I thought all the young British lads were head & shoulders above Kirke. McShane grew as the game went on, wouldn't have been surprised if he had got MoM.

Give it a rest - surprised you were allowed to stay up posting on a school night

Yes. First 20 minutes or so in particular, having quick passes out to a wide Burrow at first receiver caused real problems. The miss pass McShane threw to Moore in the second half (which should have resulted in a try) was an absolute cracker.

He was MoM! I thought he was awesome, controlling the pace, kicking, his passing from PTB. I had him nailed on for a try the way he was going (and thought the one he had chalked off was unfair). I reckon he's grown from game to game since he's had a run as starting 9, he looks more and more confident with every minute.

Hardaker was awesome too, saved us 3/4 clear tries, he does look a little lost in attack at times though.

Baldwinson looks like he'll be a top quality player. Solid debut.

Some glaring defensive mistakes (Keinhorst, Kirke), but strong showing from most of the team, Hall, Moon, Singleton, Sutcliffe, and it was great to see BJB back, scoring, and running the whole length of the field at full pace again.

The proof of the pudding regarding McShane is all too plain to see, he's way better at 9 than Burrow has been, with quick accurate ball and an eye for when the scoot is on ... and gives the advantage of freeing Burrow up to do what he does so well.
I noticed McShane gaining metres by running at the offside man a couple of times last night, I can't recall having seen Burrow spot the opportunity to do that.

Widnes's tries last night were mostly gift-wrapped, courtesy of Leeds's defensive lapses ... and there were plenty of those, goodness knows how we'll go against a decent team like Huddersfield.

Defence apart, I have no great criticism of any of the youngsters last night, on the whole an encouraging display from them, especially Singleton again.

Bentham was poor, especially in the length of time he allowed Widnes to lay-on ... men were on the ground so long you might have thought you were watching Union at times.

Another game where the opposition have found easy ways to cut our defence to ribbons. Given that our last two games have been Cas and Widnes, I am very worried about what Huddersfield and Warrington will do in the coming weeks.

I thought Sutcliffe was fantastic, very calm and composed for his age, good speed and strength and he certainly likes to get the ball moving wide.

If he plays like that every week it would be hard to leave him out of the team.

Keinhorst on the other hand was very poor, spent most of the game watching the big screen, lots to work on for him.

Thought Moon had his best game for a few weeks, didn't look injured in the slightest.

Really enjoyable match last night. Sutcliffe, Singleton and McShane's old school kicking are a happy prospect. I also fear the Huddersfield match could be a whole different outcome.

For me it's not the actual tackling that's the problem it's the positioning, massive gaps all over the field last night

But I did think Widnes did some nice passing close to our defensive line and it worked for them

I thought Clarkson and Keinhorst really struggled to read the play last night

It was a very good win in the circumstances. The young lads did well in attack, but made some poor decsions in defence at times, Sutcliffe and Keinhorst in particular were worryingly exposed on a few occasions.
Hardaker, and McShane were excellent I thought. Hardaker in particular is improving a little bit more in attack each game, and hopefully that continues.
We still have a lot to work on and Hudds you'd think will be big favourites on Sunday. Our line speed was good but some of our decsion making was poor, and if it doesn't improve next week, we could be in for a bit of a leathering.
I'd also consider bringing in another forward in on the bench for Minns or Keinhorst.

When we start to get a few first teamers back I can no longer see the justification for Kirke and Clarkson to retain places in the first team on a regular basis (and throw Moore in as well). Both were singled out by the Sky commentary team for making repeat defensive errors / blunders with the ball. They've been around the squad for long enough and would be among the first to go if we need to upgrade the contracts of some of the promising youngsters (IMO).

Sutcliffe really impressed me (despite some defensive issues), and Singleton and Baldwinson looked good.

Not all the kids shone though, and it has to be said that Keinhorst looks unable to make it at this level (I believe Gotcha called this some time ago). He's faster than Vickery but doesn't read the game as well in defence IMO.

Good to see Moon and Hall resume their much-vaunted combination. Achurch was disappointing.

It will be interesting to see how the new look halves and hooker combination fares in the coming weeks. McShane at 9 and Burrow at 7 seemed to revitalise our attack. Early days yet, but with the pressure from Sutcliffe and Ward I wonder if McGuire will have a difficult task to break back into the team when he gets fit.

Yes.

The tackling was excellent. Very enthusiastic. It was either some poor reads, a bit of lazy play or lack of organisation. Too many times the Widnes player went through the middle untouched.

He is barely worthy of comment any more. So average in all he does. When I say "all" I should say "naf all"

Singleton is the Anti Kirke. So aggressive in all contact. Baldwinson looked the part too. I'd like to see much more of both but, sadly, when the missing players are fit I suspect they will miss out on selection to the Big Friendly Giant.

THE HALL/MOON PARTNERSHIP....

I night throw a cat amongst the pigeons here but here goes...

I think that they dont gel

Moon is a fantastic centre and one of our stand out players for sure

The problem, i think, is that when moon draws in the defenders and then passes to Hall its often a back hand side pass at various levels/speeds and Hall never knows what pass he's gonna get, Hall is best at getting the ball in his hands and barging defenders out the way, for me, moon needs to be less flashy and give Hall the ball sooner and let him do his stuff cos alot of times moon holds on to it for too long and when Hall finally gets it he needs to cut inside and then the chance is gone

Id like to see how BJB and Moon work together and Jimmy and Hall, that would at least even out the quality at each side of the pitch, i think the opposition make sure the hall/moon side gets defended more stringent than the other

Yep. I also get the feeling that Clarkson is becoming the mini-me version of Kirke.