I'm a big believer that when you have a halfback change you should be giving your new pairing as much game time together as possible. With Heremaia again playing with Holdsworth it strongly looks like that was Gentle's first thought, in which case if he does change to Seymour and Holdsworth (which I sincerely hope), it is now imperative that they play together against York, and preferably for as close to 80 minutes as possible.

I didn't actually go today, but I thought similar last week (I was one of the few who thought Seymour was better than Heremaia in that game) and last year. I'm not knocking Heremaia, I think he's a very good hooker, but exactly that; a hooker not a halfback.

Yep, particularly as Holdsworth's only just got here.

Your club has had years to sort the major problem the team has, missing a scrum half since Cooke left. Adam promised but failed to deliver!

We'll just set a load of flares off instead

Cooke was a 6 or 13...the problem is from when we let Brough go,at the time the right thing to do.So its APs fault that we couldnt get a permit or that we got gazzumped????/.....take it Dobson played well seeing as your mentioning s/halfs......we should have kept Goldie...then he can play ring a ring a roses with dobbo again.

Didn't go today but the response was obvious. If we win a friendly against rovers then it's an indication we're going to the GF in October, lose and the season is over before it starts.

It's a friendly and meaningless.

As for the team, IMO we're weaker than last year. We've lost big players in manu and moa and not replaced like for like, arundel and crooks is a weak (and small) centre/wing partnership, our new FB isn't very good and we still don't have a half back. Still, we could get 5th with a decent injury run but will struggle if we lose a couple of front line forwards.

rovers have a big pack nad it sounds like we struggled to hold them today but firmer grounds and warmer weather should even that advantage out.

Whatever, we're a long way from a championship winning side

Have to say I thought we lacked the impact that Sam would have given us and really do think that at this stage Young Crooks & Lineham are a better option than Arundel & Crookes just a little less experienced but they both have pace to burn

Think Ellis will off set the loss of Manu once the rest of the team wake up and support him for him to get the offload away

Agree with that. I know shirt numbers mean nowt, but I thought Crookes and Lineham may be a better 2 & 3 combo

Don't know why you think that but imo he's been good overall in the two games he's played. Really like the look of him with ball in hand and returning the ball.

Paul Cullen - Peter Gentle -Paul Cullen - Peter..................et al

I really thought we would have won today and kept them to 2 tries or less , that is what I would have thought a Top 4 side at home to a bottom 4 side would do. KR have about £400,000 of salary cap left don't they ?

These are my initial thoughts as soon as I heard the result.

I hope we SMASH Leeds and yes as the Thread states there are things to iron out

Might be the only thing you set alight this season... if you play like that

Rovers are deffinitely not a bottom four club. Widnes, Castleford, Salford, London, Wakefield and Bradford are all worse than KR imo.

I reckon Wakey will be in the playoffs, TBH.

It's definitely close between Rovers and Wakey, although I just think that Rovers have the edge especially in attack. It's between them two for the last play off spot.

Today was disappointing but its not the end of the world. However there is work to be done before we face Leeds in two weeks.

We conceded three tries from Dobson kicks on the last tackle.To be fair we have always been rubbish at defending kicks to the corner and we need to learn how to do it.

McDonnell needs to practise catching bombs.

In the two games I've seen Holdsworth has not impressed me. He was better with Seymour, who had his best game for a while and I think they should be our starting halves and we should train on the basis that they will be.

I thought e missed Willie Manu today. Ellis runs hard and tackles hard but he's not explosive like Manu and nor is anyone else in the team.

Hopefully today will be a wake up call for the lads and they'll be much improved at Leeds.

Haven't seen Rovers play so obviously can't comment too much, but on paper I think Rovers will be about 10th again. Of those you listed I also think London will be better now they've got rid of Powell, & Bradford are quite an unknown quantity who are probably the most difficult to call in the whole of SL.

I also think Wakey might be 7th, not just sneaking into the playoffs. I have a suspicion Hudds may go backwards alarmingly this year.

Tim smith may have broken a leg today so that will massively impact on their season if that's confirmed

Today was disappointing but we will be sharper for the run out it is not the end of the world. This is probably the wake up call that we needed before the start of the season and is that not what friendlies are for?

I thought defensively we were good for most part of the game also Seymour seemed to have his best game for a while and we just got to hope he continues in form. I was impressed with Johnson and looks like we have got a good buy. McDonnell did let the ball bounce a few times but i am sure Gentle will sort this out and tell him not to let it bounce but he should know this his self.

The most important thing was we never got any injuries from the game which is a massive positive. We have got two weeks to put it right for the Leeds game and i am sure we will be better against Leeds after today's defeat.

We have a lot of work to do with ball in hand, part of this is blooding a new halfback pairing plus Holdsworth hasn't settled yet. Gentle needs to decide on a halfback pairing and stick with it.

Defensively I think we will be ok but we must kick better and and create more. We don't have the easy option of Manu as a get out of jail card this year. Ellis also needs to improve and i'm sure he will.

ellis is an experienced old hand, he knows you get no prizes for going full tilt in a meaningless game. he'll come good, and the same applies to a few of the other experienced players too

I agree. I'm not worried but we do have some work to do. Still think between 4-6th for us.

If we get knocked out of the CC in the last 8 at Saints ( just for e.g.) and finish 5th - does anyone on here really think Gentle will be still in a job by September ?

AP is ruthless and will leave no stone unturned - also he knows what to do as he spent many a year in soccer and just look at Nigel Adkins !

Yes he'll still be here, he's in it for the long haul and AP knows success doesn't come overnight.

No Manu, no threat.