Stop being silly now, Johnstone never came out of second gear and what’s this standing start you’re talking about, Johnstone is yet to collect the ball and Briscoe was already facing the Leeds try line and setting off.

Were in round 1 and people want players dropping and moved around already this will not benefit the team players have had no pre season friendlies to build up proper match fitness, players like Gale probably playing 50% fit. L.Sutcliffe is a bit of a scape goat everyone including Sutcliffe himself knows he's not a halfback 6 or 7, but we didn't really have any other option if we threw Eastmond straight in after not playing for nearly a year never mind he hasn't played rugby league for nearly 10 years who knows what could have happened yesterday if he had the likes of Bill Tupou or Tanginoa running down his channel. I think we can compete and cope for a couple more weeks if L.Sutcliffe is with Gale in halves until Eastmond is match fit. One thing I would be tempted too do is name Cam Smith at 6 but let him play as extra loose forward, like what we did with Cuthbertson in 2015 and just let Gale run as solo halfback like Danny Mcguire did for us when Sinfield had to play Hooker. And I don't see the point in Dropping the likes of Mellor he's a very solid second rower imo and were in round 1 he does his jobs tackles and offers to hit a line let a few rounds conclude and see where team are at before we right players off.

T.Briscoe hasn't been "quick" for 2yrs & his brother isnt good enough either.
Onto the game i thought we showed some good resilience after going 16-4 down & scored some good tries.
Our lack of Power in the pack really showed with Mikolaj & Tetevano off the pitch & i think Agar left Prior on too long in his first stint.
Dwyer added a lot when he came on ,Broadbent was very good albeit a little raw in defence at times.
Imo Tindall & Walters should be in the current 17 in place of L. Briscoe & one of Mellor Thompson or Donaldson.

Agreed on Broadbents defence, no concerns atall with it, every player misses tackles and Tupou has ran through and around much more established centres many times.

Broadbents defence was excellent up against Anthony Gelling last season, handled him better than a lot of expierienced players have managed over the years.

The Briscoe bashing on here is horrific. Bet the same people would be trying to kiss his a** if they saw him f2f!

Like your kissing his now spouting off like its still the 2015 T Briscoe?

For the first time a quite a few years, we have genuine competition for places and depth specially in the pack, so Tony smith Type rotation can be done and if players are not hitting the standard then yes we can drop them and give someone else a go. Thats not a bad thing, too much since 2017 have we had no choice but to go every week with what we have, now we can be more selective, out if form your out, have to wait for your chance again.

My point is it's round 1 what did anyone who played yesterday warrant to be dropped if we were half way through Season and some players weren't pulling there weight for the team then fair enough drop them but after 1 round drop someone for basically not having a bad game is ridiculous.

If it’s round 1, you should only be dropped for something totally stupid like, oh I don’t know, sticking your hand out at a kick off when we’ve just scored, giving them the ball in our half....

I wouldn’t drop Sutcliffe for that, but I would let him know such half dness isn’t acceptable. Compare that with the way Broadbent took the interception.

We go with the same squad unless someone is either injured or newly available, but I would play Smith as a ball handling player in the middle, moving Sutcliffe back to left centre.

The “well he didn’t do anything wrong so can’t be dropped” is a poor excuse, even after round 1. Seem to remember Matt Adamson dropped for the 2004 GF after one out off form game and replaced by a young JJB. We need this philosophy other wise we except the mediocre. Mellor T Briscoe were very poor, so yes even after round 1 drop them or at least give them a warning that performances like that next week and they they will lose their place for round 3.

In other news Sean Wane announces his England squad next week how can we be name an England squad for the WC in November now, and we wonder why we gave not beat the Aussies for 50 years and are never likely to again.