Gotcha - what is it that BM wanted that GH didn't deliver this year?

Personally I'll admit I was wrong about BM. I think part of it is that he continues to seem genuinely odd.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that there may have been a conscious decision not to aim for a fast start this year given the injuries we already had in the squad combined with the clear fatigue factor which nearly cost us the comp at the end of last year.

So anything Mac does he's damned, anything he doesn't do is inaction and is also damned.

Hmm.

Agenda?

With the third game in being for a WCC and a clean sweep of available silverwear I'd really hope that wasn't the case. The fade in 2015 was probably just an inevitable consequence of getting no time off during the season and an argument for a future thirteen or even eleven team comp introducing forced rests on a rota.

It will be an interesting game on Monday - should be an easy win.

McDermott's stock is falling fast even with some of his most ardent supporters - injuries have been severe but no more severe than for Cas and the team put in a shocking performance against a side they should have been capable of beating.

The team just look a rabble without direction at the moment - whilst you always new with Sinny/Peacock they could match anyone I am not sure that is the case now - was the success because or inspite of McD

well i guess we will see over the next couple of seasons. I'd like to think not but the team he has still on paper is as good as any in SL at the minute still and should be top 4 no problem. You have to cut him a bit of slack imo for the slow start due to the injuries but now bodies are back you expect results to follow. I personally can live with a mediocre season this year because of how good last year was and transition and all but with the players he still has at his disposal Mac should be able turn it around if he is good enough, if he feels he needs an organiser then that's for him to identify and sort out with GH for next season no excuses really.

If the rumours are true and he wanted rid of Burrow and get a half back in but was over ruled then I would agree he should be given a bit of slack.

What is hard to take is the poor performances of many of the players - they just don't seem committed?

I'm not sure i would say not commited, but it certainly seems like a few of them just expect things will just happen without laying the platform first. Also, would like to add our work at the ruck is just awful at the minute, scruffy as hell and teams are just controlling us from there.It's happened every single game bar the opener against wire, and needs sorting asap.

I though that too, easy meters every time.

I'm not sure i agree that the players are not committed. There was no lack of effort last night just no organisation and creativity. This coupled with several senior players out of form leads to displays like last night.

I don't think commitment is the issue, there's still plenty of people putting the work in. Teams are putting loads of effort into stopping the offload game, and we don't have a plan B. Cas scored two tries where they made a gap for someone to walk through untouched, when was the last time we did that?

I also agree with Biff, we do not win any ruck atm no matter how many numbers we put in. Not saying we need to be uber wrestlers but we need to better, at the minute it's leading to penalties and worse, quick ball for the opposition.

For me defence is a about commitment and we are letting so many easy tries I just we are not as committed to defending our line as we were in 2015

agree with this and plenty of the other comments about organisation etc. the one key thing tempering my disappointment a bit is the the unquantifiable impact of losing the training ground. The article from rhinos website posted elsewhere by printer mentioned loss of the wrestle room and other facilities they have built. Is this key to how weak we appear at both collision and ptb? From that we are always on Back foot. One thing you can practice in a park is open play kicking and last tackle kicking - no evidence we are doing anything.

But surely you can practice some wrestling just on grass, at the end of the day that's where the game is played?

As you say kicking is the biggest issue, I wonder if Mac has instructed any one player to take command (It sure doesn't look like it). Or he's just left it to the players to sort out, in which case one of them needs to grow some, because at the minute it seems they're all scared of messing it up on the 5th, shifting it to someone else which ironically leeds to us messing up on the 5th...

They do all the wrestle stuff in a type of padded cell. We might all be in one by end of season