Quote tad rhino="tad rhino"the problem was, and was predicted by plenty, the second row. full of ageing, injury prone players with no legs and this and ptoved critical'"
That is not true. The critical problem has been the lack of big props for most of the season (not counting the need for quality 6 of course) For most of the season we have been without Garbutt, Peteru and a replacement for Galloway (who retired after the first few games) plus Cuthbertson has missed a lot and the Singleton has been on the sidelines.
Are you seeking to blame the older players for recent losses even when they are out injured? If you are referring to JJB and Ablett as your ageing second rowers then I beg to differ as they have played for much of the season when the big men were out and had to cover the middle defence carries and tackles and both have run their legs to water for the club and performed better than their younger replacements. Ward is every bit as injury prone as his older colleagues as is been Ferres and Sutcliffe.
Garbutt showed you the difference a big man makes which for almost the first time this year put us consistently on the front foot. Oledski especially has come on very very well indeed and is a totally different player to the one that started the season. Credit to the coach please.
Smith too has progressed well but still misses a lot of tackles and youngsters like Newman have to be allowed errors as they learn to play with the grown ups however these errors have been a factor in narrow losses which cannot be blamed on older experience players who have played such a key role in our success.
I am sure if we had had our first choices available all season like St Helens we would have been challenging them at the top of the table.