry off being 100+ himself in what probably wasn't one of his better games. He's been excellent this season (ban aside).

Good stats from all there. Byrne's don't do him full justice as he carried really strong into the teeth of the defense. He made the hard yards yesterday. Havard, has as been said often before, can be anything he wants.

I love watching Byrne this season. He has no respect for his own safety in attack or defence and he’ll just get better as he gets older and keeps filling out.

I’d love to know how good Havard thinks he is himself. I’d be constantly telling that kid how good he can be at this game. He’s a freak but I watch him and even when churning out big numbers, I think he plays things safe at times. That’s not a criticism, he’s only young and everyone needs to build their confidence. He’s a fantastic player already but there is no ceiling on how good he can be.

Byrne is so massively improved this season as to be hardly recognisable as the same player. He takes the ball into the defence so strongly now and has also managed to eliminate the errors he was often prone to. It's hard to say "our best prop" so far as they've all been going well in their own ways but he's there or thereabouts. The improvement in them is very encouraging when you think that Havard, Byrne and Smithies are all still very young, especially for forwards. You wouldn't expect them to peak for another 4 or 5 years yet.

Havard is a machine. I know what you mean with regards to a feeling that there's more in reserve but I'm happy for him to keep churning out 100+ metres every week!

We have a very good rotation in the making right now and you feel there's still much more to come.

Special mention for Mago here as he cops some flak over his minutes. As with Wakefield he showed exactly what he can do and how we should use him going forward. I don't think there's another prop in Superleague who can do what he can. Keep refining what he does and how we best use him and we have a tremendous asset and variation to our front row.

Very happy with that as our settled pack, with Partington, Isa and Shorrocks proving back up if one needs a rest.

Funny you mention those guys. I noticed the non playing lads coming on to the field at the end of the game last night and those three guys were absolutely outstanding in their conduct. They looked chuffed to bits with the win and were walking round hugging all the players. Shorrocks made a beeline for Brad O’Neill and jumped on him. That is team spirit and is exactly what good sides are built on. Shorrocks could easily sulk at missing out. It was probably the most pleasing aspect of last night for me.

Good call mate, Peet highlighted the togetherness of the group in his post match.

Without getting into it all again, the togetherness of the playing group is a big reason we had all the drama last week and why it was undoubtably the right thing to do.

Didn't see that, but it's really good to hear. All those guys will get game-time at some point, and fortunately they are being used more wisely this season than last.

It was brilliant to see mate. Every good squad needs lads on the outer, happy to play the role of the guy busting his nuts to get in, all whilst being genuinely happy for their mates to be successful. They all impressed me but none more so than the Shorrocks and Brad O’Neill embrace. Full credit to Shorrocks, he’s unlucky in many ways because he is a talent but I get the feeling he’ll always be back up here, That isn’t a nothing role by any stretch and he played it perfectly last night.

What were Brad O’Neill’s stats?

How refreshing is to see a hooker actually move forward from the ruck and run a bit before passing, it's putting more doubts in the defence. With Powell they know he will literally just pass it from the ruck no threat from him

O'Neil was down for 2 scoots 30m
40 plus tackles one miss.
He was top tackler on the night from memory.
I do think he's almost over eager at times and he shot out a little for their first try, it caught Ellis moving the wrong way and flat footed. Not too worried by that long term really impressed by him. Sure he will scoot more has his game fitness and awareness improves. His passing seems sharp and fast good performance especially 80 minutes.
Feel Shorrocks will be back on the bench for the semi.