was on the carnegie terrace 1st half not stood on any lines managed to find a clear space without being guided there

Yes - I'm not sure if it's not starting in the edge middles and then propagating out. Although, Tui's defence has looked poor, and Watkins hasn't looked fit - result = lost games which otherwise we might have won/competed in.

This is where the value of players like JJB and Ablett come in, they don't miss too many and will fill in gaps, although not as well now they've lost pace.

I actually think T Briscoe has looked in really good form this year so far, but you can't do much when you're constantly being pulled out of shape and having 2-3 players matched on you.

It only takes a couple of players being out of position or soft in defence and you've got big problems, as we've seen.

We do have the option of switching Hurrell to right centre, which is where he's played mostly, but whereas he's a wrecking ball one on one, he does have positional brain farts and I'm not sure we'd be solving the problem. Also, teams can just look on the other side and see Watkins and Handley...

First job is to sort out the second rowers, you absolutely need to be able to tackle and position well, I'm not sure Sutcliffe fits the bill. We then need to decide on how much patience to show with Watkins - probably, the answer is as much as it takes since we don't run a reserve grade...

If you really think Jjb or Ablett could fill those gaps mate then you're watvhing different players to me.
Both are "shot" in terms of pace & laterall movement.
Jjb will always give his all but is gassed after 15 minutes & plays more in the middle. Wrt Abbo anyone with a step will waltz round him after he's been on the pitch for more than 10 minutes.

Wakey have been referred to as a team of misfits but sometimes I think that this could apply to us, especially in the forwards. Our middle defence is taking a pounding as we continue to play (arguably) a pack of back rowers with no sizeable props. They may not be world beaters but Fifita, King, Hirst, Kopczak are all big props with Pauli Pauli and Arona as options as well and they all contributed.
Similarly I think that the second half no show at Saints was due to their middle forwards stepping up their game and we couldn't match it.

Meanwhile we have Merrin who looked far better at loose forward against Salford along with Peteru, Cuthbertson and even Singleton who would all arguably be better suited to back row positions as well. I can't remember which match it was but I do recall Singleton having a spell at loose forward last season where he had a bit more freedom to run wide of the centre ruck and looked better for it. I'm a big fan of Stevie Ward but to play him at loose forward is asking for trouble as in my opinion the current game has no place for smaller ball playing loose forwards. Harry Pinner would get mullered whilst strolling around trying to sell his dummies these days! As for Sutty, I really want him to succeed having come through our academy and statistically it looks like he is doing okay (30 tackles and 70 metres against Wakey) but so far he does not look the part in the second row and if I was an opposition fan then I would not see him as a threat at all.

I respect others' opinions about the halves and shoring up the wide defence but for me it all has to start with fixing our problems in the middle. I really hope that we can keep the current academy crop together and look forward to seeing a young, hungry, formidable and BIG pack in 4/5 years time.

I think Ablett is more mobile of the two, but I don't recall us conceding as many breaks down the edges with those two previously. I'm not saying it's an ideal option, but it's better than Sutcliffe (who is mobile).

Out of interest, who would you play on that right hand side as an alternative?

Was it just me or did the sin binning of Merrin seem a bit harsh. I'm sure referees used to give a penalty and then another 10m if persistent. The SB looked like a little bit of an over reaction

Yep agree with this. Once we have the pack sorted, we can make fairer judgements on the rest of the side, but without a decent platform we're on a hiding to nothing. The pack simply aren't good enough players at the moment, when all is said and done.

The policy of going for tall, fairly mobile forwards hasn't worked well for years, and isn't even working in the reduced interchange environment this year. We don't offer any real variety of threat.

I think what we'll see this year is just a continuation of patchy results, because the pack we have will be able to get up and match opposition every so often, but usually not.

It's a little depressing, but I think your 4-5 year timescale is probably about right when you look at how young the academy prospects are, and of course not everyone will make the step up to open age.

Nah the ref was bang on. You can't start waving your arms and marching towards the ref like that, gobbing off. It sounded like Merrin was still chirping after the penalty was given, and the ref just lost patience - the decision to go to the back pocket seemed to happen after the ref was on the mark?

Is it Kendal? Probably my favourite referee at the moment, but he is an authoritarian and if you show a lack of respect you'll get pinged, as it should be.

I actually couldn't see what Merrin was so angry about tbh.

Id switch Tui & Myler & put Cam Smith as Right side BR.
I also think its time we started blooding Trout & once settled in Sam Walters.
The current incumbents have had numerous chances time for some changes.
I will also add the squad cull needs to run deeper for 2020.

It was holding down, blatantly trying to slow the play the ball down by not letting him get up. Leeds should have had the penalty. However, Merrin's reaction was wrong. He won't be used to the slow play the ball over here. Did our captain go and speak to the referee about the incident?

I know what happened but Leeds his own team do it just as much as any other team and he should know that by now - as for the decosion you win some you lose some - so again why so angry about such a common occurance, seemed a ludicrous over reaction to me.

Probably out of frustration

I’m not disputing that Leeds do it too. Frustration boiled over, he handled it wrong. I would imagine that he will learn from it.

Agree with having a look at Trout and maybe Walters. Ideally we get a couple of “W”s on the board first because bringing young lads into a struggling side isn’t great.
I still don’t know whether Walters comes to us properly, or whether he’s loaned back to Widnes?
Another wildcard is Mustapha, that lad can defend and puts himself about.
Be interesting again to see Furner’s selection for Hull.