Think Walshaw had forgotten how to play RL since it was that long since he's got a game. Defence was awful.

Clark would be a big miss. When's Kavanagh expected back?

I think Clare is best on the wing.

Think we have put ourselves in the position where we cannot afford any more slip ups. Therefore we need to play our strongest team each week and let the following week look after itself.

Well, we certainly owe Halifax one.

The strangest thing is that although on the old paper we have a number of better players, in reality, Halifax have been murdering us with regularity. So, the first thing our squad needs from Rohan is a self-belief that they can actually win. I think he's good at that, but still they will surely all be wondering, and the Fax lads will surely start full of confidence.

Then, we have no idea who'll be missing this week. If we are as scratch as v. Batley then we will struggle, against anyone, because we don't have any attacking plans. craft or guile, and we are highly fragile as a result in trying to attack in the opposition's half, because people aren't running as a unit, ball getting caught standing still, forced passes etc etc. yes, hospital passes, dropping the ball cold, one-man-plunge-after-plunge and being pushed backwards all the time are all a type of crapness, but it wouldn't take that much organisation and leadership to turn this around; in those games where we do click in the middle and get on a roll, we've shown what we can do, and our points difference and points scored tell a decent tale (it's probably worth an extra league point against the teams around us).

But Haggerty at halfback (and he tried hard and played well) wasn't ever likely to lead to rampant attacks or slick passing and handling movements. The lack of halfbacks continues to be the bane of our lives.

Million dollar question - what IS our best team? Nobody seems to know!

that's true, we don't. We don't really know what Lowes' view of the strongest team was, and certainly not Smith as he's only just off the plane; plus we have had so many people out; plus we have started to get a few people coming in.

It's the sort of situation where it might take a year, or two, that we don't have to settle on your strongest team.

But at the moment it is probably nearer a case of the least-weak team that we can cobble together. Which TBF Smith has made a decent fist of so far, as he has with the attitude and belief (players and fans!).

On the subject of injuries, in his interview in the Bulletin paper on Sunday, Purts said he'd had a shoulder operation and was just starting his physio. So that's some injury news from the club, right there! smh

Think its a bit of an exaggeration to say fax have been murdering us with regularity. They've won last 3 games 20-16, 52-18 and 14-10. first two we rested a lot of key players as lowes viewed middle eights and MPG the following weeks as more important fixtures, rightly or wrongly. We were missing a few and had late withdrawals on day for this yrs fixture. Dont think winning by 4 points a couple of times is murdering us regularly. The 52-18 was more worrying but we had one eye on MPG so there was a reason for it.

We definitely need at least one of Thomas or Addy fit this week to partner Charnock, but assuming one is I'd be fairly confident of getting the result. Our defence is steadily improving under Smith and our attacking play will improve as Charnock and Moss settle in and squads confidence increases.

1 ) ?
2 ) ?
3 ) ?
4 ) ?
5 ) ?
6 ) Gaskell
7 ) Addy
8 ) ?
9 ) Baille
10 ) ?
11 ) ?
12 ) ?
13 ) ?

14 ) Lauaki
15 ) ?
16 ) ?
17 ) ?

2 Blythe

Won't play again this season and is contemplating retirement.

Well that's just amazing. Purtell addressed the diners in the Coral Stand after the Batley game, and was asked how his shoulder operation had gone. Fine was the response. When will you be available was the next question. Worst case, said Adrian, the week before the middle 8's.

which summarises the problem. The real question is what is our strongest team if everybody were 100% match fit. But this is RL, and therefore thats a fantasy team. The lack of information about injuries makes our attempts to work out the best team a guessing game.