I never understand the negativity towards Clarkson on here. He runs the ball in and doesn't check, he is a brilliant line runner and his defensive work is one of the best on the team. He may not knock guys back when he runs the ball up but to compare him to Kirke is crazy to me.

To be fair, Clarkson really has not progressed as you would have hoped and (IMO) last night he was shown once again to be a liability in defence as well as pretty average taking the ball in.

If he's not careful he'll be soon overlooked for some of the younger lads and then... well, he'll be shipped off to some mediocre club like Hull FC or Huddersfield

The Sky commentary team picked two defensive misreads from him in quick succession in the first half last night. I'm not convinced his defence is so good to be keeping more able attackers out of the team. He's never struck me as a workhorse like JJB, nor is he a punisher like Kylie. In the past he looked promising but (when I've seen him) doesn't seem to bring much to the table these days. An able body, nothing more.

Moon will miss the Huddersfield game due to suspension

The effort is clearly there though. The point I was making was more regarding the Kirke comparison. IK looks so half hearted the majority of the time and that's the annoyance to people. Clarkson never looks like that to me. He makes mistakes but he is relatively young still. Ok, he missed a couple last night but I never walk away from a ground thinking that he hasn't played full.

I'm not for one minute saying he should be guaranteed a place either, but he's no where near as bad as some make out.

Whilst i agree Keinhorst was "off the pace" last night i don't think that's him finished and that right edge defence clearly lack communication as much as anything else the perfect example was Handburys 2 tries.
With regards to the pack IF the rumours about Baldwinson are true then i'll again state the money wasted re-signing kirke should have gone on retaining Baldwinson and Singleton imo.
Clarkson just looks lost at times to me he's not a battering ram forward as such and seems to be utilised that way.
Defensively our communication is off and in some ways given the absentees/youngsters and the regular way players change their places in the defensive line isn't helping.
What i do hope happens is that the youngsters continue to get gametime ,Burrow stays at 7 and GH tears Kirkes contract up in favour of better deals for some of the younger lads.

A dangerous tackle.

BTW, I took this from an Aussie RL ForumThe highlight of the whole season has been seeing young players have been given an opportunity, this game saw Jordan Baldwinson looking at home on debut and Liam Sutcliffe looks as classy as any 18 yo since i saw Brad Fittler debut back in the early 1990's.'"

dangerous tackle..... he barely lifted the legs and let go as soon as he realised. would be harsh imo.

the shoulder barg on hardacker was a shocker. first bentham sends it upstairs for the VR to watch it on tv, who spots it was a shoulder barg, then when bentham finds out it is, he puts it on report..... who will then watch it on tv and ban him....
the VR judged it to be a shoulder barg so it should of been 10 mins minimum.

and can someone explain to me why Mcshanes try wasnt given? you seen hookers scoring them week in, week out. not sure if im ignorant of some technical rule on it.

Mcshane followed Peacock therefore putting Peacock in between himself and the would-be defender in goal. Either that or the VR deemed the the PTB was incorrect

Get real!!

The shoulder charge won't get suspended. He hardly touched him!

I say it every ******* time! Is it that hard for supporters to realise that a shoulder charge ISN'T an automatic sin bin or sending off offence?! He didn't make contact with the head so it's just a penalty. He went into the body (only just as well) and tried to force him into touch.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, Hardaker is turning out to be a decent full back. The team played with a great deal of enthusiasm and spirit. After widnes drew level at eighteen all we refused to panic and battled out a good win.
At times our defence was a bit naive , but that should firm up with a few more games together .

Is it? Since making his debut and going full time he's not improved at all. The 'he runs great lines' and 'tackles like a demon' lines have been spouted about him for a long time but are they really true? He will make a break once every 5 or 6 games or come up with a good tackle (like the one that dislodged the ball late in the game last night) but apart from that he rarely wins a collusion either side of the ball, and his work rate in attack is as bad as Kirke's.
He's bulked up in the off season but lacks the enthusiasm, and agression of say JJB, or the pace and power of Liam Farrell to make up for it his lack of size. He's young enough to prove his doubters wrong but he looks like another Simon Worrall to me.