Difference is, Dorn was and still is a class player and we made him look shi[size.[/sizete.

I thought Smith was better last night. Set up both tries.

Needs a kicking game though!

Far be it from me to defend Smith in any way but as with Dorn in 2007 he's quickly becoming a scapegoat for the rest of our team's shortcomings. It's very hard for a stand-off to impose himself on a game in which his pack is getting beaten. That has been the case so far in every game except Celtic. In that match, behind a domiant set of forwards, we saw Smith run the show & look every inch a quality half-back.

If, and it's a very big if, our pack can get on top in a game & we still don't see anything from Smith then without doubt everyone will have been proved right. However, for the time being at least I'll reserve judgement.

Yorkshire-red - spot on - at the start of the season I was actually optimistic that our forwards looked capable of competing and creating space for the backs to work in - against Wigan esp. 2nd half we spent most of the time in our own half - of the forwards can't drive the ball upfield then you're never going to se the best from the backs.

You have to be joking. If you think that he ran that game, you haven't got a clue about RL. Even for the 20 minutes we were dominant, Smith was hardly involved. IIRC, Alker was MOM, closely followed by Stapo, Myler and Cashmere.

I didn't say he had a stinker, but there's a bloody big difference between [i'running the show' [/iand simply being involved now and again.

I agree with both you and Yorkshire Red in that Smith ain't the problem. As far as I can tell, most of the problems appear to stem from a distinct inability to tackle.......simple as.

If we were able to keep teams out for a sustained period, we would end up with better field position ourselves, and therefore have a better platform for our attacking players. You cant win RL games when you're constantly on the back foot.

The tackling is a major worry. We've conceded 39 tries so far, which is truly awful, and something I don't think many fans expected.

ok, I offer my apologies, as I was wrong to include Myler. However, I didn't look back and check the stats.
I'm aware that you know your stuff YR, but I'm still baffled as to why you said Smith ran the game that night.
I've seen plenty of halfbacks run games, and to me, he certainly didn't blow me away in that particular game.

Like I said, it's all down to lack of tackling at the moment, and as the backs are in disarray at present, with injuries and people playing out of position, it's going to be really difficult to stop teams wading thru our defensive line.

Was there a better halfback on display in the game that night? IMO, no. For me while there was a superior individual performer on the night in Mal Alker (and also IMO Stapleton), Smith was at the centre of pretty much everything we did well in attack in that particular game.

Quite agree on the second point, which has reminded me about a very worrying point from Friday night. The defence in the last few games has been breached mainly when on their own line & as a result I was taking comfort from the thought that if we could sort out our line defence then we'd stop shipping big points every week. On Friday however Wigan were flooding through our line with frightening regularity from all over the park. We MUST improve defensively but it's certainly not going to be sorted out overnight & I fear a lot more pain for us before it gets sorted.

i don't doubt his commitment but there lies one of are major problems while Alker is allowed to dictate our play no other player will get the chance and the few chances they get their scared to make a mistake so don't try anything.

Dorn top try scorer in his season with us, played out of position and made scapegoat.
Smith now he is just $hite but is our coaches favourite so will always play.

Thats the same thing wat happened with langi and harrison, langi was harrison favourite but dorn didnt play out of postion, he played stand off until mcrae came.