Totally agree FA it's getting ridiculous playing without a creative scrum half. In their 20 today we never looked like scoring with nobody able to put a move on. Why, when we were defending and our wingers won every high bomb did we not put any bombs to them when attacking? I just don't understand the game plan at times or if we have one at all. We are just not improving and our opponents enthusiasm as far better than ours!

My point is, what chance does this team have against SL opposition at the sharp end?

Not a lot, but with one key position short, zero.

As a result, a team which professes SL ambitions struggles against Batley. Who would be flattened by any SL club. I don't get it

Did Adam O'Brien bet injured. Didn't come back after 55mins?

What did final penalty look like in ground? Looks wide on video on FB.

That one behind sticks? Looks wide on video. I was at other end of ground so can't comment but a lot of bulls fans thought it was wide and looked wide on video.

No idea what the penalty was for originally.

That said hope we don't use it as an excuse

It missed. I was pretty much bang in line with the left post and it missed. Mathers was under the posts and simply stood looking at the linesmen in complete disbelief.

That being said, we shouldn't have been in the position in the first place. 12 points up going down the hill and we let them back into it. AOB went off and we lost all structure. The passes from the play the ball weren't coming quick enough which gave Gaskell (who wasn't having his greatest game anyway) no time to do anything and it let Batley pin us. Unless he was injured, AOB really needed to come back on to get things stable, but was never put back on. We should have taken a DG, and didn't.

Credit to Batley though, they worked hard up that hill and took the chance in front of them. Keegan Hirst is an absolute monster and ran us ragged in his stint towards the end.

I couldn't tell whether the kick went over from my seat in the stand, but the fans behind the sticks all seemed convinced it hadn't. Also I don't think anyone knows what the penalty was actually for

BUT

Let's not allow that last few seconds to divert us from the reality that we were simply not good enough today.

18-12 ahead at half time - having not played all that well in the first half, and we should have comfortably won the game playing down the slope against a part-time team. Instead we were basically hanging on for the last 15 minutes, with guys looking completely out on their feet. All the energy and enthusiasm was coming from Batley at that point!

Everyone is going on about the lack of a scrum half, and fair enough, we really should have one (or more than one) in our squad. But Paul Deacon in his pomp would have struggled today, when the pack were getting beaten in the collision. Why is that the opposition manages to make 15 metres on every play, and needs five people to drag them down. Then we get the ball and can barely make it forward 30 metres in our set?

Apparently we were losing the collision against Swinton (according to BCB) and were basically getting beaten up today AGAIN. I'll exclude Mitch Clark, who is getting by on sheer effort (and ,to be fair, Clough was coming back from injury. But our props, as a group, look small, lacking in impact and unable to get on top of Championship teams - heaven only knows what will happen in the Middle 8s

I think the inability of one or two individuals to deal with the bomb cost us the game today. They scored two tries in the second half directly from mistakes from Mathers and Blythe, and I counted three occasions where they let the ball hit the deck from the bomb. James Clare on the other hand showed them how to deal with the bomb - he was excellent.

It's difficult not to be sore about that penalty at the end though. For one, I have no idea why it was given and I hope someone can clear that one up. Second, from where I was stood behind the posts, it looked wide. Not the reason we lost the point, but makes it harder to take.

I was really disappointed with some of the individual errors today (Blythe's knock on, Gaskell's kick out on the full, the myriad of forward passes & Addy knocking on on the last tackle with Gaskell back deep for the DG). Those issues gave Batley an opportunity to get back in the game and they took it very well. If the game went on another 5 minutes we could have been on the end of a defeat. The other issue was our game management. Very poor indeed.

Anyway, another great advert for Championship rugby. Batley look very well drilled and should be in the mix for a Middle 8's place if they carry on this form.

Green and Ferres won't say anything but I just can't imagine Jimmy being there next November. They must look at the performances and wonder if another coach could get more from them.

Agree entirely with those saying we shouldn't have been in position for barley to get draw. But I expected us to struggle in forwards with sidlow and kavanagh missing.
Taking OB off was a tactical mistake IMO, unless he was injured. This wasn't game to try and filter Thomas in.

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No you weren't. You were the best team for an hour, got into a position at 24 - 12 where you should have kicked on and won easily, but for some unaccountable reason took your foot off the gas.

When you threw the ball about, you looked great, but then decided to turn it into a forward battle, and got beat up! As several have said on here, poor game management lost you the game, not the ref!

If we don't Q for SL this year and Jim is still there next year you can kiss good bye to a load of fans

Tbh you guys have nothing to worry about. By far the best team we have played this season. Even with the injuries in your pack I thought you won the collisions and played with more pace than us, just had an off day with a number of brain facts costing you an easy win. Great to see you all there. Thanks for turning up in such great numbers and good luck for the rest of the season.

The ref made a few questionable calls throughout the game. Certainly in the first half Ainscough should have been sin binned for a professional foul on Gaskell and several of the "forward pass" calls were questionable.

But really, we should have put the game to bed at 24-12. We had opportunity to score several times but just seemed to desperate to off load rather than just take the ball forward