Lost us the match really. A couple were dubious, plus we should have been given them for being taken out in the air twice.

Those penalties made us defend back to back sets (we did it well) but they sapped all our energy. We were never going to have the best energy in this one, extra work in defence had to be done to make up for Langley not being there & that comebcak vs Wigan will have meant we weren't 100%.

Anyway, onwards and upwards and lets hope we get a good 80 minute performance next week vs Hull.

My worry is, next week, following 2 games of high intensity - we'll be absolutely knackered.

Lets see how they respond. I hope they come out all guns blazing, they have something to prove.

Ganson was gash but he did not lose us the game. That is naiive in the extreme.

I didn't mean that it was Ganson's fault. Most of the penalties should have stood. I'm blaming us for giving them away, the constant defending knackered us and we paid the price in the second half. Ganson was poo, but I don't think if a couple went the other way much would have changed.

I think we should have been given 2 for the take-outs in the air, would have given us more rest, but wouldn't have won us the game.

The two kicks where both Reardon and Sheriffe were tackled in the air was very poor calls from the the officials. To miss TWO less than a minute apart is just complete incompetence from the officials. Ganson is heard on the commentary as saying 'I've checked them', who did it check it with?

Just watching it on V+ now, they were both clear to see. WTF was wrong with the touch judge's eyes?

And you're right, he didn't check it! Arrogant .

I'm not one to comment of ref's. But he was below his usual good standard tonight.

The two tackle off the ground incidents certainly did not help the Bulls , keeping the pressure on.
Poor decisions by the referee and his touch judges.

They were both certain penalties. The officials were shocking not to see them.

Only watched 1st half of game, and I thought the officials were quite harsh on your guys. I thought he gave you nothing, and was very lenient with Wire.

Agree with that.

You at Hull then next week?

Far be it from me to call into questions the good character of the upstanding gentleman handed the roll of referee...


...BUT Ganson makes me want to spew. That said we showed poor discipline last night both in defence and with ball in hand. How many handling errors did we make?

Need to smarten up next week and other sports based cliches...

You definitely did not get the rub of the green from the ref but you were still well beaten. Wire look like the real deal this year

Yes credit were it's due they cut threw us like a knife through butter. Monaghan, Myler, Atkins last night.

Perhaps this might surprise a few but I actually saw quite a few positives out there last night. For the first sixty minutes anyway.

First of all, we were without our best forward of the season so far at a very late stage that left us unable to make the correct preparation for a match without Mr Langley.

In the first half, defensively we were excellent and took our try chances well. However, being under the cosh for so long, again without our top tackler, was always gonna take its toll against arguably the best attacking side in the league. We simply ran out of steam in the 2nd half IMO.

However, the negatives......

1. Goal kicking. How poor are our goal kickers. I really think we need to decide between either Orford or Sykes (or anyone else) and give them the duties full time. Our kicking was abysmal.
2. Steve Menzies. The legend that he is should not exempt him from criticism. He was bloody terrible last night and had a complete mare. We cannot afford to do this against teams of Wires quality.
3. Michael Worrincy. How bad is this guy? I am sure my dear old gran could tackle better than him and she has been dead for ten years.
4. The kick on the last. About twenty minutes in, young Riley spilled an easy one and we should then have been bombarding him all game. Sadly most of our kicks from hand were completely unthreatening.
5. Matt Orford. Was complete flaps.

I also never thought I would find myself writing this but we REALLY need Sculthorpe fit ASAP. Our bench is just too lightweight. Kopczak is a trier but that is about him as, for me, he lacks the physical strength to make a big impact, meaning that we need to rely on Lynch and Scruton for longer than we would like. I am not saying to drop Kopczak but I reckon the bench would look a lot better if it was him, Sculthorpe, Hall and Godwin.

The backs, rightly or wrongly, pick themselves and the forwards IMO, (with the bench I outlined above) should be, Lynch, L'Estrange, Scruton, Menzies, Whitehead and Langley.

However, I cannot really fault the effort over the piece last night, just some bad performances.