Fair summary

I thought the game was entertaining today. A great cup tie as someone above said it to'd and fro'd a bit and that was exciting. Happy that we've had the cup run for the club's coffers. That's the positives out the way.

We lost in two departments for me. Ball in hand and failing to get our boot on their necks when they had a man in the bin. Other than our first try we offered absolutely nothing in attack today. Lilley's end of set kicks were always too long and gobbled up easily by the backs. Did we even kick for a repeat set today? I can't remember if we did. The lack of ideas in attack was by far the biggest disappointment.

With regards to the sin bin, normally I'm a proponent of taking the points on offer but it's early in the contest and we had a four point lead and the penalty is 20m from their line so why not pile the pressure on and tire their forwards out? Kick for a repeat set even. Anything would have been better than taking the two there. Then what happens. We miss the kick for two and do nothing with the ball in hand because our forwards can't seem to gain the yardage that almost every other team seem to do against us. Then comes the inevitable dropped balls and silly penalties. It was extremely frustrating.

I'm also surprised nobody has mentioned Halifax slowing the play the ball down all game. Not that it had any bearing on the contest but to my mind the Halifax players were much smarter at the ruck and managed to con the referee all game in that department. It seemed to me like the referee blew up for every possible finickity infringement for us but when they were slowing the play the ball the ref turned a blind eye. There was one in the second half where our lad got up to play the ball and the tackler suplexed him back to the floor and the ref told him to get back up. It was laughable.

Abject performance with no ideas in attack. Disappointing.

Sorry Mum

If only we had a creative half who could rip s defiance apart with a bit of magic....



...I’m sure Fev signed one recently....

I thought today was dire. Its dull, dull rugby we play and I can't see many fans saying that they enjoy it.

Our one talismanic player we sold to a rival and he ruthlessly undid our poor play last week. We replaced him with a PT 19-year-old and a on-loan hooker. Our best FB was kindly let go to another rival, and replaced with another kid. Where has THAT money gone? Why have we not replaced them? We have no leaders on the pitch, utterly no idea in attack, and our early season resolute defence is cracking considerably.

I can see that this season WAS about consolidating our position in the league; but if that is the case why make such a big deal of these games? The advertising and media is spot on, but when it gets to the game itself it's like the players can't be ar$ed. The Leeds game was good, yes, but lets not underestimate how utterly woeful Leeds were. It's not like we were back in 2003, cracking out the champagne rugby; we were dull, but lucky. Having said that, there was NONE of the enthusiasm shown from our team against Leeds there today. At least that would have been something.

After last week at Fev, and another £20 spent today I'm trying hard to find a reason to bother going to Odsal next week TBH.

Seem to have ground to a halt, although our injuries have not helped.All this down the middle one out stuff is too predictable.Any progress we make this season is a bonus, but we must surely address the FB issue and we definitely need to grab whatever points are on offer..which points to our unreliable goal kicking options. I wonder how the kids will develop within the style of play JK is adopting and fear we are not going to be entertained any time soon with an expansive game plan. I just hope that some emphasis is going to focus on bringing in an experienced head or two to bind our play into a more consistant and cohesive set up.

Several posters talking about bringing in experience at half back and/or full back

I don't disagree, but who is available?

Genuine question (and please don't bother saying Chisholm, that ship has sailed...)

We are getting into attacking position but not presenting significant problems to the opposition from then on.

No bodies in motion or link play from FB.

Part of that is because we don't have a FB and it doesn't look like we practice anything except moving the ball along the line or a weak kick that is neither a bomb or a chip.

We need some variation in our attacking play. Fax and everybody else knows what we are going to do.

I hope to the Lord Jesus H that this Joe Brown is a FB because Ethan Ryan isnt one. His positional play and finishing is missed out wide.

Before today I would have been happy keeping JL and RM together.
If Keyes is fit then it will be JK and JL. As I've mentioned I hope that this Brown is a FB.

Ryan Brierley did have talks with the club, but we wouldn't meet his wage ask.

He would of at least add some pace and kicking ability into the side. I'm surprised we couldn't meet his wages with Chisholm and McNally gone and Roche and Brown in.

Wonder if the long term injury to Milnes might change matters?

I doubt it. Is two to three months without RM worth breaking the bank for somebody who might or might not perform well?

Personally I'd rather we just knuckle down with what we have got if Rowan is going to be out for the season and get him and JL training next season as early as possible together.

At least this injury might put off any potential vultures from Rowan.

Well no I wouldn’t be breaking the bank as such but we’ve let two starting players in key positions leave without replacing them. I expect both Chisholm and McNally were towards the higher end of our pay scale. Keyes will surely need to be brought back in gradually so we look a bit slim on options once again.

I’d feel more comfortable with Minchella and Lilley in the halves as Wildie is best utilised at 9. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Pickersgill have a run at 6.

Surely not? Minchella seems to be struggling for a bit of form let's not mess him about playing out of position for weeks. Perhaps they will muddle through in the hope that Keyes is over his problems, seems a risky strategy though unless we're settling for mid table this year.