Exactly, please refrain.

Get ryan bailey back

Edited for accuracy

I think you may well be correct, there are problems wherever you look atm, but could the pack be the key one ?


Last year our pack made little ground with the ball and relied heavily on Chris Hill, who played long minutes for a prop. TS relied on Russell scooting, plus Clark to get us up field and in an attacking position. This year there was no Hill, Russell has lost his one and only ability - to make big yards, and the two signings Cooper and Crosby have failed to really strengthen the pack.
When you look at our games this year we spend nearly all the time in our own half with an increasingly desperate side trying to force the play and making matters worse by giving the ball away / penalties. With the pack on the back foot players like Clark and Dwyer are never going to flourish because they rely on fast play the balls and small gaps. As we continue to lose games morale and confidence falls and it just becomes one vicious circle.

As Hill gets match fitter it will help, and perhaps Crosby too will pick up after his absence, but we need to drop Russell, focus on basic rugby without the off-loads, charge-downs, handling errors.

Teams have worked us out. Nullify the quick play the ball by fair means or foul, kick deep into the corners knowing we have few (one) full-length pace merchants and wait for the mistakes to come. And the current team is being extremely benevolent when it comes to mistakes.

What concerns me hugely is that the players surrender so willingly in the tackle and show no right to regain their feet. Opposition players are battling like their lives depend on it to play the ball, and earning lots of penalties and momentum as a result whereas ours show about as much desire to get going as a Frenchman living in a knocking shop.

At least he offered us a bit of bite and was a snide.

Too many choir boys in our pack, even Westwood nowadays.

With our pack with average gains as follows
Philbin 4.71 (four really??)
Sims 5.18 (Yes basher has 5).
Cooper 6.52
Crosby 6.54
Hill 6.63 (coming back from injury)

It's no surprise we cannot get out of our own half. Woeful.

Jack Hughes missing 1/10 tackles tops the defensive frailty list.

How the hell does jullien not get a gig?

Ecause smith have very little faith in our younger players barring currie he will only pick them if forced to through injuries

He's picking Livett and King isn't he...?

by choice no.

If you are the head coach then surely you are going to pick the best players you can get hold of whether from Oz, scouting other areas / RU, buying from other clubs, or your youth system. But with the youngsters you are in a Catch 22 situation in that they need game time to get the experience and develop, so they will inevitably make mistakes while they are learning. So I can see that there will be times when the coach doesn't want to play them - in finals, when you need the points etc, but surely in general they are simply another source of squad player. Finally, if you look at the youngsters that we have released there is really only GOB that looks to have made a success in SL. The rest; Rhys Williams, Ryan Shaw, Laithwaite, Ben Evans, Glen Riley, Danny Bridge etc are all plying their trade in lower divisions so we have not 'lost' a good prospect.

our packs not as bad as we think hill cooper Crosby sims philbin and king are a good enough set of forwards that should be able to gain good yards. Now if they are looking for an offload or to get a quick play the ball they accept the tackle and don't make the extra yards hill does pumping his legs.

Second row I think we have an good options in currie savellio Hughes Julian Wilde and king

Westerman at loose has been great and along with Clark are our two quality player in our pack.

Why they seem beaten and deflated is beyond me but they are playing nowhere near what they are capable of,did last season take its toll physically and emotionally ? Losing two finals will hurt

I don't like how our forwards are used or not used in some cases Sep good solid runs from our big men to draw in defences then look at maybe a scoot or pass the ball but mix it up we e become very predicamtable to watch and I assume to play against


I'm past the whole blame smith and smith out we're past that now I think we have to get behind the team and become the 14th man and will them on to play I remember they tear we were in a relegation scrap and the fans sang and cheered the team on I think we beat Sheffield at home to secure survival?? The game was as exciting as a final to watch with what was at stake and thankfully we stayed up. But the he can seem flat for large parts of the game!!

If we're to turn it around we need our pack to win or make the middle an arm wrestle and be able to make some meters to at least try and build a platform to attac from not hope for a risky offload to pay off or someone to just barge over from 5m out

He was picking King last season 'by choice' on plenty of occasions. Both of them in fact.

King appears to be one of his favorites, in fact both of the king bros seem to be 'tony's guys'. Personally i think there could be something special in toby king, certainly in attack.

Livett at the moment may probably be looking over his shoulder, as he's flavour of the month, adn look at what happened to the previous flavour of the month, Patton.