Have we hyped ourselves up too much or are we just getting too much stick from other clubs?

2 Wins

Leeds
Catalans

3 Losses

London
St Helens
Hull KR

Can we make excuses for the losses to make it seem like we're not playing so badly? Or do we not need to?

IMO we put convincing performances out against Leeds and Catalans yet we were made to look amateurish against London and showed no ambition against KR.

We now face the "in form" Hull FC away from home... What changes do we make? What do we do differently?

Do we stick with George King at starting prop? In front of Kopczak, Pauli and Hirst?

I simply do not understand what the coaching staff are doing with Pauli. Yesterday was a prime example, he came on stood wide right and did not touch the ball for three sets. I counted only 4 times when he received the ball. On a windy day when passing was hard, mistake free rugby was the call for the day, try to grind out a result and we have Pauli no where near the ball, all the play went left. This has happened so many times. If we are going to select him, play him at prop and get him running straight and hard around the ruck, you know like Hull Kr did with Mose and that big lad from Leeds.

I would put George King in front of Hirst every time. Hirst is going backwards.

Me too, not so much a negative on Hirst for me just think King has been good for us.

IMO I do not think our front row let us down that badly yesterday, big Dave was as good as he usually is, Kops did not take a backwards step, Hirst looked strong. Would play Pauli in the front row until he gets a bit fitter, he sticks out like a sore thumb in the second row at the minute and not in a good way.

It would Be classic Trin if we went to the bigger Hull club and won.

That's why, as edited xxxx as we were yesterday, I'll be there.



PopTart - don't do that. The swear filter is there for a reason

Through thick and thin! I went through the fixtures list earlier and unless something unforeseen happens I'll be there, week in week out!

Most apparent by his nearly clean shirt. He wasn’t on as long as others but didn’t get involved when on

Despite supposedly being out of form FC havent really had a bad result.
Ok they had a narrow reverse against KR and the lost to Cas, neither of which were shocking results.
Their 3 wins have come against non firing sides, Huddersfield, Leeds and Wigan, all of whom are playing badly.

On the downside, they are starting to get some players back, with Sneyd and Kelly being a very dangerous pairing. Add to that their size accross the park and Friday will be a very tough ask.

We gave a good account of ourselves over there last season and we could do with getting some more points on the board.

Everyone is dropping points at the moment (apart from Saint's) so we just need to keep up with the pack

Not feeling too good about this on but, that may be a good thing as I've been confident twice this season and we lost both of them.

Com on Trin !

Our so called big pack is not what it seems in my opinion. It may be large but other than Fifita I think its a bit soft and lacks that bit of 'Dog'

Yesterday we started with a big pack and four big forwards on the bench. HKR went with two forwards and two pivots on their bench. They lost one forward after only one tackle and therefore you would have thought that would have given us a massive advantage in the forwards as we could rotate players better as the game progressed. From what I saw as the game went on the HKR pack started to get the upper hand more and more.

I like Horo in that he made some good yards yesterday and showed a bit of spite in the tackle but was only on the pitch about 20 minutes.

As far as King is concerned I must be seeing a different player. He had a good game against Catalan, that's for sure. However other than that he falls on his face as soon as he meets the opposition. But then gains nothing at all because his PTB is slow.

Think we are missing Huby and also Randal to do the dirty hard stuff in the first 20 minutes.


I also totally agree with the comments about Pauli.

Not sure why King mentioned above. He and Kopczak look like great signings to me.
They are both starters in my 17 every time.

Opinions differ that's why !


I will also give you my opinion on something else. When every opposition coach looks at our pack I would think King is the last player that they will worry about.

Anybody know what the halftime draw numbers are I buy one every game but cannot hear the tannoy in the north stand been on the website but Cannot see the numbers there,thanks

All right. It wasn't particularly aimed at you.
You have as much right to be wrong as anyone else.

Hull FC is a must win for top 5 - lose this one and we can concentrate on the relegation battle

we will be 4 points off 5th no way back from there ..

It’s all well and good having a huge set of forwards but if their taking the ball up pedestrian like as on Sunday our go forward is stunted ,which has a knock on effect throughout the team .
Yes the conditions were poor and not a day for free flowing rugby ,but I expected a better performance from the team as a whole
Sadly we still don’t know which wakey team is going to turn up from game to game ,is this the coaching side of things at fault or just players attitudes or a bit of both .

It’s very hard to make any kind of momentum when the speed of the ruck is so slow. I don’t think our traditional ground / pitch helps when it pours it down. Give us a modern stadium and it’d no doubt suit us better.

I’ll be over at Hull on Friday cheering on the lads!!

is Rhubarb radio still calling the games?

You'll find them on the twitter feed

Dreadnoughts

12048
12230
12046

Trinity

56700
57008
57129

Good Luck !

Thank you for that wrencat.

On the subject of our forwards - we're still not hitting the ball at pace, so a lot of their effectiveness is blunted by setting off from a standing start; Fifita can compensate for that by being such a big lump, but even he can't do the impossible. It's not a big ask to have them standing further back and hitting the ball with some momentum - is it?

In terms of specifics - King looks fairly ordinary to me, and he has a habit of running sideways instead of straight, which would be fine if he had an offload, but he doesn't appear to. Kopczak looks solid - and Hirst has, at best, stood still. We're big, but I'd trade 3 of ours for that headcase at Saints who appears to have no regard for his own personal safety.

Seems strange to say it but I don`t think it suits Fifita`s game hitting the ball at pace, he seems to make more impact and yards from a standing start most of the time. If we could get PP fit and give him some good ball he could be devastating as we saw towards the back end of last season.

Completely disagree about King, don`t think he played too well against KR but every other game he has been one of the best forwards on the field, nothing fancy, runs it in 100% committed, finds his front every time, quick play the ball, very rarely gets dominated in the collision, was talking with Johnny Thompson about the low impact point, drop the shoulders and run in the gap, find your knees, very difficult to defend against and difficult to get that style right without picking up a lot of injuries but seems to come natural to King.

Hirst on the other hand although he looks strong but just does not have his running style right, he is too upright and more often than not gets dumped on his back

I think it must be, because I can't remember a time when we've ever done it. It has been one of my biggest moans for years that our forwards are always taking the ball standing still and then having to try and gain some momentum rather than taking it at pace.
Just imagine Pauli Pauli taking the ball when already up to full speed, how much harder would he be to stop??

As for King, IMO he has done OK but he doesn't have the bulk needed to play at prop at the moment. He's brave but he still gets stopped far too easily.

I think for next game I would like to see

Hampshire
BJB
Lyne
Tupou
Johnstone
Miller
Brough
Kopzcak
Wood
Arona
Kirmond
Horo
Crowther

Fifita
Pauli Pauli - If England or Huby fit then they would get this place
Annakin
Arundel - Can quite easily play 2nd row