I tried to watch the game from the French Alps but even from 10,000 ft I could only see a blur of players. I have now watched it curtesy of YePipe and was pretty impressed. What struck me most was the sheer determination to defend at all costs and the will to win - if that was last season we would have folded. I have seen Julien's defence before, he is very uncompromising and at 20/21 ? will hopefully mature into a fine centre. If he could add some finesse to his attacking game he would be an outstanding prospect. Probably a good replacement for Atkins in that game as well ? since defence was the key to winning the game.
Gidley was good value in the warm up games and looked a complete professional against Leeds (he also looks to be the de facto captain, regardless of what the website says) . I agree with all the other points that have been made, plus he can goal kick from any angle which is a big upgrade from Ratchford's stint last year. I felt a bit sorry for Hughes, but all players have an off day and he will surely settle in to be an automatic choice. Cox seems to give his all when he takes the ball up, if I was a greedy man I would like to see a bit more muscle/weight on him. I still think we are a bit lightweight in the pack and will have to work hard against the bigger sides such as Saints, but as the days get lighter and grounds firm we must surely have a very mobile set of players to punch holes in most teams.
Top four for me this year, and if we steer clear of injuries perhaps a final ?

I was watching Wire v Saints in the Oak Tree in N-L-W a few years back when Toa made a break

"Go on Love" i shouted in a pub full of Saints fans, not my finest moment.

Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work.
Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles.
It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.

Quote: roopy "Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work. Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles. It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.'" The match stats are here www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12199. I think that Sandow has been brought across for other reasons.

Quote: roopy "Very few give Gidley credit for it, but when he plays in the defensive line and takes on as much of the defensive workload as any of the forwards, you usually find the forwards are also better in attack and defence just because they are relieved of doing so much work. Coaches and other players notice, but very few fans pick up on how the much the forward pack benefits from having a half doing 45 tackles. It's just a shame your other half is Sandow, who probably attempted 7 tackles and missed 5 of them.'" The match stats are here www.rugby-league.com/superleague ... port/12199. I think that Sandow has been brought across for other reasons.

made 13 and missed 4 according to league express, he also scored a try, and created another, as well as creating a couple of halfbreaks for his centre.

As I said a few months ago I think, Gidley and Sandow should work in the halves. Gidley will do all the hard work in both attack and defence, and Sandow will look for opportunities to pull off some match winning plays.
It probably works for both of them. Gidley really isn't that good at making try scoring opportunities, while that's about all Sandow is good at.

considering making try scoring opportunities is what we were terrible at last year, i'll take it.

"making try scoring opportunities, while that's about all Sandow is good at"

What a strange thing to write. Roopy ... I'm beginning to question your knowledge of the game.

The Fa'afili argument in full flow again, 'all he's good at is scoring tries'

I hope you don't get to see how Sandow goes on his own.
He'll be gassed after 30 minutes, miss 12 tackles, and won't have the energy to run when an opportunity comes.

I'm not hating on Sandow - or Gidley - they both are what they are. Gidley is a workhorse who isn't much of a playmaker, and Sandow is a good playmaker who doesn't have much of a motor.

I think Sandow also gives us a very good kicking game, that along with the creativity and 'spark' are probably what we've missed most over the past two years post Briers.

Haven't really noticed a problem with his 'engine', either at Leeds when we got through a lot of defense, or at the back end of last season when he came over.

You have to remember this is SL and not the NRL Roopy. Most of our players work down the pits on game day morning, then kit up and get on the 'field' for the afternoon game. At Leigh the supporters have to help put up the posts before the match begins as their ground is shared with a professional girls handball club. At Wigan they need to take the cars of the pitch and smooth out the mud before a game. We are really just a league of semi-professionals over here. For instance, we are not very much into tackling. We prefer high scoring games with players whizzing through defences and lots of tries. Most games finish with scores like 54-46 and are played at 3.00am in the morning to fit in with the Sky TV programmes.
But anyway, I digress, what I was going to say was that Most Australians that come over here are either over 38 or have been convicted of a string of homicides. So you see we are quite happy with crappy old Gidley, even if he can barely pass the ball. And Sandow directing traffic rather than tackling the man is a shoe-in for us - providing he can kick for touch and accidentally put the ball into Currie's hands for a match winning try. We will struggle on with what we've got.

You're doing exactly that, and your arguments fly in the face of what we've seen from both of them thus far.

According to the Leeds stats, Sandow made 15 tackles and missed 1. We had worse than that with Briers in his early days.....he wasnt too shabby!

More than happy with Sandow now as he looks fit and enjoying his game also doing what was needed in defence, Sandow and Gidley as new halves will only get better.