If Houghton is fit I'd play him at loose forward and keep Brown at hooker. Save moving people around and Mint is better there than our usual 13s and we can keep our props at prop where we need props propping.

Good post from chris71. As for players having a dig , I meant on Friday the kids including Lane had a dig. The total tackles he made are far above what he’s done previously.
Lane hasn’t been great the past 5 seasons but who has in the current squad. We’ve had hammerings season after season.
Discipline ? Where were our overseas signing on Friday ?
Pele 4 matches , Ese 2
Yet no one criticises our big earners..
I could criticise every hull player but what does it achieve..no one has stood out. To read criticism that yeah he made 54 but missed 2. He was in a team with young kids against a bigger more talented team.
I speak to other fans and it’s only on here that I hear so many negative posts.

I will continue to defend on here players that give it a go.
Some on here would prefer Jake connor , Savellio Griffin back.
They’re not exactly ripping it up now either.

Think its only fair to point out that most, if not all on here condemned Pele for his total idiocy at the time and since, for me Ese'ese gets a bit of slack as I felt at the time and still do that it wasn't worthy of a ban, same with Ligi and even more so when seeing others who got off scot free.

I would think its fair to say the part of your post I've highlighted in bold is the most likely reason as to why there is criticism but the club should not be immune to criticism either due to the poor retention and contracts handed out which has been effectively rewarding poor performance.

As you say about Connor, Griffin & Savelio, I think that shows not just a level of mediocrity we've had at the club but also that we've held on to players too long, as how many players other than those that have retired have actually ripped up since they left?

Back on to the London game

I'm pretty optimistic of getting a result on Sunday though no doubt it wont be an easy game in the least due to 'mitigating' factors (sorry couldn't resist usingt the RFL's buzz word) but I was heartened by the fight and togetherness shown on the field at Warrington.

If they 17 that take to the field on Sunday play with the same effort and desire, we remain 13 v 13 for 80 mins and remain disciplined then despite everything we should get the 2pts.

Doesn't sound like Carlos will be back this week. Guess it's Darnell and Litten in the centres?

I'd try and keep Okunbor at SR for this game. Hoping Staveley gets another shot too

Liam Moore is the video ref, what can possibly go wrong

Probably be fine, as I predicted they will go mad first couple of games, the Brown incident has probably sped up the process along with the players call last night and they will relax again


Hasn't helped us much though, with 3 sending offs and multiple bans.

Interesting piece from the meeting last night, clubs have been told to stop players stopping the game looking a the ref to go to the screen for penalties, that's one of our neighbours game plan gone to pot haha

Absolutely nonsense about not critising high earner player, look at Carlos and previously Reynolds, Evans etc.

Also many fans have been critical about those players who have got bans.

Facts remind Lane isn't good enough based on the last two years and has been average the last two games, along with many others.

Video refs at either game won't help, no way would Brown have been set off without a video reply.

Don't be so sure. After listening the RL podcast with the Director of Operations in Hicks I was taken a back when Kev Brown asked a straight forward question in regards the on field decisions which was 'Can't ref's use common sense' to which Hicks replied along the lines of 'No, as your common sense is not the same as mine'. Though surely you would expect professional referees to have a similar and consistent level of common sense in terms the mechanics of the sport that they are applying the laws too?

What was also interesting is the onus and accountability is still all very much on the players shoulders alone from Hicks interview who to be honest sounded out of his depth, it was all very much head in the sands and ignorance/acceptance of the issues they have created along with excuses.

would like Balmforth in also for London and as you say keep Danny at loose forward. Think within this current team Houghton shows his worth though like most players hes criticised
With Lane- superficially he look suspect but I think his stats in most departments must stack up. Most players appear to be judged on tackles which is fair enough but if they can bust a tackle or slice through a gap. There are other aspects that many including me dont see as valuable on the pitch
that said i would put other second rowers ahead of him!

Got a ref called J Vella on Sunday,He reffed the Salford/Cas game last week and was bloody awful…gave out 6 agains like they was going out of fashion so that’s us done for.

Whilst I'm also reasonably optimistic that we will come away with a first win on Sunday, there is a slight amount of unease about this (We wouldn't be true black & whites without some unease about something or other right now!!).

For London, there are going to be probably only a small handful of games through this season where they feel they may have at least some semblance of a chance of grabbing a victory and, unfortunately, this is probably one of those few games, especially with our team being somewhat patched-up at the moment to say the least. A win for them would also end the question of 'are London going to be winless in the whole of 2024' early on.

It sure will help if we can take control of the game early on and settle everyone down a little, but if that doesn't happen and the game turns scrappy, then it might start to become uncomfortable for all. The longer London are in the game, the more positivity they will gain, while we (players and the crowd) are liable to start getting nervy, especially if Sunday follows the same pattern as the first two games with injuries and sending-offs!

I think we'll win, but it says something of the state of things with us right now that I'm still a touch uneasy about this one! We blew the title in 1982 with an out-of-the-blue defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage with around three games of the season remaining, and every time we play Fulham/Harlequins/London, the memory comes back to me like a bad recurring nightmare, I've never gotten over it to this day!!

Nice post sir.

I’ve mentioned this before, on one of my visits to watch London v Hull at Craven Cottage, probably the same game you’ve mentioned, we arrived early and took a tour round the ground, interestingly the river Thames runs along the side of the stadium, and made a nice backdrop to the venue, on our walk round the ground the once famous “Diddy David Hamilton” DJ and tv personality with an obvious eye for the ladies, walked right up to me with a blonde dolly bird on each arm, lucky little basxxxxd I thought.

Another time I went to see us against London they were playing at Leicester tigers rugby Union ground, as we went in the bar for a drink, it was adorned with leather sofas, and oak panelling, I remember thinking Clarendon never had such opulence, but the beer was crap, so it tempered my jealousy.

On a side note how well as Ashworth started for us.Impressive

You guys have had rotten luck so far there's no doubt.

It's in 3 parts though. There's the nothing you can do bad luck there's the rotten indiscipline bad luck and there's the awful recruitment bad luck.

You'll beat London easily and there's your biggest bit of good luck. You get to play them 3 times.

Ah, David 'Diddy' Hamilton! I believe he's still on the go, apparently he still does the crowd warm-up bit before the Fulham football matches, not sure if he still has the blonde dolly birds accompanying him, He'd probably be arrested on a gross indecency charge these days!!





We can't have played at the Cottage more than once or twice at most? I remember facing them in a JP tie in late '84 (with Peter Sterling in the side) and Fulham/London had already been shunted out to Crystal Palace by then

Didn't London also beat us in 2003, in the first SL game at the KC, in a rain-sodden night, to kill the atmosphere of us moving into our new home? So, you see, I always get the collywobbles about them whenever we face up, it's another of those banana skins we have a tendency to step on!! I'm really hoping for a nice quiet relaxing afternoon this Sunday, God help us!!!

I was distinctly underwhelmed when his signing was announced, but in the three games so far (including the Wigan pre-season) he's shown up well, has put three good shifts in so far. Looks at ease in either the front or second row so that gives us some options there.

We've barely seen any of the other new signings due to a variety of reasons!!! but Ashworth has been one, very isolated, bright spot so far. Hopefully, once we get something like our first-choice pack out there he can maintain his decent start with us. I'm holding onto any little shred of optimism right now, looking for any spring green-shoots wherever they may be!!

Agree re Ashworth as think he’s so far been the best of all the signings. He’s certainly put a shift in everytime and I’ve been impressed with his mobility and defence as well as his go forward.
Have to also say he speaks a lot of sense in his interview in the HDM it’s a great pity that no one at the RFL seems to have anywhere near that level.

I’ll add another one for your collywobbles, they ended our unbeaten run in 2006 at their place.

The difference now is they are nothing more than a decent Championship team who will not be given anytime to develop into a Super League club similar to Toulouse and are only now in S/L because of the stupid Championship play off rules where the team who finish at the top and should be promoted have to play off.
Even with our injuries and suspensions the fact that some fans are worried that we wont beat London shows just how far this club has fallen

For me I think London will be genuinely pumped up for this one.
We are on a pretty long run of defeats and barely scoring tries.
London don’t particularly have a great deal to lose whereas we have a LOT at stake here.
It is a MUST win - no doubt on that.

We just don’t seem to have a game plan. It’s hard to describe how we play.

Because of our indiscipline it could almost come down to who wants to win it the most as we give territory away with penalties, missing kicks for touch and props kicking on last tackle to name but a few areas where we are generous to the other side

As Harlequins they beat us at Magic in Edinburgh 2010

May regret saying this, but think we'll win by 30+