The irony. The irony ...

The left edge defence of Swift - Walsh - Tuner - Greenwood screams missed tackles to me. The only change that could happen here is having Burns defend on that side, but will he make such a significant difference? I don't want Greenwood on the right as he's more effective going forward on the left. I don't want Percival on the left as he looks better on the right. We won't swap our wingers round.

I guess we shouldn't forget that - regardless of what anyone says about this defence - there's only one team with a better record. Which means every other side bar Huddersfield is making more mistakes than we are.

What on earth is Phil Clarke talking about? [i"Huddersfield should go home feeling great about themselves"[/i

If I were Huddersfield I'd be disconsolate. If you can't beat a side which is at sixes-and-sevens you've got no chance in the playoffs.

As for Turner & Swift. None of these guys were a problem toward the final quarter of last season when the forwards were meeting the opposition on the advantage line as a unit. The reason they are getting caught short is because we are giving the opposition playmakers far too much space to maneuver centre field.

I do think tiredness is a significant factor. And BOY do we need Vea back. It's been a long season. And we were pretty flaky at this point last season, too. The important factor is whether Cunningham has reserved enough fuel in the tank for the run-in. That was Nathan Brown's masterstroke.

Championship-winning sides invariably hit top form with five or six games remaining.

A one point game to put us one point off top and that's us in the top 4 for the split as Cas can't catch us with the points difference.

Been like that all season. The left edge is awful in defence. We have walsh, Turner and swift and its very vulnerable.

Turner can read play, he makes awful decisions which puts pressure on either side of him. I play 6 and Id dread to play next to someone like him in defence.

On the subject of walsh, I thiught it was 100% improvment in terms of effort, attitude and getting involved. Sure he wasn't back to his best but it's a improvment.

Spot on! Exactly what ive said all season even when was unbeaten and I got shot down with "we have best defence in the league".

Every week I could see with my own eyes that Greenwood (even tho was playing well) was missing to many tackles. Same goes for Turner and the stats of missed tackles proved that. They both miss 4/5 a game but then you add walsh to that edge and that's another 4/5 missed tackles on that edge.

You'll struggle with 12 + missed tackles on that edge each week and needs sorting fast!

The left edge is no less manageable than it was last season. If the forwards cut down the space aggressively and in unison it's very difficult for opponents to work a man advantage without taking a risk. They didn't do it tonight. They didn't do it last week. We know they CAN do it because they were very successful in making life hell for opposition forwards at the start of the season.

Let's see if the pack gains a second wind down the stretch. There's a long, long way to go. And plenty of time for other sides to suffer some of the injury nightmares we have.

He looked a bit more organised tonight than the previous 2 games, seems as though Walsh is working the pass and kick to Percival, whilst Burns works the pass over to Turner. Think Walsh had to do 3 tackles in the Giants set of 6 as they targeted him he missed one, put in half a tackle and completed one tackle.
The main thing his involvement is getting better, hopefully he can get a good run of games with Burns to settle things down tactically.

I think he knows he let himself down badly last week. The effort and atiitude was there tonight which showed he was hurting.

A massive improvment and one step foward and needs to build on this each week heading into the super 8s

I agree that it's been a weakness all season, but I don't think it's been quite as weak as it has over the last couple of games. I think the reintroduction of Walsh, who clearly doesn't want to get near contact, has brought the worst out in Turner and Swift. It's panic stations every time the ball goes out that way.