What the last few games has shown us ie WCS and SL so far is that half backs are having an increasing influence on the outcome of games.

1. We won't finish in the top 4 this season with our current half back pairing. I said this last season that our next investment needs to be at half back. Wheeler and O'brien, whilst ok, are not the half backs of a top team.

2. If you look at our current squad compared to where we were in 2011 then we have gone backwards. I appreciate RL tends to go in cycles but I certainly thought we would be in a better position player wise than we are now.

3. We make far too many needless errors and it's this that will cost us games this year.

Increasing since when?? A team's half-backs have pretty much always been critical to success, unless your team had a ridiculous game-breaker in another position, like Hanley or Offiah, say.

It's easy to see why our halves are getting grief - but the simple fact is that none of them can do what Briers did in his latter years particularly in terms of organising the team on the field, possibly because they lack the necessary experience, perhaps because they lack the requisite skills. Either way, I don't see many halves in SL who Wire could realistically sign that would be a massive improvement on what we have currently.

Halfbacks in this country generally are very poor, we don't seem to produce them anymore.

When Matty smith is considered one of the best you know you've got problems. Pitiful to think there is not even one half decent British half back knocking around super league...and to think of all those who used to have a pop at briers??!

Well I'm going to be forum enemy No1 again because I'm getting back on the Ratchford and Bridge at hb band wagon again.

We were undefeated in 6 or 7 games last season at a time when we couldn't buy a win.

And we battered teams too!

I'll go with you on Bridge at halfback, but having no Bridge in the centres means we'll miss having a creative ball player in the 3/4 as Atkins is more of a go forward man. With no Briers I think we need to
have a few ball players dotted around the team.

Yes Gaz.
Go Wheeler at left centre, Ratchford at 7 Bridge at 6 Joel at right centre.

All the players above are recognised at those positions, we are not messing around with positional changes here.
We usually play Joel at right winger here but he was a right centre and winger in Oz.

Build the team around them.
I cannot stress enough, we must where possible always have or best players closest to the ball.

I'm not dismissing GOB, he is still developing.

If we have those 4 players in that nucleus we will do just fine, regardless of who is fb or winger. Matty Penny Atkins (Evans inj)

For me, Bridge and Ratch will be at 6s and 7s (crap joke). But seriously that could work. I like the idea though that in Bridge we have another pivot in the 3/4, abit like when Hodgson joined the line from fb.

Gaz it does work, see what we did leading up to the magic weekend and just after, but then TS moved Bridge out wide again and brought Myler back in and things started to go sour.

Bump, out of the CC when previously in the early rounds and the league we blitz through with excellent form at 6&7.

The evidence was there in black and white it worked and yet TS tried to fix it??? doh.

Irrespective of who we chose at 6 & 7 today or who we do in the future, the Catalans half-backs gave their team a massive advantage over us by virtue of a ruthless and punishing kicking game. In my view, Catalans have the best half-back combination of any team in the competion, but most teams have at least one half-back or hooker capable of turning the wingers and FB round, and building pressure. We appear to have none.

Penny aside, we don't have a player capable of going full length, so when we are constantly being turned around like that we're in a hole and susceptible to giving posession, territory and points away because of our poor ball security and style of play.

Just watched the game, Joel Monaghan and Micky Higham have been woeful so far this season and Gary Wheeler was shocking.
I think Brad Dwyer would add more than Higham. Anthony England is a bigger loss than given credit for and Asotasi made zero impact again.
Joe Philbin played really well and could keep his spot but Laithwaite & Currie have to improve.
I'd start Ben Harrison next game as well.