Meh, can't see what the problem is, we've got 20+ practice games still to go, and so long as we win at least half, we'll be firing on all cylinders for when it counts.

See people are looking at this in the context of it's only one game, beginning of the season against a team who usually have the wood over us rather than actually looking at some real long term problems.

No one is leading the team, there is no one directing play, telling people where to stand and what runs to make, watch ANY game Briers plays in and he never shut up, he was always waving and pointing to someone.

Westwood isn't a captain, love the bloke to pieces but he's not a captain.

Mike Monaghan isn't a half back, never has been, never will be, Tony needs to put that to bed NOW. Not after a few games, GAME 1 DONE and DUSTED, get it out his system and forget it.

Riley and Evans are a season off being in a top 4 side, big guys but they don't have the strength that comes with maturity, not sure on England, we'll see.

Asotasi needs to step up, if anyone thought his performance was adequate last night, they need their bumps felt, i'll give him a bit more leeway though seeing as it's all new to him.

Ratchford, either play him at fullback or play him at standoff (preferable) but don't be shifting him about constantly so that he doesn't know his ar5e from his elbow. Keep him in the middle, give him chance to mature into a good 6 and to get an understanding of his halfback partner. If not, drop Russell, stick O'Brien in the middle and leave him at the back.
Halfbacks need understanding, an almost intuitive understanding of each others game.

Atkins..similar to Westwood needs composure especially on tackles 1 to 3, this has been apparent for a while so why isn't TS saying something?

Riley although not a scapegoat does seem to be in the fortunate position of having no competition because he has looked way short of what we need to sure up the left edge, granted Atkins doesn't help but he has to take some responsibilty.

Theses aren't problems that just appeared yesterday, TS needs to sort it out pretty sharpish for me.

Presumably I am a "", though not sure why. At the end of the day I am a paying customer and as such have a right to an opinion. You can kid yourself, but yesterday just wasn't good enough.

I've already said it, and I'll be quite happy to say it again; we won't get anywhere near the GF this year. I don't care if people say it's only one game, plenty to come and then when we do get there they bring my posts back up. Doesn't bother me. I just believe that we haven't got enough this year. It's a transision phase with a lot of senior players leaving and youth coming in.



Just goes to show, two captains yet no leadership.



There was no shouting or screaming from Westwood, nor from Monaghan either. Should have given it to Asotasi, he's been Captain of Souths for a few years so has had leadership experience.



Was having horrible flashbacks to the Michael Sullivan era last night. GOB, Rach and Myler in the halves, both Mickeys rotating at hooker. Monas has won a Lance Todd at hooker, that should say it all.



From what I've seen of England, he looks like a great prospect and if he's anything like what Hilly is, then we've got a good one on our hands. GRiley and Ben Evans are still young, not played that many games. More games will bring more maturity, they'll be more settled.



I didn't see him at Salford, but he must have only played about 10-15 minutes against Leigh so it wasn't enough to gauge an opinon of him. Last night, he made a couple of good hit ups but overall he wasn't as good as I'm sure he could have been. Will take him a few games to get with everything.



I'm sure Ratch was purchased with him being in mind for the long term replacement from Briers. Obviously with Russell still on the sidelines, he needs to fill in at FB but when Matt is back, Ratch should slot straight back in at 6. Him and Myler need to have the game time to gel. It's a kind of new era, a Briers-less era if you will.



There was certainly no understanding between Ratch and Monas last night. Only seemed to improve slightly when GOB replaced Higham and Monas went to HK.



Atkins is probably still down from not being picked in the World Cup. He's not been his best for a while now.



Penny is on the sidelines, and from what I saw of Gene Ormsby at Leigh a couple of weeks ago, he seems to have plenty of speed and a bit of skill, so it may not be long before he gets his chance to see what he can do. Regardless or not of how many players didn't perform last night, I always knew that Chris Riley's name would be right at the top.

He is the new Mike Wainwright.



Tony Smith is God, he always will be in the eyes of Warrington fans.

But even God can make *** up's now and again. The only thing is, in some people's eyes he can do no wrong. I'm sure it will be sorted, no question about that. Question is, when?

Ah, so he'll be bedding O'Brien in.

You didn't stop to think that maybe TS maybe dropped a boo boo?

Oh jesus, I've said it now. Get the pitchforks out. [iHeathen, heathen[/i, I hear people cry.

Could you imagine the slagging off if Dr Kookash had put this side together?

I don't know why I'm bothering but what the hell has this got to do with ANYTHING?

I think he realised fairly early that he had made a mistake.. But the damage was done by then. We were a beaten team on the backfoot.

I would like to see GOB given a good 6 or 7 games on the run in the team... We need a HB to lead us around.. Ratchford and Myler don't appear to fit the mold.. Give him the shirt, give him some confidence, lets see how he goes... if after a decent run in the team its not working, make a change and move him on... But lets at least give him a proper shot.

Im all for giving these younger lads a shot this year.. its probably going to be a transitional season for us, so lets make the most of it... the likes of Evans x 2, GOB, laithwaite, Riley, Bridge, Dwyer, Ormsby... lets give them some game time. I dont mind losing a few league games if it means we are seeing valuable game time for the younger lads.

The problem last night was these young lads were spectacularly let down by the older, more established first teamers.

then dont

The key thing for me was no one even spoke to the ref from what i saw really. Had Briers been on the pitch one of those high tackles would have been dealt with properly as he'd have been right over in Benthams face questioning things. Rightly or wrongly given he wasn't captain in the end, he WOULD have been over there. We can "lead by example" all we want, but don't underestimate the power of getting inside the ref's head. All it takes is the seed planting sometimes and LB was VERY good at making a cheeky throwaway comment make a difference.

EDIT

Furthermore, a few conversations here and there would have done wonders for our clearly flagging defence, allowing us to take a moment and reset our line and regain some composure.

A bit of your own advice that perhaps you should take board more often than not....

"it is better to keep your bill shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt"

Eric Morecambe 1974

Ratch needs to quit trying to be a one man band, and he has no direction at the back. Riley needs to put his shoulder in instead of swiping.Atkins needs to run forward and only forward, he spends too much time trying to back out of tackles that someone else comes in a takes him down. We had nobody running off the ball yesterday whatsoever. We are never going to win anything with Monas in the halfs, he isn't even competent there. We need aggression in the forwards, Harrison and Wood will bring that upon return but the others need to take note. Waterhouse needs to get in gear. Westwood needs to take it all on his shoulders. That's what I got from last night.

Can I just say that I don't see where the dig at Myler is coming from. I saw at least 4 or 5 times that he had the ball and absolutely no options around him, so had to take the tackle. With respect, the best half back in the world cant create a chance when he has no-one running angles, dummy runners, especially behind a beaten pack etc.

The whole team, older guys and inexperienced youngsters, need to have a good look at themselves before pulling the Jersey on again!!

Well, I've been fairly vocal in my criticism of Myler for some time, and particularly last night so I'll try and answer that.

Firstly the guy has no kicking game whatsover - no variation, no accuracy nothing.
Secondly, he isn't vocal enough - all the best half backs are annoying terrier-like gobs**ites ordering their teammates around.
Thirdly, he goes into his shell too much. When things go pear shaped he reverts to just shipping the ball along the line and doesn't take responsibility.
Finally, he still doesn't take on the line enough. He's a slight lad, with a decent turn of pace and acceleration and he should be striking fear into defenders with ball in hand, like Wheeler did for Roby's try.

If all we want from our scrum half is someone who can pass laterally, has pace and is there to support half-breaks, stick Russell there.

To be fair the bench was one of the bigger positives of yesterday.

B Evans
Laithwaite
O'Brien
G Riley

When was the last time we were in a position to be able to field an all home grown bench at the start of a season?

It shows how far we have come as a club and our future is looking very bright.