We started pretty well this season defensively but have fallen off badly in a number of games. Our line speed is not what it was earlier in the season and we generally dont get as many in the tackle as the opposition which contributes to why it always seems the opposition get much faster ptbs than we do. I still have concerns over our fitness levels. I think the effort is there but I think other teams with better defensive records are fitter and more able to defend with the required intensity for longer.

agree totally, we also have an issue with shooting out of the line by certain players that disrupts the pattern of defence that does not help either

wakey had no difficulty in making 50+ metres on most sets on Friday. I'm still waiting for this massive pack to turn up for Hull who are going to be bossing every other pack in SL

not a lot of that was down the middle you may recal

Plenty of it was down the middle. They weren't capable of shipping it wide regularly

I wouldn't want to criticise our defence on Friday as it won us the match. Until 78 mins we only conceded one try from a kick. That hasn't been the case in several other games this season, in particular games against sides who have struggled to score points against other teams. The likes of Salford/Crusaders should not be scoring 20+ points against us.

On the other hand our attack on Friday was poor and with Horne struggling on his return from injury meaning we had no halves (yet again) it isn't entirely surprising, but still very disappointing.

I think aspects of our defence were excellent, and other aspects not so good. Our goal line defence won us the match, but (as JTP pointed out) they made far too much ground further up the pitch.

They made decent progress down the middle. The week before, Leeds tore through our middle defence at will.

The fact our forwards struggled to dominate was one of the main issues for our backs IMO

I doubt we'd have beaten many teams of Friday TBH. Wakey were really dire

I doubt many teams would have won with 7 key players out, in fact I remeber Leeds losing to Rovers, Wakey and Cas during their injury crisis.

cant disagree with you there , however we were particularly poor that day

All the Craig Hall haters conveniently forget he is still only 22 years old. That's younger than Shenton, Atkins, Bridge, Lee Smith and Ryan Hall if we are talking of English rivals and possible replacements. To write him off as a has been is patently stupid. Yes his defence could be improved and hopefully will be with an extended run at centre. He is already an above average attacker by any sensible yardstick. Agreed he is at a make or break point in his career and the next 2 years will find out if he becomes SL regular or a bit part player but there is a more than reasonable chance he will turn into a good home grown player - something more than useful when salary cap considerations are taken into account.

By all means don't ignore the faults in his game but negativity from some posters on here is astounding - you would think they are dobbins fans with all the spite they show. Even with his supposedly poor season he is one of the clubs leading try scorers and his kicking on Friday had a big part in the ultimate result.

I for one hope he comes through and proves the moaners on here wrong.

always said he's our best option when attacking.hope he improves his defence

Yet Kear in his after match quotes was relatively upbeat about their performance. The game was a dire spectacle, but that was more thanks to a referee who couldn't get the game flowing.

I don't think anyone has said they 'hate' him, have they?

As a matter of interest, and I don't mean this to come across as a dig, but how old do you think a player should be before they show the ability to defend properly?

There is no age limit, just as there isn't one for when they should be scoring tries consistently which is something Hall has done from a young age. However Hall is still young enough to learn and improve in this area which was a point of my post. Realistically if he doesn't improve in the next couple of years his chance of a long SL career will be gone, but he's certainly not finished (as in a write off) yet as many are implying.

I think Craig Hall can tackle but his decission making is poor to stupid at times and i think that is the reason he runs out waving his hands about alot and misses both the man and the ball. He is obviously not a natural reader of the game in deffense like Whiting who very raely misses his man or the ball when he comes out the line but i'm not sure that can be teached! i'd just like to see craig make a desisive decission either hit the man or get something on the ball so they dont have walkins. playing regular in the would probably help this a lot. People said how his deffence had imporved when he came back from widnes but i thought he still trained with us 4 days a week and went over for pre-game stuff on a friday night with the game on Sunday.

He has some world class attacking play in him and i think it would be a shame to loose that and its something we'd regret if we let go now

I would agree if he had made any progress whatsoever in this area during the time he's been a member of the first team squad. He's very capable in attack, but his defence is, and always has been, below the standard required for a SL centre.

Bit harsh, I am sure know-one hates Craig...

Posters are just debating his defence which is pants

the question is WILL he improve???

He did make some progress after his time at Widnes. Seems to have gone backwards again now though. Which is even more frustrating.

how many times has he played left centre this year???agar puts him everywhere but his natural position..just wondered how many guys in the squad would be happy to move into a unatural position and not just one but two as what agars done with craig!!

There's Whiting, obviously, but he's maybe a special case as he seems able to play just about anywhere and not look out of place. Manu has played a bit of centre, which isn't his natural position and he defended much better than Hall. Nicklas looked much better there (defensively) than Hall in his first ever game. All this 'he hasn't played on the left' stuff is a bit of a red herring. It's not the side of the field he's on that makes him a poor defender.

but it is the side of the field where he scores more points,,and at the end of the day thats what wins games