Our lack of a first hooker is hurting, Washbrook work hard, but his passing is so slow and we miss Hoightons quick thinking.

What was wrong with Talanoa?

However you want to phrase it.
Not having a replacement is problematic. I don't think Washy ran from dummy half once today.
Houghtons kicking from dummy half is also an asset we miss.

Don't know why we can't defend all of a sudden though.

Hamstring. We seem to be getting a lot of soft tissue and muscle pulls/tears which we didn;t have last year

leeds and saints wont be complaining, what the hell has gone wrong, thought this would be your year with Kelly aboard.

Still might be (although doesn't look good) as we had a similar spell last year, it's how we react and get out of this bad spell.

Just watched the try's again and it's even worst than I thought, some of the worst defending I've seen for a few seasons.

Cannot have Kelly, Fonua and Michaels defending the same side.

although Kelly tackled above his stature he missed a lot, something fc are not used to, I suppose along with fonua does make one side weak. are teams targeting this hence the unusual weak defence?

No, we're weak right across the defensive line. Our line speed, initial contact, one on one tackling and defensive structures have been shambolic in the last 2 games

just watched the tries back and your right its worse , mini watts and even manu not exactly covering there selves with glory, I still hope this is a blip and we come back strongly, we have the team imo, time will tell

Sleep walking to the Championship. Discipline , Defence and ball movement shocking.
We have been conning ourselves after the Wembley win .
To concede all those points at home is criminal .

No chance are you sleepwalking into the Championship. You are missing some key players who are massive for you. This is essentially the same team as last year with a couple of additions. While my opinion of Kelly as an individual is pretty low as a player he is a quality player (sometimes). To be fair your starting 17 is very good as proved last season, however you were also fortunate in relatively few injuries, especially to key players. This year you are suffering them. On the bright side you did seem to run out of steam in the latter stages, the enforced rest for these players may be a blessing in disguise come the business end of the year.

Drama queen alert.

Unless we fall off a cliff and continue to have injuries and sin binnings every game I can't see that happening, it is a concern that we have not being firing anything like last season. Against salford and Catalans last year in the first two games we really looked cohesive especially in attack, this years start has being decidely average apart from some individual magic from kelly for example.

The opposition haven't gotten any better we are noticeably worse.
We have a better balanced squad this year IMHO and no 10-15 minute stints from Pritchard in the wrong position or leaving a junior squad forward on the bench like Thompson/AN other for 50/60 minutes which happened last year and season before which puts pressure on the other forwards.

Players don't just lose their ability to pass/make decisions so not sure why we are going backwards at a rate of knots. Not interested in injuries being the excuse, we still have 13 very capable players on the pitch and they simply aren't doing what we know they can.
Mental preparation seems lacking and mental fatigue is there in droves which leads to mistake after mistake and from that physical fatigue/panic and then more mistakes by which point even the most basic aspects of rugby have left them.

As another poster put it, Radford IS an average coach, he just enjoyed a great period with some motivated players but an over the cap squad last season with few injuries but so far this season (as per 2014/2015) has shown no indications of being able to change matters when we get a few injured and our game goes to pot.
I think we will edge Leigh on Monday and TBH we really need the win before the games afterwards or this could be a miserable mid season slump.

Radders looks a bit fraught in his post match interview.
Think he might have been throwing a few fooks into the boys.

Good post imo

I wouldnt worry too much if I were you, its about time we slapped one of the big boys, you just got unlucky

Anyone see what happened when your player got sinbinned at the end? and why Sutcliffe was taken off?
Couldnt see it properly, heard someone dropped an elbow, but surely that would be a red? (Unless Child bottled it again)

Defence is always the barometer of any side
Defence at home is an even bigger barometer
Would I be concerned ? - I'd have a sleepless night
Is Adam concerned ? You bet

We've had the cue on the rack since CC final

Who's fault is that ?

Maybe Radford's comments after the Wigan game, regarding some individuals
pre-game preparation is rearing its ugly head? - or just maybe time to lock Radford
out the dressing room again...

Manu shin binned for a shoulder charge but judging by the reaction of the players, complained to Childs to a man, it was a dodgy decision.

The balance of the team doesn't look right. I think losing our winger was a big blow as we had to play our interchange hooker there.
I know Pritchard wasn't value for money, but he added impact and gave teams something to think about. We just don't have any impact off the bench.
Thompson is ineffective for me and I'd rather see Hadley on the bench and Thompson out on loan.
I feel as though I've spent the last 160 minutes in games just watching the oppositions attacking moves. I've not seen my own team play anything other than catch up panicky rugby for 20 minutes after each half time.
We had players back this week as well. Not panic stations yet, but conceding 100+ points in two home games is something I wouldn't have imagined last season.

I got bored yesterday of watching us just pass the ball the full length of the line, through literally every pair of hands, only for Griffin to have no option but a drop off pass to Talanoa (later Connor) who had to run back inside due to no space on the outside. No dummy runners or cut out passes, Just one pair of hands to the next (and at a very slow pace) We rarely give our winger a free run in to the line from 20 metres out like other teams can do.

Really struggling without Houghton as it all starts with him.

Strange how a couple of years ago, according to some on here, Houghton was the reason why we were losing games.

It was always a massive gamble having a squad with one specialist experienced hooker.

Shame we didn't sign O'Brien.

As good as he is he is not the be all and end all.
He would have no bearing on the slow passing from 1 wing to the other, the stupid penalties we needlessly give away, the poor ball retention and inability to complete a full set, the petulance of Fonua I could go on.
Yes his scoots from dummy half are good but i doubt any one would go with him and although he is a tackling machine he cannot cover every blade of grass.
Until we start competing and playing as a team with energy and enthusiasm and discover an attacking threat we are knackered with or without him.