I think that is a huge issue. Look at wire with Morley & Carvell, Leeds with Peacock & KL, all well into their 30's.

Also, look at Chris Hill. He's older than Mossop but Wolves' youngest front line prop. There's just no getting away from it.

Mossop has never been the same since the 2011 CC final when he popped his shoulder, yet he struggled on in that game and remember the infamous foward pass to Lima? Not bad for a man who had one arm..
Prescott soldiered on for about 2 years and got slated for that same period. Injuries have everything to do with it, its a contact sport

One of the reasons we bought Powell imo.

+1
If we could get Lauaki right that would help, but sadly I don't think that will happen.

If Lauaki's the answer, then you know you've got problems

Judge away.

A concentrated effort to win the forward battle down the middle, not relying on excessive, unimaginative lateral plays, a focus on smart kicking and it bloody worked! Who'd have thought it?

Not a million miles away from how we played at Wembley. It rained then as well. Coincidence? I don't think so. I will be praying for rain for the next month.

Honestly you're embarrassing yourself. How you can't see the difference between when we turn it on and when we cruise is embarrassing.
Last two games that mean anything we win.
Look how we approached the league and the cup. It's all a plan

+1

Depth.

+ another... Take a break DaveO, i can almost imagine you leaping around the room when/if we get knocked out, you really are a strange "fan".

I'm glad i never stepped over the whitewash with you.....

What are you on about when we turn it on an when we cruise? You are still not referring to your frankly idiotic notion we cruised into fourth place deliberately are you?



Rubbish. The team tried to win against Leeds and Hull FC and had we won either we'd have been third. They bust a gut v Leeds and we must have 17 actors worth an Oscar if you think they didn't.

I saw this coming last week. We are a quality side. We are peaking at the right time.

Give the team, and give the coaches credit.

Stop trying to post to boost your ego, watch without pejudice and ego, admit when you are wrong.

To me, it's just plain as anything that the playoff system is wrong. Once a top 4 finish was secured we've been going through the motions, CC games apart, in prep for week 1 of the playoffs. It's the crap system that allows this. The fact we are now at HOME in a semi final after finishing 4th shows there is no reason or motivation to finish top.

I don't know what you are on about either. I made a comment that said basically we played very similar to Wembley in very similar conditions. Last Son of Wigan then pipes up about his theory its all a plan. Which a) had nothing to do with my comment about the game and b) is IMO pretty obviously not the case anyway.

Explain why it's not the case? Can't you see the difference in how we play when we turn it on?

Another one of the usual suspects who seems to want to read things into my posts that are not there. Just what exactly was wrong with this:

"Not a million miles away from how we played at Wembley. It rained then as well. Coincidence? I don't think so. I will be praying for rain for the next month."

We played the conditions well at Wembley. We played a similar game tonight and handled the conditions better than Hudds as we did better than Hull.

Some people are far too quick to read things into posts that are not there. If I was paranoid I'd think you had been waiting for the chance!

We played nothing like we did in the final. Far more expansive and a far quicker line speed.

It rained that was the only similarity.

And we won, which clearly irks some...

If you think we played like we did at Wembley you know nothing about rugby.

It Wembley we played not to lose, tonight we played to win.

I wonder sometimes what planet you are on.

Give the team and coaches credit, admit you ate wrong.

I already explained why its not the case when you posted your theory earlier in the week. The team clearly tried to win games that would have left us in third. So we were not cruising. If it's all about negotiating where you finish in the top 8 how come the masters of the play-offs, Leeds, made a balls up of it and beat us convincingly at the DW to take third? Why didn't they send a team of kids with their first team "injured"? And why did we expend so much effort in trying to stop them?

My general view is there is far too much made of this idea teams don't play to win the league games and I think the idea a team will aim to finish 4th while at the same time clearly trying to win games that would take it into 3rd proves that notion to be false.

That said how we got here from a comment of mine likening the way we played tonight to how we played at Wembley I have absolutely no idea.

It's one hell of a conspiracy theory to suggest we stopped playing in July so we got the easier playoff run-in

Personally I'm not sure how a team can play to lose, they are professionals, ideally they want to play their best week in week out

Easy, you play at 70%, they do it in all other sports