A decent performance this afternoon.

There are still some issues for Smith to work on before we get to the middle-8's mind you.

However, London losing has opened up the race for second place again

Happy with that performance. Thought our defence (apart from a 5 minute lapse where they scored two back to back tries) was spot on. Seemed to take pride in our goal line defence. Attack we looked better, though still plenty to work on. Think Clare has nailed down the full back spot.

Certainly looked better than what we have the last few weeks. Think we are severely lacking in last tackle options but hopefully Smith should sort this. Onto Sheffield.

Much better today. Clare man of match by a mile for me, and Oscar looked much more comfortable and confident. Thought our props dominated. How did that crazy man Barlow stay on the pitch? Unfortunately Williams did it again, coming in from his wing and giving away a try to his opposite number. Looking forward to Sheffield next week.

Suspect this might be more to do with the idiot Blythe playing inside him. I think we need to be looking at signing another centre if we can. Blythe is absolutely useless, Purtell is coming to the end of his career (hopefully) and our academy players might not be ready just yet.

Blythe offers very little and the odd thing is we do have better options so not sure how he's in. Uncalled for "hopefully" re Purtell, though. He's been a rock for us, is a class act, and while his best form is some way off, there's no reason why he can't finish the second half of the season well. But if he doesn't, hoping his career will soon be over isn't good. It nearly was, a couple of years back, and he's not only miraculously come back, but sweated blood in the Bulls cause and been one of our standout players for me. Hence them making him captain.


Very cunning of Olbison to pinch the MoM by nicking the no. 10 shirt, though.

Happy with that

Dominated from the start, and aside from a 10 minute spell where we got slack and let Swinton grab two tries, we were completely on top throughout.

Bizarrely I found myself more disappointed that we didn't nil them, than by the fact we scored over 50 points!

Agree about Blythe - bombed the two scoring opportunities he had and was really soft in defence. I can't see why he is getting a game, surely Ethan Ryan is a better prospect until Purtell comes back?

James Clare has surely nailed down the full back slot now - he was my MoM

Well said. Whilst Purtell has some weaknesses in his game, overall he brings plenty more positives to the team when fit.

Agree with that. Clare was superb throughout. Swinton were really niggly and I'm glad we managed to play some rugby in spite of their obvious spoiling tactics. Pride in goaline defence was much better today. Still plenty to work on, Thomas made his touchline conversation look ridiculously easy btw, didn't know he had that in his locker.

Watched him do two touchline conversions in the warm up. Nailed both of them.

Agree re Blythe, whoever is winger is outside of him is in for a quiet afternoon attaching and a busy busy defensive test, shoots out of the line looking for a big hit misses 9/10 then leave winger to mop up or forced to come inside.

Surely we have better options Ryan and etc Spring to mind without Purtell.

Thomas didn't do much wrong IMO apart from np the short pass to Blythe I think it was who had no hope of gathering it before he was hit.

Ref was fair also not seen him before but he di alright, didn't miss much apart from the addy punch up but he was following the play and it was the touch judge how saw it but he wasn't sure himself, thought only addy was going into bin for a while.

So how did my mate Warren Turley go?

I thought he did ok, but many wont share the same view, brother said he went to college with him and hes a down to earth guy

Gave too many penalties IMO, but didn't have any effect on the game itself. Was just a little quick to penalise anything and everything, but as long as it's same for both sides (which it was), I generally won't complain at that.

On the flip side, he was fairly lenient with Josh Barlow who could have spent about 50 minutes in the sin bin. Nutcase that lad.

Tend to agree with most other comments about the game. Clare proved he is undoubtedly the best fullback option in our squad. Whilst I'd still rather sign a specialist one and play Clare elsewhere, he is definitely the best option currently available to us. I think it also showed when we have our best props available, our pack has a much better chance of dominating the game and giving the backs the space to play off it. Keeping Clough, Sidlow & Kavanagh fit is a big thing for us, especially if Mitch Clark is then the 4th option to do the "come off the bench, knock some bodies flying" role.
Defence much much better than previous weeks, although I won't get too carried away as Swinton didn't offer a whole lot. Blythe was the exception to that rule though, and I would very much point at him for those tries. They were obviously going to run at the side where the young lad was, and Blythe did very little to help him out, other than leaving him stranded. The try he bombed when he was over the line too was ridiculous. Had that been a close game, his complacency could have lost us the match.

Agree pretty much with what has been said.

I'd definitely give Ethan Ryan a bit more game time - he's definitely one for the future and should the first to be considered, providing he doesn't get overplayed, when the first choice centres are unavailable.

Didn't see much of Copa Kavanagh - did he go off injured? He did a short spell in the first half (less than 10 mins I think), and I can't remember seeing him again