Wasn't HAllas actually signed as a hooker and we moved him to loose forward?.

Wonder if we're going to get any news about whats actually happening to fix the pitch size?. Usual suspects on t'other forum are having a field day putting boot into Bulls over it, When AFAIK its the RFL responsibility to resolve it. Wood has openly said as much in an interview and RFL haven't said anything to the contrary which you would expect them to if it was our responsibility.

I thought we were better 2nd half when Jowett got involved and we created a bit of that shape that Brough brings. Oakes has to take that pass and score. Murphy and Oakes on the left edge gave the kid very little. Hamlett looked better than Brown. Those 2 chances were on the far side so hard to say. Has Hamlett been dropped twice after hammerings by Fev? I was in line with Hallas' pass to Walker and it looked flat.

Smith was the MOM by a bit but his back line and edge forwards gave him a lot more to work with. Whilst the lads up front had a real go, including Gallagher who was much improved, our back line moved in treacle.

Hallas is very much a stop gap hooker as it's been shown as far back as League 1 that he wasn't quick enough for it. Berry should be the option if Doyle is out but I believe Flanagan isn't far off returning after his lengthy ban is he?

I disagree with Murphy he ran some decent lines I thought

Back for batley

Well, that was pretty awful wasn't it.

I truly despair sometimes. If we can't defend down the middle on a postage stamp then let's hope no-one makes the pitch any wider or we'll get murdered. Our attack looked stunted for all the reasons - losing our main playmaker, narrow field and whatever anyone else can come up with but there is no excuse for the sloppy defence. No-one should be running through the middle on a pitch of that size. We made Widnes look like the "cup kings" of the seventies.

I'm not cribbing the effort. Just the application. I think I said before that we needed to get straight back on the horse after the Featherstone debacle, to be honest I think we needed to get over that earlier - we looked liked we were still suffering the hangover.

He took his time about it - fair enough we all see different things but he's rooted to the spot for Laughton's try.

Also agree with Bulliac. If Pickersgill can't defend better than he did for their first try, there's serious question marks about his future.

I think Kear quite likes Hallas at hooker for his work rate so no chance of Berry been given the nod ahead of him. He'll go with Doyle & Flanagan when both are fit, but then Hallas is clearly his third option.

The problem yesterday was that Hallas had to play for 80 minutes as well. We were crying out for some zip from dummy half in that game. Hallas distribution is far too slow for hooker, but him slogging it out for half an hour before giving him
a breather and giving Berry 20 minutes just to quicken things up would have improved our attack yesterday. As it is his slow distribution became even slower due to him having to play 80 minutes. Hindsight a wonderful thing though.

Widnes only used 15 players yesterday apparently, with the size of our pack and being able to use all 4 subs, it's a really poor result.

Yeah, I watched the highlights and his attempted tackle for the first try was absolutely pathetic

BTW, was there an attendance announced for Sunday? I wondered how attendances were shaping up after the Odsal return

Crowds have looked quite healthy from what I've seen so far but I wasn't there last weekend. The novelty factor of being back watching the game will dissipate amongst the more casual fans if performances suffer.

i think the only way to judge crowd interest is when finally covid restrictions are completely lifted ... i know it still must be hard over there and the times we are living in are bizarre to say the least .. (say that to the WWI or WW2 veterans, or the 1919 spanish flu) .. this thing im sure is still here to stay for a while (no matter what part of the world) ... ok less harp more poz

.. covid restrictions aside, 3k+ is still healthy