Criticism for Matty Russell? He's been one of our best players this season!

Russell plays even if it means moving him to wing, i have no issue with that and putting Gids in the fb spot.

Gids is brilliant don't get me wrong but that game against Salford shows that Sandow needs to be the one with the ball in hand on the 5th.
He really took control and his kicking game is head and shoulders above Gidleys, although i do like Gids short kicking game, he can still provide that at fb.

I am not criticising him, he has done well in getting us moving forward as I said in my post

I am just saying he is limited as a FB and is a factor as to why our wingers aren't scoring as many tries as they should be

I wouldn't mind seeing him on the wing to see what he could offer as Penny has probably been our quietest player maybe lacking the service but when he has had space to run into he doesn't seem to back himself

Tbh i think a lot of people would like us to have another Hodgson at fb a totally diferent fb to Russell as said Russell great at running it back but not as good as Hodgson at getting into the line.

We could easily do that with Gidley.

But considering we have won the first five games of the season why try and fix something that isn't broke?

I think teams that win games in the last 20 minutes are often mis-characterised as just being fitter. It's the same whenever England play Australia, and we hang in for 60 minutes before the Aussies pull away. It's not necessarily the fitness that causes this. If you consistently play the ball quicker than your opponents, whether that is because you've dominated the collision better or because you have better ball movement in attack, that's gonna materialise in the last 20 minutes when the speed of the ruck really takes its toll. Maybe you're just winning games in the last 20 minutes because you're playing the ball quicker for the full game.

That's exactly what I keep saying, but some want to constantly change and disrupt the side.

Without injuries I'd be astounded if the half backs or full back change.

I was of the same opinion until the Salford game, don't get me wrong Gidley has to be on that field.
Sandow had more kicking responsiblity v Salford and i thought the kicking game was stronger.
I'm coming round to Ratch partnering Sandow and moving Gidley to Fullback.
Sandow is head and shoulders the best kicker of a ball in that team in play.
Matt Russell still drops back as wingers do so we don't even lose the yardage in the early tackles.

Gidley then plays a role similar to how Hodgson played it but we still have the dynamism of Russell in the side.

I had similar thoughts myself at the start of the season, however Russell is causing plenty of problems on plays 3 and 4 either jumping in to dummy half, or picking up an offload in centre field. That side of his game would be lost if he was out on the wing, what we would gain of course is a better passing threat at full back, which might bring the wing men in to the game more - just depends which would benefit us more.

I think for now we carry on as we are - its working after all even if we don't seem too fluent. Maybe we could use Ratchford off the bench and spell Westerman with him, using Ratch as that third pivot for 20/30 mins a game?

I would like to see Johnson come back into the team tbh, I thought he was excellent at the back end of last season,

If I were in charge I would line up something like this;

Johnson
Russell
Evans
Ratchford
Lineham
Gidley
Sandow

Very good point, his scoots 20-30m from the opponents line have resulted in us scoring crucial tries.

No changes needed apart from Clark coming back in although it is a difficult choice between Ratchford and Dwyer for the hooker interchange. I thought Ratchford did an excellent job on Saturday, much improved from the previous week against Salford.

For me let Clark have another week to recover, replacing Dodds with Ben Evans or Joe Philbin.

Possible but he is either fit or he isn't. The Physio team won't pass him fit unless he clears certain tests.

I do think he has been missed though and bet he really wants to play against his former team.

what with it being a short term injury, is he going to need a run out in the reserves or are we just gonna throw him back in the first team?

Personally i think we're managing the situation well at the moment, if we can afford to give him a weeks extra rest, then maybe we take the opportunity, but i'm not overly keen on bringing him in cold for the demics game.