You say they can't handle them, and to an extent you're right - lord knows we are all banging on about getting some big props in from somewhere, anywhere - but if you look at the closeness of the final score and if you see the various things that went against us, and yet we were still in with a shout, we are actually far more competitive than I had dared hope we could be, certainly at this stage of th season. With a fair wind our young lightweights could easily have ended up winning yesterday, outmuscled as they were.

Makes it all the more frustrating eh?

The young lads won't be physically up to playing at this level consistently for much longer before an 80 point stuffing is given out.

I hope we have some reinforcements before that happens.

Yep, there will be some bruised and aching bones gingerly staggering about today, and they acn only (and should only be expected to) take so much.

Absolutely. And as Bullseye rightly says, that's what makes it even more frustrating.

On the plus side of it, does it give us a little hope that it may not need THAT much to set it right? A couple of good signings in the forwards and it may just make a big difference with how those scorelines end up.

I fear not. Bullseye made the very fair point that you can't keep playing all the youngsters for 80 mins week in week out as they won't be able to handle the physical aspects, early season is one thing, all fit and raring to go, 10 straight games in they'll not be able to walk.

True, but if you bring a couple of experienced and big forwards in now who can play most games, then the likes of Kirk, Bentley, Wilkinson etc. don't have to play every week. They can have a week off here, week off there. It's important though that we have those 2 experienced ones in first, supplemented with a few young loan lads to rotate with Bentley/Wilkinson/Kirk. I'd quite like to keep hold of Oledzki for that purpose, he's a big strong lad for his age and would go ok playing most but not all weeks.

Also if he gets knackered it becomes Leeds problem not ours

Ooops, did I just verbalise that?

Quote: Bullseye "Makes it all the more frustrating eh? The young lads won't be physically up to playing at this level consistently for much longer before an 80 point stuffing is given out. I hope we have some reinforcements before that happens.'" How's about this fella. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/mo ... -bradford/

Quote: Bullseye "Makes it all the more frustrating eh? The young lads won't be physically up to playing at this level consistently for much longer before an 80 point stuffing is given out. I hope we have some reinforcements before that happens.'" How's about this fella. https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/mo ... -bradford/

Moore would be a good signing but he's in court on 10th March and I'd be surprised if he avoids a stretch.

Full match is up on Youtube! Interesting that it's linked up with the ref so you can here the ref throughout.

Interesting that in the set straight after Thomas' try the linesman calls Rochdale's 12 offside. Then the ref says "It's okay just roll with it". Linesman also makes a few comments about their 12 'mistiming' tackles. So instead of a penalty the ref has a word when Rochdale pack down for a scrum.

Also when there is a break in play (ie Scrum). The ref is saying to the Rochdale players "10m lads. Don't be going too early. Last set was a bit early". Stuff like that. Why not bloody give the penalty then?

That's not the only thing he was lenient with penalties for. Regarding scrums, there were at least 3 seperate occasions when he restarted our scrum because the Rochdale players had done something wrong in it and not packed down properly or split too early. It unfuriates me that the solution to them not even being able to form a scrum properly (a really basic thing in Rugby League) is "oh you silly person, have another go" instead of a penalty. Once is bad enough, three times?!?!

The referee was painstakingly soft. He gave quite a few penalties, but in all honesty there should have been almost double the amount he gave. Referees are too scared now to penalise foul play because they don't want to be criticised for high penalty counts. High penalty counts are generally not the fault of the referee, they're the fault of poor discipline from the players. The ref should be there to penalise when needed, not to keep penalty counts low or even.

This is key for me. Really annoys me. RL scrums are literally just get your head in and arms around. Done. No contesting or anything. Get it wrong once it should be a penalty.

When I watched the full game again last night it really amazed me how poor that ref was. His linesman gave about 8-10 correct decisions which were ignored by the ref and at least half of them would have changed the momentum and got us close to their line.

Stuff like this annoys me no end. I do not think the refs should have to coach the players throughout the game. If they clamped down then for a few weeks it would be a complete mess but in the long run I feel the game would be better for it.