I'd say it was the weather more than anything else, heavy rain and a heavy pitch (especially at Bradford) is a huge leveller in RL. We had all our main playmakers on the pitch yesterday and that should have been more than enough to beat Salford, the friday night game obviously didn't affect Carvell and Westwood, Hodgson wasn't over extended by England on Friday night.

I don't buy into Friday night being the main reason that we lost, Monaghan seemed to play well below standard as did Briers, friday night wasn't the reason for Briers and Monaghan playing below par as they didn't play in the Exiles game.

But 7 of the players around them had played friday night and had been missing all week, When we played Cas a few weeks ago Rangi Chase did nothing because his team mates couldn't set a platform. I thought we looked really tired second half. A few weeks ago we beat Salford 60-0, so what else has changed?

If it had been dry on sunday i'd have expected us to have been bouncing off the turf in all honesty, of course friday night didn't help which is mainly down to the training during the week with us having players being away but they have no problem with this in the NRL with players backing up after a State Of Origin game which they have done for quite a while now. Like i said above, friday night didn't seem to affect Carvell or Westwood.

We have a very good squad, even though i'm not Jon Clarke's biggest fan i'm still suprised he didn't play some part yesterday whether that was in the back row or at scrum half.

I'd have played Clarke aswell instead of Westwood. Did a tonne of work on friday the lad needs a break.

consider also that all players (both England and Exiles) who played last Friday had been in training with their respective International coaches all last week and no Club training; so no game plans for yesterdays games could be built up

thought Wires display was understandable given the International circumstances; plus the weather was a game-leveller that Salford adapted better to

think the RFL need a re-think on these mid-season Internationals; at the best they should cancel all other league games over the same weekend to give Clubs with higher representation time to build and recover for next Club game

but we are still top the table; think the acid test this weekend away at HKR

KEEP THE FAITH 2011...........

Its no different in the NRL where their players are away training with Queensland and NSW for an Origin game but they don't have any problem backing up, Origin games in Australia are a lot tougher than the Exiles game. I thought Friday nights game was played at a low intensity anyway, came across as a glorified exhibition game at times.

could it also be that salford played out of their skins lads?

Yes, Salford played well. Maybe not 'out of their skins', but certainly played well. This, along with Friday night and the weather led to Salfords win. Had either Salford played as badly as they have at times this season, or Friday nights game not happened, or the weather been gloriously dry and sunny then I think we would have won comfortably. All three were contributing factors in the result.

[i"I think I might have to take some blame for this. For the last 10 years I've been bringing my mum to one or two home games per year and prior to today she'd never seen us win at home. I took her along today and she's still never seen us win at home. I may just have to accept that she's clearly cursed".[/i

So glad your mum's to blame, I never wear my beanie hat and decided to yesterday. With about 20 minutes left I took it off actually believing it might make some difference...



For the first time ever myself and daughter came out of game arguing!!!! She was saying we got beat due to the game on Friday night but I couldn't quite work out how that would affect a player from catching a ball!!! At the end of the day, we are beatable. Salford defended well, they were playing in the rain just as we were, they deserved the win, bloody nora we're gonna get beat occasionally, and at least Wigan, Saints, Huddersfield didn't fair much better!!! Yup, would have been great to capitalise on it, but we didn't

personally i think it was a management blame. Riley cannot be recalled as he has 1 week left on his month loan . Mitchell and mccarthy was recalled but only 1 was used. laighweight was in the 19 but not used . by the way i dont know how to spell it . Monaghan was our best player today imo . there was no enthusiasm in our game we had scrums and walked to them penaltys and took our time . poor game all round .

Anybody notice the blatant knock on Thaler missed, when Myler put a little kick through and Henry tried to clear it, massive bobble then re-gathered. Apparently went backwards.

I think the Riley situation was just unlucky. The club obviously wanted him to get some game time and as soon as he went out on loan Joel and Evans got injured. It will be interesting to see if he gets recalled from Quins after next week. It wouldn't surprise me if the don't to be honest, as Williams seems to be rated more highly (not sure why though).

Monas has been excellent this year, but I thought he had his poorest game of the season yesterday, as did Briers.