The one major problem with Riley is his size & he is always conscious of being bundled into touch with the ball so nine times out of ten he comes inside where he also runs into heavy traffic , but i think we've all seen him tackle some of the biggest bruisers in the game at one time or another. He does seem to me to be more comfortable going forward when he comes inside to play prop well away from the touchline ,but i was very pleased with his in field kick that set Higham up against Wigan.


As for Williams...although he didn't set the world alight at Bradford ,neither did he do anything wrong.

If we're giving brownie points for Riley chasing Hall down, can I suggest you look at the Sutcliffe try again?

Riley lost ground on him after starting only w or 3 metres behind.

However, watch how Cooper and Hill never gave up and prevented Sutcliffe from scoring closer to the posts. A huge effort from the two of them.

Reilly, for reasons known only to himself, went towards Jones-Bishop.

Side issue, but related ......

As Hall ran in that try (past us in the South Stand) I immediately turned to my lad and said "What's happened to his speed?" .....

I've checked against the game on tv and from his first running step to crossing the line (ie- discounting taking the ball under his arm and the final stoop to ground the ball) he covered 90m in 11.1 seconds ...... that's terrible compared to a couple of years back ..... no wonder Reilly was able to run back on a diagonal (probably 100m+) and still get to him.

I can only assume, as with Atkins for us, he now spends more time doing upper body strength work in the gym than he does on his flexibility and sprint co-ordination.

He might not be Usain Bolt, but that's still pretty good going. I'm a young whippersnapper and when I'm reffing I probably run 90m in 11 seconds.

Ithink you will find it is easier to run faster without the ball than with it , plus Hall's work in the gym paid off with the hand off