First time I have seen this team this season, and although the result was disappointing, I am not overly down heartened. These young lads have got a lot of spirit and fire and they don't take a backwards step. Ultimately, they were not big enough, strong enough or experienced to grind out a win, and they made silly errors to put themselves under pressure. We do need some muscle up front and soon, but there is the makings of a good team in there.

I was disappointed with Pryce, he looked unfit and disinterested. And the less said about the referee the better. But still, at least we are in a position to moan about poor decisions. We would have taken that a few months ago.

It's exactly as we've all been saying for the last few weeks - we won't win any games in this division until we sign some more experienced forwards.

I agree Pryce brought all his experience and game craft that he knows... I.e was missing for about 65 mins....

Thought Rochdale played the conditions well. Ran straight and hard not trying arcing runs or jinking between defenders which cost us our footing and momentum when we should have been doing the same as the opposition...

Now I am seriously worried. That was the best 17 we had to put out, and our current planned reinforcement is a Rugby Union full back/half back sevens specialist. The youngsters played their heart out, but when Tahraoui was literally head and shoulders above any of our forwards, then we are in trouble. We couldn't handle the big prop at Huddersfield with the unprouncable name and now big Samir must have thought all his birthdays had come at once.

I agree, forward power is a real problem. I hope we are asking about Ben Harrison, he would make a big difference. I was impressed with Roche today he ran hard all the game. I don't know what Campbell has done wrong but he doesn't seem to get a fair crack of the whip. I would like to see him given a go at centre in place of Mendeika who has done very little so far.

There leg drive after contact killed us today.

The highly predictable thing was that they would easily murder our forwards and that in the end the resulting lack of field position would tire us out. It's a bit like the "play without a 7" of last year, everybody knows we need a couple if big grizzlies with grunt, while I understand the difficulty on short notice, if we were ever .to make a fist if this season then we needed to solve that problem first. We didn't, and it cost us 2 points which on the day we could have had, if our pack hadn't been murdered.

Schoolboy mistakes are to be expected when the team is full of lads barely out of short pants, but Thomas was a liability at the back, and his errors piled more pressure on us.

I don't know what Pryce was doing but near the end when everyone was tired and we needed just one score to maybe nick a point, I never saw him, and instead we compounded our troubles by messing up last tackle plays repeatedly, when you'd expect Pryce to be directing things. Thought he did nothing much all afternoon.

I knew once someone mentioned the ref, some troll would jump in with "blame the ref yadda yadda" but in a game with 6 points in it only a moron would fail to understand the critical importance of the officiating, and the fact is that we came out very far on the wrong side of an even break, and all you can do is wonder what might have been, had the officials not given a procession of key decisions against us. It is perfectly legitimate to discuss the ref and linesemen's contributions, for which Rochdale will have been extremely grateful. Notable decisions included failing to see a kick scooped out of play by a defender, thus giving Hornets the feed at a crucial point, failing to see some bizarrely blatant offsides (yet jumping on the sucker "ball not out of scrum" twice), and consistently ignoring Hornets moving off the mark, and a steely determination to give 5th tackle penalties or "stripped ball" come what may.

From a Bulls perspective, in some ways it doesn't matter, as we are screwed this year and always were. We may have given Rochdale a good game, but it was ultimately so clearly men against boys and that's the thing that will haunt us all season. I foresee a long hard sequence of being proud of the effort of the young lads, but with little reward.

It was a predictable outcome, especially as conditions dictated a forward battle in the mud and snow. Men against boys for the most part with some commendable efforts but just not enough size or experience to grind out a result.

Oh and Oscar Thomas still isn't a fullback...

Larroyer is signing and 2 kiwi union forwards playing in France but both have plenty league expierence on the way.

Before kickoff it was clear that with the weather it was going to be a forward dominated game. No throwing the ball out, just classic drives and a good kicking game.

We knew the starting line up as soon as they released the 19 man squad. So to put it into perspective FOUR or the starting six in the pack are 18-20 year olds with 22 first team games between them (including this Rochdale game) then off the bench there were a 20 year old and TWO 18 year olds to replace them. Plus the fact that Magrin is only 22 as well. So it was always going to be bloody hard.

Rochdale have a big pack and played together last season and have a full pre-season this time around. At least two of their pack are internationals. And many have SL experience. If not battle hardened at the lower levels.

The inexperience showed today as we coughed up possession a lot. And as mentioned before we couldn't make many yards.

Yes, tackling the legs would have stopped them from gaining 5-10 yards per tackle but to be fair at this level if you go for the legs you don't dominate the tackle 90% of the time and this leads to many more quick play the balls which gets them rolling against a retreating defence, then penalties come for slowing down the ruck. So I get the need for them to go high and try dominate. I do agree however that we need the 3rd man to chop them down a bit more!

The game plan (weather permitting) would have been to spread the ball often. When we actually got a chance to do that we ripped their defence apart on two occasions. We just didn't have the personnel to combat a pack in these conditions.

And for those slating Pryce. Yes he wasn't at the races. But in fairness in this sort of game your halves are there for basic game management and kicking well. Lilley and Thomas controlled that, and Lilley's kicking game was spot on. I mentioned this at the game but when we got Pryce he would be playing behind a winning pack and could direct the game at leisure whilst Chisholm did the running. We didn't get him to be the main half behind a pack that is full of kids before it gets on the pitch. He'll get better when a platform can be laid (pack reinforcements).

For me, the moment where we lost the game was when Thomas dropped the ball. Up to that point we were on top and were winning. That knocked the wind out of us and gave them belief and momentum.

Overall I thought it was a spirited effort from the lads and they have my full support after facing a uphill battle today against a big experienced pack. They showed glimpses of what they can do and I am looking forward to getting some names in to fill the 10, 12 and 13 shirts. They were in control at times but as I say inexperience and youth showed in the end. How good is Bentley by the way? Need to sign him up long term haha!

Onwards and upwards and can I just finish off by saying



Well done to Bulls fans, 4,051 in that weather watching a relegation placed Champ team is outstanding. Fantastic effort!!

PS. The less said about offsides, 40/20's and the ref the better. Not blaming the ref. But didn't help when we had a mountain to climb anyway!

I think I may have just thawed out after today's game.

As many have said, we were bullied by their forwards all afternoon. Rochdale gained easy yards on the back of us being unable to stop their big lads driving our defenders back after the collision. I thought we showed some good glimpses of attacking threats but lacked the composure to turn them into points. Individual errors at key parts of the game also killed all our momentum. Thomas's dropped bomb and Magrin knocking on after back to back penalties scuppered any chances of a fight back.

Some positives to take away from the game were the Leeds loanees. Lilley and Oledzki looked very handy going forward. I hope we can keep hold of them for a few more months if not the entire season. Wishful thinking. Bentley also impressed me again. Hopefully with a couple more additions to the pack we should see an improvement in our ability to win the arm wrestle in games like today's.

Roll on Swinton!

Well done to Bulls fans, 4,051 in that weather watching a relegation placed Champ team is outstanding. Fantastic effort!!