The unpredictability continues!

Hodgson's policy of only having a Plan A, has come home to roost... IF Connor is missing for a considerable amount of time,this will now show his coaching credentials.
Fans point that it's the Halfbacks are failing, for mine that is partly true, but overall, there is no structure ball in hand, no support runners, poor passing, poor handling...
This is the responsibility of either Hodgson or Purtill to ensure the selected players are adequately prepared, to me they look clueless...
Defensively we are superb, but to rely on one player in attack, is ridiculous.
Big few weeks coming up. IMO.

With Connor out, id bring in Litten, Shaul is not good enough anymore and wont be here next season, lets look to the future.

I'd also move Lovodua back to 6 and bring in Balmforth for the bench.

Unfortunately I think gale has to stay 7, he was awful 2nd half, but had a decent first half and is better than Reynolds, wouldn't want 3 new pivots bringing in for the next couple of games.

Think Shaul will start FB. But the rest of the changes look good. Depends who we have out? But if litten did start could also see the point. Not the easiest place to go.

If I am being honest Dave I don't think Gale is any better than Reynolds other than he offers place kicking. I think if anything yesterday showed that we are million miles away with Gale & Reynolds in the middle and keeping either beyond this season shouldn't even be a consideration. 1st half they were both ok but yet again when needed to step up they both failed to do anything. Credit to Wakey for playing the full 80mins but its another game were we did more to lose it than to win it. It looked to me as though we just tried to shut up shop after Connor went off then to hang on. The killer moment was when Gale through that awful pass in to touch past both Griffin and Swift, which Wakey capitalised on by scoring on the next set they had.

I am also wondering if Mau picked up and injury as that's the only reason I can think he was withdrawn during the 2nd half but doesn't seem to have been any mention of an injury to him?

It's tight, but think Gales offers slightly better kicking, better defence and discipline (on and off the field).

I wouldn't argue too much which one is dropped and would drop them both if Connor was fit, but wouldn't want to go with Litten, Lovodua and Hookem against Catalans away.

Highlights make for painful viewing. Their last try really is a pathetic attempt at defending.

Their second is a dubious call as McIntosh gathers it well and finds the floor, ball is clearly pulled out.

Our first try was forward though.

We overall defended pretty well, but the attempts from Reynolds (first try) and Swift (last) are really poor

I thought the officiating by Griffiths was appalling, our first try was miles forward so how he awarded it is a mystery (though he then seemed to spend the rest of the game making up for it awarding restarts to Wakey) the one as you say Wakey scored where it looked at the time to have been stripped from McIntosh, I also think the one's both we and Wakey had disallowed for forward passes didn't look to be a lot wrong with. The final passage of play Wakeys pass was way forward leading to the drop goal by Miller.

We should have put that game to bed before halftime but we failed to be clinical enough and blew many opportunities to score in the first half which came back to bite us. I'm still not sure why in the first half after Gaskill left a kick and Fash got the ball and he passed to Lovodua why he didn't just dive to slide over the line to score rather than put the extra pass to Satae which gave Wakey time to muscle up and hold Satae up.

You finally think they have turned a corner, the performance vs Wigan, the first half yesterday, and then they bring you back down to reality with a nothing short of awful second half to cost us the game yesterday.

Try to refrain from singling out players after defeat (at the risk of looking fickle when we win) , but we had three senior, well experienced players in Houghton, Reynolds and Gale on the pitch and not one of them had the nads to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and get us over the line. You can look to the Connor injury as a turning point in the game, but for me it was throwing the ball into touch off the back of the scrum, all whilst we were on the ropes and holding onto a two try lead. Absolutely amateurish.

It should of never even had come to golden point, but when your forwards cart you 70 meters up the pitch after 4 tackles and put you in the perfect position for the drop goal, you have to deliver. Gale didn't, and Miller did.

We need a miracle for Connor's injury to not keep him out, 6-8 weeks is a typical lay off for medial damage, I don't see where our points come from without him in the side.

Seven missed tackled from Gale yesterday, four from Reynolds. Every player apart from Fash and Brown missed at least one tackle.

We are total shoite under BH for too many matches.
Coaches have always talked about the gap between the worst and best performances that they should be a small gap.

Our gap is as big as was under Lee Radford

We are not getting any better and if Wire were a normal team and Cas were then we would be about 7th again

We are shoite house just too many times and time for BH to go anytime soon

I couldn’t get to the game, but really disappointed at 18-6 for a long period, nobody had the brains to put a one pointer over when there was less pressure, I’d accept if we missed the target, but not taking this opportunity, and using obvious game management tactics, which ultimately would have won us this game is so naïve and dumb.

We have enough experience on the field Gale, Houghton, Connor, Reynolds etc, and if they are that stupid to not realise, then Hodgson could get the message across.

Well played Wakey, a desperately needed two points for them, incidentally one of their regular posters, said of the match referee, he’s the best ref he’d ever seen.

Taylor oneatch ban for a dangerous tackle on Reece Lyne

It was the same issue against Wigan away, had opportunities to put one over that we spurned. Lesson not learned clearly.

Really is frustrating. I've seen other teams do it and not bother. 12 up with 20 to go drop a goal. 6 up 10 to go drop a goal. It's just kills the momentum.

Mau must be injured Chris as he was MOM for me
In any case Hodgson doesnt believe in rotating our second row
Reynolds and Gale are two very poor signings by Hodgson and when you think about it apart from Lovodua all his signings have been poor as the jury is still out for me on Evans who has yet to show anything remotely special

That's what I assumed at the time when I saw him come off as he was outstanding but with no mention of him being injured or carrying a knock as yet so if he wasn't injured then I really struggle to understand the logic of him coming off.

In regards to Evans he has got better but is certainly no Satae or Sao and as a quota player we need more from him, as you say he's not shown anything special and I believe there are players in the Championship who would offer just as much but for a lot less outlay and save a quota spot.

The lesson not learned is discipline.The coach needs to address this.Indiscipline is what is costing us on the field.
All we hear from him is that we ran out of Gas well if we keep giving the ball away with silly penalties and six agains we will run out of energy.
I dont think we are less fit then most other teams its simply the amount of extra unnecessary defence we put on ourselves
There is no doubt that our defence is very good at most times and that is down to Gaz Ellis but i have to ask what do Purtill and Hodgson do?
Whats happened to turning teams round with a short kick into the goal to drain energy?
Is it a Hodgson/Purtill strategy to die with the ball on the last tackle in the opposition 10 then give away a pressure relieving penalty on the first tackle because thats what happens now.

In fairness to the team in regards to the discipline and particularly the set restarts we gave away yesterday other than about 3 really obvious penalties the others that Wakey got were a joke especially with the 6 agains as I thought Griffiths was appalling in that dept.

The lack of any short kicking game is for me a big problem as we seem unable to or incapable of putting kicks in behind the opposition or a grubber kick in to the touch/goal area to force a drop out for repeat sets. Time and again we either try and run it on the last for a simple hand over or put the kick in to the corner but now without the accuracy of Sneyd. Now we know that Gale had a decent short kicking game before and Reynolds also had the ability to do this yet neither of them look like even attempting it when we are on the last in the oppositions 10.
Our game management sucked yesterday after losing Connor with no direction or leadership shown by Gale or Houghton and it was epitomised in the way the drop goal attempts were set up, instead of working the play so we were slightly to the left of the posts for a right footed kicker. Both times we went to the right hand side in fact if the first attempt wasn't bad enough the second set up and attempted kick was even worse. Had we not realised that the left footed Sneyd is no longer in the side? There is simply no excuse for losing that game, credit to Wakey though for sticking with it and getting their reward but they should not have been given the opportunities, had we had any half decent leader on the field in the second half we'd most likely have seen the game out.

We need accountability in the way of muck ups like the Wakefield drop goal set ups, the players who hashed it need dropping simple as that, it goes on all the time.

I go back to the Leeds game at magic weekend where we made a monumental cock up of the drop goal there, with out Hooker throwing it out wide to Carlos, when Satae was waiting to carry it into Leeds 20 on the 4th.

Fact is we must be one of the poorest teams for game smarts, and game management, Gale and Reynolds where supposed to bring these, as Houghtons not assertive enough and has lapses, yet all those mentioned are still making the same cock ups, or not doing what's required of them.

Time for a new spine. Starting with 2 halfbacks and Lovodua in his strongest position next season.

Just watched the SL Show. Reynolds "effort" for one try was embarrassing.

If it's the sky highlights its not clear at all.
In any case your first try was one of the most obvious forward passes I can recall. Quarterback to wide receiver anyone?

As I’d mentioned previously I thought Griffiths officiating was poor on Sunday all round. Our first try was a mile forward, Wakey’s 2nd was very dubious, the tries both teams had ruled out each for a forward pass seemed ok, the amount of knock ins he missed and the pass that lead to the winning drop goal was as forward too.

I think the standard in terms of officials has been generally poor and doesn’t seem to be improving.

Disgusting wasn’t it and gave them a lift when we were fairly comfortable and controlling the game?