I said the same last night BUT the injuries to Greenwood & Vea, along with Wilkin playing in the halves & Josh Jones covering centre last night, are the missing mobile pack players. This means we effectively are playing with 6 props in the 17. You can get away with that against some teams but not against a Leeds team on a fast track.

Percival back at centre & a Walsh / Burns half back pairing will help that situation by freeing up Wilkin & Jones to return to the middle.

I'd like to go back to those innocent, hazy days were we weren't giving away 3 tries a game due to a kick being charged down or throwing a soft interception. Glory days.

I think I'd like to go back to those glory days when handing over the ball in broken play on the opposition's ten metre-line didn't result in a certain try, because we had people fast enough to chase down the runner.

If you look at the tries Hull KR scored against us, and last night Leeds, what you see is a team so lacking in speed that not only could we not catch the man who made the break, but we couldn't even close the gap over nearly a full pitch length, allowing the tries to go under the posts for easy kicks.

We have no speed, which means that if an opponent makes a break, even on their own tryline, after we give away the ball (ie, our fullback is in the attacking line rather than positioned deep), then they are going to score, because we have nobody with the pace to cover back. Fastest person we've got, I think, is Percival. Although we'll have to pray he's retained his pace after his injury.

Best defence in the league going into last night's game.

I'm sorry - where did your express train attack finish in the league last season?
The Grand Final?

Must have been an awfully wet season. Damned weather is forever conspiring against you.

Mr Teflon has the Super League trophy sat in his office. That's why he is Mr Teflon. No panic buys to appease the crowd mid game.


Wilkins edge defence has been beyond horrific since he moved to 7, I am actually taken aback by how bad it is. Thank god he'll be going back to the middle as he just isn't made out for it.

But second rows only defend one further in than he is now. One of the supposed advantages of having a second row play in 7 is the defensive element in that role isn't dissimilar (like flanagan last year) - I don't see his return to the pack magically making his positioning not atrocious.

LMS, Greenwood, Vea, Thompson are some of the fastest forwards in the game and can revert to centre position if needed, Roby is no slouch either.
Unfortunately two of our fastest backs and two of those fastest forwards have been out long term.

You mean the same Wilkin who was one of the form players in SL until he was injured?

I'm actually "taken aback" that you are taken aback!

He went from defending as a middle making 30-40 tackles a game and often more, which was his biggest asset, to hardly making any and missing plenty. He will defend at a minimum of fourth in now depending on whether he plays 13, which can hardly be described as the edge. He'll be looking forward to it.

He's going to throw the dictionary at you

Are people actually that concerned.

Not that worried to be honest.

I think we will be ok if keep key players fit but our edge defence worries me and I'm not sure us at our best beats Wigan and leeds that their best.

Leeds and Wigan won't be able to live with our pack with us at our best.

The only concern is the defence and error count. Stop gifting teams ball and making daft mistakes and we'll take an enormous amount of stopping.