I heard that too. I thought their attacking kicks (bombs and kicks to the corner) were very good and Salford always looked shaky when we put the ball in the air.

Some of the field kicking on the last tackle wasn't so good, especially in the final 20 minutes, but its no worse than what Horne & Co have been serving up for years.

If he's looking for someone to blame he needs to look elsewhere.

Surely though it must now be a case of Miller & Rankin being in pole position for 6 & 7 with Horne out unfortunately with an injury. Its up to those 2 to perform in Horne's absence and make it hard for Horne to get his place back in the halves, it shouldn't be a case of just putting him straight back in when he's back.

I'd be tempted to put Horne at centre when he's back fit as centre seems to be a major problem for us at present with non looking great. Oh for the days of Barnet/Domic.

Miller & Rankin need game time to generate any sort of form and partnership plus both are young and should be able to string more than 4 or 5 games without then missing due to injury, no disrespect to Horney who has been a great servant but we know we wont get a full season out of his body anymore.

As for the kicking it was no worse than Horne although he has done seemingly better than normal at times this season however Rankin has been in 7 out the side and Miller only played his 2nd game so they need game time to get up to speed so to speak. Both have shown what they can offer we just have to either show a bit of faith and go with them as our starting pair or get rid as no point keeping them to rot in the stands as it does the club nor player any good.

Radford knew Horne would only play 12-15 games thats why it made no sense to me not to have Rankin and Miller as starting halfbacks with Horne as back up.

Another interesting theory. I guess Carvell, Crookes, Green, Bowden, Watts, Lineham, McDonnell etc should all be backups as well.

Horne should be fit for Huddersfield. So one game missed out of 8 - only 5-8 matches left in him!

Radford's right Horne is still the best half back at the club.

By Radfords reckoning before the season started that sounds about right

what do Carvell, Crookes, Green, Bowden, Watts, Lineham, McDonnell have to do with anything?

They've all missed a lot more games than Horne this season.

I thought this thread was about our half backs not our injuries.

Well you started it!

half backs are always in and out of games, it largely depends on how well the forwards are laying a go forward platform. that and getting good field position from penalties, such is the modern game

I said that Miller & Rankin should have played from the beginning of the year and was shot down because Horne was so good last year before his injuries, now the same people are bemoaning Radford for not doing exactly that!

My point is Rankin and Miller should have been our first choice halfbacks .

Despite Horne being a better player? Shame we lost a key game when they were playing.

And who's to say we wouldnt have won last night if Rankin and Miller had been giving more game time together to form a partnership.

And who's to say we might still have been waiting for our first win of the season? Or maybe we'd have won every match. Who knows?

But they werent given a fair crack of the whip in pre season.

You're not serious.

To be honest i think Miller and Rankin should be given the rest of the season as half backs if it does not work ship em out

Said for years Horne should have been our Fullback or Centre to Tom Briscoe

I reckon Horney would have walked in as England Full Back if he had just been left there when we were crapper than we are now

In terms of current ability and form I would say he is to be fair. Rankin and Miller have potential and are the future for us in the halves but Horne is probably the best half back on our books right now. Give Rankin and Miller a chance to form a partnership and I reckon Horne would struggle to get back in the halves though.

Will they be given a chance to form a partnership though thats the question

They should be given EVERY chance, not one game. They weren't to blame for the loss yesterday - the collective bad defence did that. We had the game won with 6 minutes to go remember.

Horne should go in the centres where he can drop back to FB if needed.

I was just about to post this, Salford's forwards were on top for chunks of the game, ours for others. As another poster pointed out Chase was quiet for parts of the game and Tim Smith didn't do an awful lot.

Now we are out of the cup I would expect Miller and Rankin get some time together, yes some options were not good but who else at the club could have thrown out the long pass for Talanoa's try. The only way they will learn is to play.

If we're serious about assessing their ability they need to be given a minimum of 12 games barring injury. It's no good chopping and changing. There's not much to play for and by reading the comments on the last few pages,most people are in agreement. We need to give them a chance and take the mistakes on the chin and work on it. If there's no improvement or they clearly aren't working then we can't say we haven't tried.

Ranking and Miller should be our half backs both had good games last night both have what Horney had SPEED R Horne has lost a lot of his speed Both the lads last night were our better players To me Miller made one mistake the drop goal Ranking was in a better position to take a drop goal Miller should have passed the ball to him.I just hope Radders leaves them for a few games