A perfect storm of things going wrong; missing players leaving some odd team selection, haemorrhaging penalties, missing tackles and bad injuries.

We, in all likelihood, have a 5 week break now and it might be quite welcome to get some bodies back and regroup. We also have a bit more information about where we're lacking. I'm not devastated by yesterday, and oddly still think that's a winnable fixture (Boas had a certain try disallowed that would have got us within 1 score a decent way through the 2nd half, think when they went the other end and scored straight after it wasn't worth us chasing the game anymore). Maybe will help get a few feet on the ground too.

With only having one warm up game against Hull, the three competitive games we've played have in effect been warm up games for the league season. Changing the team around so much is never going to lead to a great deal of cohesion although giving so many penalties away and incorrect play the balls seems pretty fundamental. Having said that, I watched the Barrow v Oldham game and both sides were pinged regularly at the play the ball too. It did seem rather arbitrary as there were many instances that were overlooked as well. All sides need to get their act together on this very quickly.

Having picked up some injuries, a few weeks off might be a good thing but five weeks without a game can also lead to rustiness and lack of match fitness. Our first four league opponents are York, Sheffield, Wakefield and Featherstone. They will all be more finely-tuned than we'll be as they'll have played other matches whilst we're resting. This worries me somewhat.

I can understand Richard Horne not wanting to play too many pre-season games in order to avoid injuries but we can't afford to be half-cooked when the league season begins for real. Compared to our first four opponents, I fear we could be. Then we've got a trip to Barrow in Game Five.

Maybe the Widnes defeat will focus minds and make everyone realise that the Championship is a very tough league and if you're not on your game you will get severely punished.

Why have the officials nearly almost entirely ignored the rule for playing the ball in past seasons.The next rule they need to look at is how the ball is fed into the scrum its now a complete farce.

They don't change the rules, they just change the way they interpret them. Silly, I know!

I can't ever see the ball having to be fed into the middle of the scrum again. It'd make scrums competitive and the powers that be don't want that. The term 'hooker' is probably the most inappropriate title possible for a number nine these days!

When was the last time we heard the cry from the fans, "Feeding!"?

The rule states that the ball shall be put into the scrum from the referees side by holding it in a horizontal position with a point in each hand and rolling along the ground into the tunnel formed by the front row forwards.

Nothing would turn me off rugby league more than slowing the scrums down; it is the single most frustrating thing about watching Rugby Union.

Generally speaking most scrums are fed according to the rules, the tunnel is formed by a props legs so they hold their near side leg back and widen the tunnel, as long as the ball is in front of that, regardless of the direction the ball is going, that rule is met. There's nothing that says it needs to be placed in the centre of that tunnel or perpendicular to the scrum.

If the referees are adhering to the rules why dont they ever penalise the player who feeds the ball into the scrum with one hand.

Quote ="Jemmo"Nothing would turn me off rugby league more than slowing the scrums down; it is the single most frustrating thing about watching Rugby Union.'" I agree with this wholeheartedly. Even by the 1980s, most players had worked out "spoiling tactics" at scrums to cause delays/disrupt the scrum, and they were really hard to police even then, and coaching methods are a lot more sophisticated now. As an example, here's a scrum that formed in the last minute of the 1983 CC semi final between Featherstone and Bradford (starts at around 33:15). As a Fev fan whose team was winning I thought it was a thing of beauty at the time, but honestly it was a proper mess and by no means unusual, my strongest memory of scrums in the 1980 is of constant similar collapses and a bit of an arbitrary wrestle for the ball from the scrum halves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu87pBQlq7E&t=430s

Quote ="Jemmo"Nothing would turn me off rugby league more than slowing the scrums down; it is the single most frustrating thing about watching Rugby Union.'" I agree with this wholeheartedly. Even by the 1980s, most players had worked out "spoiling tactics" at scrums to cause delays/disrupt the scrum, and they were really hard to police even then, and coaching methods are a lot more sophisticated now. As an example, here's a scrum that formed in the last minute of the 1983 CC semi final between Featherstone and Bradford (starts at around 33:15). As a Fev fan whose team was winning I thought it was a thing of beauty at the time, but honestly it was a proper mess and by no means unusual, my strongest memory of scrums in the 1980 is of constant similar collapses and a bit of an arbitrary wrestle for the ball from the scrum halves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu87pBQlq7E&t=430s