Not for me.
He's a decent defensive half. That's a long way from being a decent defending hooker. He'd get mashed imho

I’m not a fan of Atoni starting. He’s seems to be far more effective in his second spell. For me he’s much more of an impact style forward.

I’d like to see Rodwell start (who is quality in my opinion) as he’s capable of big minutes and goes about his work throughout his spells very efficiently. He’s more suited to the initial arm wrestle/feeling out period than Atoni is for me.

A fresh Atoni vs a slightly fatigued defence is best use of his attributes in my opinion.

Our defence was top notch in that first 30mins .Toulouse never looked like scoring until we gave them a penalty. I think it says something about your defence when the opposition get a penalty and are in your 30 for the first time and they opt to take two…
I thought Toulouse had a bit of success in the first half unraveling that runaround move we do with Max Jowitt .some of it was our errors but coaches and opposition teams are going to pick up on this as the season progresses and we’re going to need other options and moves to keep them guessing..
We also have great success using the route one approach.when we pick up our tempo teams just can’t live with it resulting in tries like the one Atoni scored..

Lino puts pressure on himself. He’s constantly looking for the magic pass or incredible step. I’m not against this, but there is a time and place. We’d beaten them when Lino put out that silly short ball. Luckily the cover got there, but if he’d been a quicker player they would have scored and been back in the game with ten to go. You don’t throw passes like that when the rest do the team just want to run the clock down. DId the same at Fev.

Somebody should give him the mantra, ‘a time and a place’.

Did you see that Thaler nearly got levelled by Atoni in the act of scoring his try ??
He had to get a real shift on to get out of the way and was laughing his head off immediately afterwards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2N-aE ... eldTrinity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm2N-aE ... eldTrinity

Coming down on top of Thaler would've been a softer landing. There's plenty of padding there these days

I don't disagree with any of that and as I'm not a coach I'll sit back and see what happens.
One for sure we need better service from both half backs in my opinion.

Caleb Uele is the guest on BBC Radio Leeds at the end of the rugby league coverage about 5pm.

We have 3 good attacking player's in the team at present Jowitt,Walmsley and Lino. Toulouse new this gave them no room.As a attacking force Gale and Hood are way past there best ,Thornley is none existent . Pratt looks like he could make it to S L dispite bombing a try chasing a great kick across the French line in the first half. Think Lino gets a lot of unfair stick on here and out plays Gale most week, Some of the high kicks Lino did in the second half were pinning the French teams on there line. With out Gale in the team last week Lino stepped up and ran the second half Powells words not mine with a inexperience spine I Would give Kay more time at 9 and get Rocky here on loan from Wigan By the way the food in hospitality was very good

Couldn’t disagree more with most of that. We obviously have very different things we see in games and opinions on players performances.

An inexperienced spine composed of - a fullback with 100 + SL games, 2 x half backs of. Combined hundreds of SL games, a 9 with plenty of SL experience and top championship experience, and a 13 who has had a very long career in SL? How is that inexperienced spine



Lino had a good game last week but they are not consistent. Though I hope he will find that this year.

Thornley has been bringing some big metres and carries out from deep on that right edge and defensively makes very good decisions. Like this game the right edge set plays are breaking down regularly and that needs to be looked at but the ball seldom goes further than Lino who takes it to the line and either jinks back in, passes short to Griffin or passes to the floor or behind the outside backs (both happened this weeks game).

As for Kay at 9, he’s a utility player and while he’s ok at 9 he’s definitely not better than Hood or Doyle there. I would also rather see Smith get game time there before Kay who will likely be in his final season with us. Kay came on and made some positive contributions yesterday but was poor at Batley. If he plays at 13 he should be coming off the bench like he did today when teams start to feel their legs a bit.

With Gale it’s obvious he’s not in his prime but overall he’s doing a pretty solid job so far this season. I do think we should be looking at next year though but that appears to be Russell. Lawford will come in if Gale gets injured but Hampshire is an option but I suspect we will see that if Jowitt gets injured with no back up full back.

Hmm, so my take on this is we have some players who are very good at many things but have flaws in their game.....which is why they are playing championship

Lino is an excellent kicker. Both short long and high. As well as goal kicking. His defense as a half back is very important and his enthusiasm gives the team a lift. And he's fast. He stayed with Walmsley when he broke away.
His flaw is his pass selection - which irritates me, but is coachable. This season needs to be all about that.

Hood is an extremely tough defender. He absolutely hurts people in the tackle. His passing is good and accurate.
His flaw is he hasn't got the speed any more. That can't be coached.

Gale is a proven talent and he's got himself very fit for this season. He's often the first to his own kicks.
Flaw is age, and therefore resilience. Shouldn't go to SL next year.

Thornley plays right centre. You need to be a good defender as the attacks predominantly come down your channel.
He does that and carries the ball well from deep.
Flaw doesn't really have the attacking flair, though maybe that's a relationship with Lino that will make the difference.
Not sure he's our guy for SL

Hmm, so my take on this is we have some players who are very good at many things but have flaws in their game.....which is why they are playing championship

Lino is an excellent kicker. Both short long and high. As well as goal kicking. His defense as a half back is very important and his enthusiasm gives the team a lift. And he's fast. He stayed with Wakmsley when he broke away.
His flaw is his pass selection - which irritates me, but is coachable. This season needs to be all about that.

Hood is an extremely tough defender. He absolutely hurts people in the tackle. His passing is good and accurate.
His flaw is he hasn't got the speed any more. That can't be coached.

Gale is a proven talent and he's got himself very fit for this season. He's often the first to his own kicks.
Flaw is age, and therefore resilience. Shouldn't go to SL next year.

Thornley plays right centre. You need to be a good defender as the attacks predominantly come down your channel.
He does that and carries the ball well from deep.
Flaw doesn't really have the attacking flair, though maybe that's a relationship with Lino that will make the difference.
Not sure he's our guy for SL

Lino is not a good attacking player that’s the point He was a few years back and still could be, but not now. He isn’t a patch on Gale who’s not the player he used to be. Watch the game, he rarely creates anything, but worse still he doesn’t create much for himself either.

as for Powells comments, I don’t read into them what you di. What he’s saying is that’s what he wants more of, but he didn’t get it. You can’t keep blaming Gale and Miller for his failures he’s had four years now!,

Lino is not a good attacking player that’s the point He was a few years back and still could be, but not now. He isn’t a patch on Gale who’s not the player he used to be. Watch the game, he rarely creates anything, but worse still he doesn’t create much for himself either.

as for Powells comments, I don’t read into them what you di. What he’s saying is that’s what he wants more of, but he didn’t get it. You can’t keep blaming Gale and Miller for his failures he’s had four years now!,

A more balanced post. Lino is potentially a great player, it just needs to be more consistent, in fact if anything I think he tries to hard at times.


Truth is we are picking turds here, we are unbeaten, win most games easily, so what’s the issue. any other set of fans would be delirious.

It’s a new team and in truth a very young one by championship standards, it will take time.

If you want an idea of what’s possible look at the Wigan game. I know it was a friendly, and they were not full strength, but imo if it had gone the full 80 we’d have thrashed them. That was the best rugby we’ve played all year. They will click soon enough.

Whilst only a friendly I liked what I saw, the attack was slick, everyone knew there role, and Lino and Gale were nowhere to be seen.

Sheffield have shown they can rack up a big score, I don't think we'll have the luxury of knowing we can limit the opposition to two tries or so on Friday so the attack needs to be on it.

Even so, there would still only be one winner....

I don’t agree re Lino.

He’s an average to poor organiser doesn’t offer much in regards strike although admittedly he does have his moments.

On the plus side he’s got a decent kicking game and is a reasonable defender.

He’s not a new signing he’s been with us since 2021 and he’s 30 years old.

The fact of the matter is he’s been displaced as the key halfback by 35 year old Luke Gale whose best days are far behind him.

He’s not even standing out at Championship level behind a generally dominant pack. That to me does not point towards him being a potentially great player.

Rightly or wrongly we have to have an eye on next year and target signings for that early. Gale is will be retiring, Russell coming in but I feel we need another half preferably a runner to compliment Russell who is an organising half.

Lino is fine for this year but moving forward he probably needs to start next season as our back up half or at another club if we are to meet the ambitions of our new owners and push for mid table SL in 2025.

When we signed Lino we were told he would take over the organising half that would allow Miller to play his natural game.

When Miller left we were told Lino would take over the organising and being the main half back would suit his natural game.

When Gale joined we were told he would take over the organising which would free Lino to play his natural game.

He's in his fourth season now and I still don't know what his natural game is.

None of us really do. He’s not really a runner or an organising half. He’s kind of in between both without being great on either but has the occasional flash play or shocker play. As I say consistency seems to be something he struggles with. For this level though he is pretty good.

Mentioned this a few times over the years.

In the games I saw him play prior to him joining Trinity he played in the free role was direct and very dynamic he had a good kicking game but he wasn’t an organiser.

I remember being reading the headline in the Wakey express when he signed proclaiming him to be the next organising half from the club. I think a big part of this club spin was the issues we had since Finn and Williams left we were unable to replace those 2 natural organisers.

I think unfortunately we tried to turn Lino into that organiser which took him away from his natural style and now we have a player that lost the natural instinct to attack (although he does occasionally show glimpses) and who never took to the organising role we brought him in to do.

We’ve effectively diluted him to what we have now which is generally a pretty average half who occasionally shows flashes of his natural ability that is no longer his natural game.

Very well said. I think he’s fairly well liked as you can see he’s full of bags of effort on the pitch. Absolutely happy for him to play and will cheer him as frustrating as it can be sometimes.

Agree he seems well liked within the club and a really nice guy.

Digging a bit deeper regards his playing style at the Warriors he was back up to Tommy Leului (organiser) & Shaun Johnson (at that time the strike runner) and then at Newcastle Knights he was back up to Pierce (Organiser) and Pongia (strike half at the time).

The reality is he got opportunities when any of these lads were injured so had to cover both roles at times depending on who was missing. As I said earlier he looked more comfortable as the dynamic runner but probably never got a chance to develop his own style because of what he was being asked to do prior to his time with us too.

Has anyone got the official attendance figure for Saturday's game please? RL Express state that no figure was submitted. I thought that we would be shouting it from the rooftops.