We were pretty awful, the right hand side isn?t good enough. Russell carries the ball like a blow up doll. And Tai may hit hard but is a pretty average player in all areas. Leigh started with a plan to pin us in that corner and let Thewlis, Tai and Russell have to carry us out and it worked, we couldn?t make any ground. 


The opposite side, when we did get a chance for Ashton and King to bring the ball away actually made meters and got us out of trouble, and when King got the ball in space it looked like we could actually create. 


It?s time to ditch Russell. The Halton try alone is evidence for that, he just doesn?t show any urgency on our own line. Tai too can go. Currie and Lindrop have to play that side and Thewlis needs a rocket because his progression has stagnated. He needs to start making meters and stop getting pushed back, and actually just get up and play the ball rather than moaning at the ref. The difference with out sets when we come out of the right corner is absolutely night and day from the left, and it needs to be fixed. 


I know Leigh will be disappointed with their finish, but we had chances to win a game there despite how awful we were. 

I agree it would be like Powell all over again. The players would sulk and get him sacked. 

We all accept recruitment has been abysmal. I got laughed at on here when I suggested we should interview a wide array of people for the post of Director of Rugby operations and to invite experienced candidates with an RL network spanning superleague and the NRL. But of course we did a jobs for the boys knee jerk after Powell was sacked. If Chambers is not responsible (in whole or in part) for recruitment - who is? 

i.e) who discovered, appraised, negotiated and completed the signing of Dan Russell on a 2 year contract?

Russell is an outcome of gambling on Bateman. Papered over the crack last year and kept money in the bank incase he couldn?t get a deal in the NRL. 

My main issue, after watching it back, is that we don?t know what type of team we want to be (or maybe panic and get desperate and go away from the script). On 12 minutes, we?re 2-0 up and have them on their line, and we kick cross field for King rather than roll in the in goal and repeat. It?s a lottery when the ball is in the air and we lost and they run 60m on the break. The next time we?re down there, we have another chance to go to Sneyd and try and get a repeat and we go short to Dufty who kicks dead, 7 tackle set and we?re under pressure. It?s 2-0 away from home, we?ve took all of the venom out of the crowd and then we are going away from the script and release the pressure twice, doing 2 different things. 


We need to either be comfortable in the arm wrestle, don?t crack and just grind and make them work harder than us. Or just play and see what happens, which we seem to reserve for when the game is almost out of reach. 

Were just the slowest team in regard to line speed and I cannot remember any game this season when we actually won the arm wrestle. So disappointing, Leigh should have won by 4 points given their dominance.

I blame Justin Holbrook's wife

I like Wane and would have liked him to come here but that was always a worry. Wigan has a very different culture with a conveyor belt of young talent who are bought in to the team culture and know that egos are not tolerated, but also they had a good eye for signing quality players from outside. Wane always had a culture of guys who knew how to dig in and win big games when it counted. 

Powell did well in the Cas culture which was also one of leaving your egos at the door and making shrewd good value signings. In hindsight he wasn't the right man to do a clear out and culture change here - especially as the Cas guys he brought over to try to bring Cas culture were past their best and didn't have the performances to get credibility with our existing players. 

Burgess was better suited to changing the culture because he has the aura and personality to stamp himself on players who have big egos. But that gets undermined when the recruitment is bad. The quality of squad is weaker than it was in the Price era before the Powell clear out and Burgess is struggling to get performances out of a team which is very mid-table quality with some players who would struggle to get picked up by other SL teams if they left us. 

I remember during the Price era I used to think our fans overrated our squad - there was frustration that we weren't winning the Grand Final because a lot of fans on here would argue that we were as good as Wigan/Saints/Catalans on paper. But I think now most of our fans accept that we're lacking in quality and there's some chaff in some positions. 

Which players in our squad have big egos though?

9th and staying 9th ?

MorePlaymakersNeeded: Were just the slowest team in regard to line speed and I cannot remember any game this season when we actually won the arm wrestle. So disappointing, Leigh should have won by 4 points given their dominance. Re physicality can you cite one instance of one of our pack putting the opposing player on his arris? Either with a block busting run or towering tackle?  Thing is when you keep extending the likes of Joe Philbin (as an example) and having him as interchange then its quite clear why we struggle. And Crowther making his pitch for a new contract in the WG when he has zero impact on the game.  Admittedly Musgrove was probably our standout against Leigh and Vaughan.  Re Sam the press have picked up on his new prickly nature now.  Being surly in the post match press conference when your team has been dirge never ends well.  https://www.totalrl.com/sam-burgess-gives-ill-tempered-press-conference-after-warrington-wolves-loss/

MorePlaymakersNeeded: Were just the slowest team in regard to line speed and I cannot remember any game this season when we actually won the arm wrestle. So disappointing, Leigh should have won by 4 points given their dominance. Re physicality can you cite one instance of one of our pack putting the opposing player on his arris? Either with a block busting run or towering tackle?  Thing is when you keep extending the likes of Joe Philbin (as an example) and having him as interchange then its quite clear why we struggle. And Crowther making his pitch for a new contract in the WG when he has zero impact on the game.  Admittedly Musgrove was probably our standout against Leigh and Vaughan.  Re Sam the press have picked up on his new prickly nature now.  Being surly in the post match press conference when your team has been dirge never ends well.  https://www.totalrl.com/sam-burgess-gives-ill-tempered-press-conference-after-warrington-wolves-loss/

Depends if Salford's money comes through.


Seriously top 4 will be out of sight after the next run of games.