Which is precisely what happened last night. And we were.

Mcdonald had a bit of a calf strain, should be ok for next week.

Fusi has knackered his ankle, I bet we don’t see him for a few months.

I’ll try and cheer up, agree thought Sezer defended really well v Linnett.

Yeh, a linesmans decision lost us that game...

We beat Hudds next week and this games forgotten…..

apologies mate, i didnt realise you cant read

Is was horrendous conditions last night.

Was a baptism of fire for Hooley.

At least Olpherat trys. He runs it in and gets involved. Sure he made some clangers, but we need to get behind him and the team.

It's not changing overnight.

We played awful and lost by 8 points to KR getting the bounce of the ball for all 3 of their tries.

Not the end of the world.

I am concerned about Sezers application though. He's absolutely rocks and diamonds.


Expect Fusitua is gone for the season. May as well pay him out and get replacements in with his and Leemings money.

If we’re going to spend any money it needs to be on someone who can direct us round the field. We made Abdull look like the best half back games ever seen last night and all he did was the obvious. Whilst our 2 insisted on running on the last or just aimlessly flinging the ball about until they’d no choice but to kick under pressure. Brainless play in those conditions and if I was a middle I’d have been raging with 1-7

Some pretty poor excuses being made - referee, linesman, weather, good Hull KR side.
All complete nonsense.
We should be winning that game. That was a very average HKR side last night.
Our big pack should have dominated theirs last night, but the reverse happened.
This passive, slow, laboured defence is giving the opposition momentum and territory and that meant that Abdul was in a position to put up an attacking kick every time and put us under pressure.
How many times were we in that position for Austin to do the same?
The game was played in our half.
The opposition make 70 metres a set, we make 30.
And our kicker is under pressure every time, the oppositions isn’t.
Recipe for defeat most of the time.

I think we’re getting a sense of where we are.
We’ll win odd games and then lose 2 or 3.
We’ll probably finish 7th or 8th.
We’ve pretty much played one, maybe two decent halves of rugby in 7 games, which is a reality check.

I’m not one in the ‘Smith Out’ corner, but the knives are out and the pressure will build.
On the face of it, I can take a 20-12 defeat to HKR, but the performance and ’tactics’ were dreadful.
That’s down to the coach.
He’s supposedly got a reputation of developing younger players, but doesn’t seem to fancy some of our highly rated ones like Johnson and Tindall (coupled with letting Edwards go).
Surely, they can’t be any worse than some of what we’re seeing.

On paper, no way should that team be losing to Cas, Hull and HKR.
If only we played on paper...

You can’t pay a player out because he’s injured to get him off the cap.

Hill KR are a good side, they hammered Wigan at home too.

You can if they are homesick etc and they want out.
But let’s hope we see Fusi again in not too distant future…..sadly looked a bad one though….

They can leave if aa request is granted but you can’t pay them off.

And even if you could doing that to an injured player is pretty classless

Rovers are now one of the richest clubs in Super League and Jordan Abdull is on a long term contract.

But I suppose you could start the bidding at £100k plus Harry Newman.

We should be beating them Chris.

Player for player across the 17, on paper we are stronger.

No excuses for me.

Should, would, could, bottom line is we didn’t. Need to win next one now…..

I’m not advising negotiating release. Would love to see Fusi back soon. Was just saying rumours of homesick in off season, and if serious injury not gonna be easy time without extended family around….

Agree Shabs. Let's move on.
And get some different excuses prepped...

Should we have been more aggressive in defence? Yes. But I'm certain the coaching instructions didn't include dropping the ball, an "after you, Maud" approach to not going for the ball, rushing in from the wing to get in the way of the FB who was stood under the ball, senior pro's not playing the conditions better etc. It wasn't great last night but to lay it all at the coaches door isn't right. In my opinion, of course.

You’re missing the point. Week in week out consistency. Win the next 7 and this games forgotten.

Showed last year that you can lose at of games and still make top 6. I still firmly believe we will, then who knows….

I agree. Too many individual errors last night and they were costly.
But taking those out of the question - are you happy with how we competed last night?

If we forget about the mistakes, the weather, the referee - are we happy with the effort and intensity we showed?
Simple answer for me.
\

Really? Are sure about that? Player for player comparisons would take too long, but if you compare the spine positions: Coote v Hooley - no contest; Abdul v Austin - Win for Abdul especially at their ground; Lewis v Sezer - Lewis is a player a good many on this site have said they would like as a replacement for Sezer; Parcell v O'Connor - Seasoned pro surely edges the rookie. In other positions; did we have a winger as good as Hall? Is Martin really better than Linnett? My point is that Hull KR, (and most other teams in the league) spend up to the cap, just like we do. We aren't just plain better than them like in the early days of the Golden Generation. To win games like last night's we are going to have to play very well. Last night, in terrible conditions, we didn’t and as a result we lost. We'll beat plenty of good teams when we our spine clicks, but it's obvious they are not collectively good enough to do the job every week. That's why this year's recruitment is absolutely key.

“But we made the GF last year”