Sam was also brilliant under the high ball. He's improved out of recognition in taking a bomb.


Although I like Escare last night showed why Sam is a different level at FB. He'll be very difficult to replace if he does go. I hope Wigan are still working on an offer

Sadly his form gets better week on week and his importance to the team grows but it looks as though everything is done and dusted with Catalans.

As much as Hardaker is a tool and a player I wanted us to avoid when I thought he was coming to play with Sam, I think we better hope he can somehow get a short ban and he will be available next year because he’s the only player in this country capable of coming close to replacing Tomkins. He’s a different type of fullback but a very good one.

Get your money on Clubb for season's leading try scorer.

Budgie & Gildart should swap positions Budgie looks the more likely to bust a tackle and provide a decent offload.

Budgie was class last night and I’ve said it before on other threads, he has the makings of a top class centre. Both those breaks reminded me of Gary Connolly or Keith Senior style of centre play. Fabulous performance.

My only concern is Powell at 7. He has created absolutely nothing all season and whilst he’s always solid defensively, we need more from our scrum half. Tomkins again showed why he should stay at FB and not come into the halves, he was flawless. Williams may not be firing on all cylinders but he’s contributing to our left edge attack every week and a loads of our tries have come from his early involvement in the play. I’m sure he’ll keep improving as the season goes on whereas Powell probably hasn’t got any improvement in him as a 7.

For the love of god can we leave players in the positions they play well in? Moving SP (back) to 7 and Bateman at Centre should be enough of a warning to leave Budgie playing well on the wing.

Sign a specialist Centre and sign a specialist 7.

Completely agree with your first paragraph, though regarding his pace Gildart has never struck me as being particularly speedy, but looked to be cruising in support of both tries, even had time to switch lines from left to right of Budgie for the second.

Just because Budgie came up with a great inside play for Gildart's try doesn't make him a centre overnight. Let's not forget he didn't look happy at at all when he was forced to play at centre because of injuries last year. Let's leave him in his natural position on the wing.

Absolutely. And, come to think of it, Marshall has done similar things as well. A case of learning in training, no doubt?

Gutted for Marshall last night, one more stride and he was under the sticks at the end there.
Fair play to McShane for reading the play and getting across to make the tackle, great effort.

Great attitude from the lads last night and good performance overall despite some annoying unforced errors.

Good atmosphere as well for once, shame about the disappointing crowd figure - hope some of the stay aways start coming back soon.

I actually applauded that McShane tackle. To put that effort in when you know you're already beaten is a sign of a superb professional attitude, but as you say another stride and Marshall was away and under the posts.
And as the poster above has said, the crowd was really disappointing, what do they want? That game should have had an attendance somewhere between 14 - 15K

Yes, the crowd, although perceptibly bigger than the previous home game, was still disappointing, especially considering the weather

I can only assume people have been reading all these online comments about the ever-declining standards of SL...

Crowd was poor indeed and it does make you wonder why. I’d been looking forward to this game for weeks and booked a day off work for it which was totally worth it. I can’t get to them all because of my shifts so a ST isn’t value for money for me. We’ve played significantly better rugby this season though and some of those staying away for whatever reason are missing out. We have a lot to be excited about in my view.

The crowd was disappointing as has been said, for me it has to be a combination of reasons rather than just one in isolation, the Latics doing well, did the Oz trip anger people to the point they're staying away?,a throwback to the dire fare served up last season? I'm sure others can come up with more reasons perhaps but off the top of my head I can only reason those answers as the rugby has been so much better than last season.

Either way the club must be hurting financially if the gates keep on a fairly static number its going to lead to trouble down the line.

That said, the atmosphere was terrific on Friday. Not sure what this was down to (other than the better performances we're seeing this season) but, considering it was a relatively low crowd, it was very noticeable.

If players didn't move positions we'd have never had Hanley, Farrell or Lockers at loose forward (started life on the wing, 2nd row and centre respectively), Jason Robinson on the wing (started at stand off), Connolly at centre (fullback) or Sam Tomkins at full back (stand off). That's just a few notable examples but you could add Botica, Edwards, Platt and dozens more to that list.

To use the fact that he didn't go particularly well in an injury ravaged team last season when thrown in with little or no preparation is not really a fair argument. Let's be honest; he was never going to set the world alight under those circumstances. Doubly so as he was injured at the time too!

If he has lost a yard of pace, particularly as it seems to be as a consequence of increased bulk and power, then a move to centre might be worth a try. With an abundance of wingers, what have we got to lose?

Spot on!! And let’s not forget Tony Clubb - England centre to prop!!

Completely agree with you,great atmosphere while the bean counters wouldn’t agree it was maybe a case of less is more?

And Willie Isa, played the first half of his career at centre.

The attendance wasn’t great but it was only 500 down on last year when Cas were flying so the difference could be away supporters. We should still be aiming for 14k minimum though.

I don’t know what more the club can do. Maybe something like if you’ve had a season ticket in the last 5 years but not this year you get 20% off a half season ticket?

Moving games is not helping to retain or improve the sales of season tickets, im in walking distance and no longer have issues with shift working so im not affected but i know of mates that are.

Well said and not to mention the scores of players in other teams in both hemispheres. If we have a player who can bust a tackle he shouldn't be playing on the wing full stop.

Couldn't disagree more.
Jason Robinson made plenty of busts
Vainokolo
Ryan hall
Pat Richards
You could name hundreds.

Someone mentioned he made the busts from centre position , what if he made them down the centre do we turn him into a prop or 2nd row? Of course not.

He could do a job at centre in an emergency, but he's a winger.