Thought Houghton played well tonight. The issue for the Morley try was the mis read by Fitz to step too far out of the line and expose Houghton one on one.

Agree. He needs spelling and using more effectively.

hopefully with horne and long back he can be spelled with berro at 9.

That will almost certainly happen.

Houghton needs to freshen up a bit and not be flogged for the full 80 every week.

Yup. One thing I thought he might do though is play Horne at full back instead of Hall and Berro at 6. Hall will get tested much more against Leeds than he did tonight and may be a liability.

I said straight after the try, Morley ran at Houghton and Hall, and with all due respect should go through both together for fun 9 times out of 10 once in motion. Little Houghton could have done to stop him.

As i said earlier, Fitz should have been nearer to help the tackle and number up properly, dont think Houghton was too pleased at Morley leading with his elbow either.

That's what playing 80 minutes does to you. A few times tonight we had one of the big blokes not getting to the play due to fatigue. I've banged on about it on multiple threads tonight, but I think it's another flaw in our brilliant tactical plan to run straight at the square markers. Makes harder work for us and easier work for the opposition for little/no gain. I really don't understand why we continue to persist with it.

Houghton played well IMO

Onl fitz did the full 80 though. With 5 props, ours got more rest than wires. It's the game plan that's the problem

We had our 3 main ball players out, when we have 2 back we've seen a massive improvement.

horne to fullback, long and washy halfbacks with berro and houghton rotating at hooker

I would play Hally at f/back again (he did ok imo)...Horney & Long h/backs...Berro & Houghton hooker...Washy on the bench as back up

I wouldn't. For some reason, Wire decided not to test him at all last night. We might not be so lucky next week. Hall's shown in the past that he's capable of having a decent game one week and an absolute nightmare the next. We can't afford any slip ups next week and must field our strongest possible side.

I'd go with that except for washy on the bench.

But with Houghton on the bench we have the option to change things very quickly...I think we need to get established hookers & h/backs sorted to start the game.
Based on last nights performance hally deserves to start again, remember he needs a club so will be out to impress.

Horne could play FB in defence and SO in attack. It's not ideal, but better than the alternative.



I don't agree. He did ok last night, but as I've already said, was hardly tested. He didn't have a single high ball to take under pressure. In fact, I'm not sure he had a single high ball to take at all. We've been down this road before with him - he had a couple of decent games at full back, then followed it up with some absolute horror shows. We need to look at the bigger picture of how he's performed over the last season (or two), and not put him into a key position in arguably our most important game of the season. We had no option last night, but that won't be the case against Leeds.



He's known he was out of contract all season and hasn't impressed.

Well...thankfully we will have options so it will be interesting to see were Agar goes with this one....Like mentioned I would not be disappointed with Hally starting based on last nights performance..although I am starting to get flash backs about him running around like a headless chicken when he was trying to stop Senior

I would keep Hall at full back against Leeds simply because Horne and Long need to be playing alongside each other to gain as much match practise as a half back pairing possible before the play offs.

Hall full back, Horne and Long in the halves with Houghton and Berro hooking. No place for Washy which seems harsh after his efforts recently but we need to up the ante attack wise.

Bench would be Berro, Lauaki, Moa and Cusack.

Player of the season IMO

I asked a player in the Peter Sharp era why we ran back inside at the markers a lot and he said it's the coaches idea to tire their big forwards out in the middle. It appears that mentality has been instilled in Agar.

I'd prefer to sling the ball about a bit to make them work laterally to tire them out, similar to what Wire did to us in patches.

Houghton did well tonight but keep playing him the full 80 min and it will destroy him.

With SL and RH back he and Berro need to spell the hooking role, it's not even a debate imo.

It's not up for debate that Houghton needs spelling. The debate is whether Berro should play 9 imo.

Absolutely, who else would pay there?

Berro could do a job at centre no doubt about that but that would mean needing another hooker, possibly Washy but there is no evidence whatsoever he could do well there.

There's probably no other option this year than Berro. I'd love to see Agar re-evaluate his thinking for next year though.

Washy does offer as much at 9 as Berro though imo.