Why are people talking about how they think we'll do in the Middle 8's based on a game in March against a team that's going all out from the off with the aim of picking up as many points as they can now.

If the game last week had been on yesterday's draw would have probably put us top and u beaten without getting going.

I'd say we're in good shape and personally I don't want them playing their best stuff when it doesn't matter.

Smell of wee?

Also Batley have now beaten Leigh and drawn with Bradford. They'll take points off a lot more sides before the end of the season.

Although after being 24-12 up and giving away a penalty on the hooter it's a point dropped rather than a point gained.

On the plus side, AoB was rotated & given a rest.... Which we've been calling for for a while now! I think this comes under "game management learning required" - but for the coach this time rather than the players.

I asked the reserve ref after the game and the penalty was for a grapple tackle
Not sure if it was right or if the goal went over
Having said that how many times did the Bulls let the ball bounce off high kicks
Cost you in the end
Still the best team we've come up against so far this season good luck
Jimmy lost it a bit with the Bulls fan whilst been interviewed by rugby am
The fan was escorted out

A grapple tackle?! The saga gets worse.

Thought we did all the hard work and threw it away, to be honest.

The forwards were immense and took the game to a very physical Batley side - maybe not the game to have two forwards making their season debut, but you have to take the hand you're dealt and the physical side was dealt with well for the most part with a big Batley pack being largely nullified on their own 'midden'. We lost our way in the last 20mins though and should have kept up the intensity or, at the very least, 'managed' the end better than we did.

Don't know about the penalty or the conversion, these are decisions which sometimes go your way and sometimes go the way of your opponents, so it's barmy to blame the referee for us dropping a point we should have kept. For the real reasons, we need to look nearer home, imo. At the end of the day, Batley did well to come back and you can't say they didn't deserve their point, so good luck to them.

First the good things. I though Clare and Caro did a superb job of taking a lot of high kicks under pressure. It forced Batley to change tactics. I thought Pitts ran some great lines and worked very hard. His first half try was very well worked. I was pleased to see Mitch Clark carry the ball so strongly – he’s a big handful and a real plus off the bench. It was good to see Paul Clough back. We scored enough points get in a winning position despite having thrown possession and field position away constantly. Finally I thought our defence was pretty good for long periods too.

Less good things. Our game management was atrocious – particularly as the game went on. Our kicking game was very poor. We failed to build any pressure. Gaskell’s kicking from the hand is poor and Addy was anonymous. We should have been pegging Batley in their own quarter in the second half but we let them make cheap yards through poor kicks and ill-discipline.

Clark spoiled a good game with two needless penalties but he wasn’t alone. The one at the death looked fairly innocuous to me but Clough did seem to have the Batley player around the throat. A few times we either gave cheap yards away or made an error then compounded it with a penalty. The penalty at the end looked good to me despite fans in the stand complaining it was wide.

When we had the ball we didn’t look slick enough and we let the pressure off countless times with errors and forward passes. The obstruction we gave away in the first half was bad. We were trying to play it fast but it seemed to be too forced and it wasn’t fluid enough to pay off. In the second half I think we lost composure. When Clark made the break he needed to slow down in order to execute an accurate pass to Gaskell. Instead he threw it forward. That missed chance cost us 2pts.

When Batley came back into it we should have gone for 1 point. You could see Lowes signalling for it at the side of the pitch near the bottom corner – he came down from the stand to try to get his point over. Did either of our playmakers take any notice? No. We lack leadership in the middle. Gaskell isn’t really that kind of player and Addy isn’t a natural half or consistent enough. He was sadly lacking. Batley’s halfbacks aren’t world beaters but they put in quality kicks at the end of each set which came off twice when they started kicking to the middle rather than the wings. What was Matty Blythe doing under that kick? Where was Mathers. Why did we let so many bounce?

Overall a point lost for us but Batley deserved the draw. They played it simple and effective. They were better drilled – which was an indictment of our players who have all week to practice. On the occasions we clicked we did look decent but it was in the main far too scrappy from us. Batley also scored the best try when Ulugia sold a huge dummy to Caro and then passed inside.

It’s not the end of the world but for me it highlighted our lack of a decent playmaking halfback. We will need to address this for the middle 8s or we might as well not bother.

Fair post bullseye

I wasn't at the game but the theme seems similar from all posters.

Still undefeated and much of what went wrong can be easily worked on.

I like the fact the competition seems much more than a 2 horse race - more competitive matches through the year will stand us in better stead for the 8's

Agreed. I was having the same thoughts last night. But it also puts the lack of a mid field general in starker relief. It's not necessarily true that we'll bounce in to the M8s and the season starts then, even if recruitment policy does seem predicated on it. Still, we're still relatively doors yet though.

Anyhoo, the championship is getting pretty top heavy right now. I did a rlCann tablerl last night to show the distances between the various groupings that are starting to form.

Whilst I think Addy is a very good player we all know he is not a scrum half. He is a ball playing loose forward and plays the game as such. Consequently he plays more from a central position rather than looking after the playmaking on one side of the pitch. Gaskell looks after the left side leaving us short of creativity on the right. A scrum half pleeeeease . . Declan Patton from Warrington would be ideal.

On a side note, the attendance yesterday given as 2,742. If their capacity is 6,000 I don't see by any stretch of the imagination you could fit over that amount of people again into the ground. Is it my eyes or is something amiss here? I seem to remember something similar last year and the figure was revised.

I've seen another quote of 3800

Looked like more than last year.

It was 2,742 in League Express. Looked more than last year to me also.