Anyone else see the 'Watkins-esque' flick pass from Hughes to Russell in the second half?

As bad as Hughes was last year I seem to remember him running hard enough to take players over the line with him a few times in 2016.

Our props neither had any pace nor any real raw strength to burst tackles (Hill relies on footwork).

I personally thought Clark was class.

Depending on what we wanted from our second row lacked the movement and ball handling skills in attack to get the outside backs in good positions, Atkins did this for himself at centre on one side and Lineham did it for himself on the wing in the right. But really it’s not their jobs to be doing the second row’s job. Unless the SRs were just there to make metres and the Loose to do the job of creating space and passes out wide. But the SRs never really made any decent metres neither. Westerman was okay with ball in hand.

I think we are still missing pace and line breaks in the props.

I’m hoping Clark will get international recognition.

Our back row is going to be unrecognisable to last year. Currie will make a huge difference in creating space and passes out wide on the left. Murdock-Masilla will bring raw pace and power for line breaks and metres.

I’m really looking forward to seeing our back row and Clark this season and hole our props can make more of an impact as they were well short last year. Hill and Cooper need to improve a lot. Crosby will give us numbers and Akaola should bring a bit of metre making.

Big year for Hughes. Will be playing for his place at the club for me but I think he was good in 2016 so here’s hoping for the lad for this year.

And one other thing, I want Chris Hill to stop moaning at the ref so much and giving penalties away at silly times or in silly areas.

As captain he needs to be calmer and more composed.

Interesting looking back at this.

If you had told me that Currie would have struggled to get back to top form then get injured again my verdict on our pack would be oh dear, bottom 4 awaits.

But it has exceeded my expectations. Hill and Cooper back to their old selves again as well as a late career resurgence for Westwood. BMM after a slow start has looked the part and Jack Hughes is an improved player - previously he would have been on my 'get rid at the end of the season' list. Daryl Clark has had a good year as well.

I still think we are a bit light on cover and can't afford any other major injuries, but most of our rivals will be in a similar situation.

Good to see some of our forwards throwing effective & timely passes too.

Agree, I commented on some of Hill’s passing last night as being very slick.

There was a passage last night where George King shipped it on to Site who shipped it on to Chris Hill WTF!!

Amazing but not surprising that players are improving with decent coaching. It does show the flaws in the previous regime where teams arrived and did not improve.

Cooper is playing better as is Hill and giving away fewer daft penalties...but Crosby and Westwood have tipped the balance.
That is why we are winning again while the halfbacks are not at top form.....cant wait til they do.

....disappointed with BMM so far tbh honest.

With BMM I think they are looking at ways to give him more of an impact. There seems to be set plays to try and get him running into gaps out wide.

The whole pack is playing at a different this season. The noticeable drop in intensity no longer exists. The platform for the halves to operate is much better.

....and when those halves eventually do....!

So Hill, Cooper and Westwood did not play at this level during the TS era?