Why? Lineham is our natural winger and Roberts is the only centre who will be able to bring him into the game. move atkins back and youre effectivley taking a winger out the side.

While Goodwin was good on Thursday, was there any evidence that he is a ‘wingers centre’ any more than Atkins?

I don’t recall Lineham being passed the ball, and the chance Goodwin had to put Lineham in he cut back inside for his own try.

Not knocking him, and may be just the conditions and style of the game, but he looked more of an Atkins than a Hiku.

When Lineham played for Hull, he was on the right side. Move Lineham & Goodwin to the right. Then Atkins back to the left.

We've watched Atkins for many years. We've seen Bryson Goodwin play one match. Bit early to be judging a guy who played centre for New Zealand more than ten times I'd have thought?

I think Price is more qualified to play Goodwin where ever he thinks he'll get the best out of him and the team as seeing him week in and week out.
Many of us didn't know the first think about him. Other than subscription tv and early rising in the morrows how could they?

For two or three seasons now we have been starting the season with injuries so are we missing the boat when it comes to signing the right players ,trying to save money by buying crocks or are our rehab & training methods not working ?

Like I said, I’m not having a go at him. I just didn’t see anything to suggest he’s going to be a creative type of centre, which is fine, sometimes a direct centre can be just as effective. I just wouldn’t want to set the bar too high expecting a Lyon/Gidley style ‘wingers centre’. Atkins has been effective for us, and I hope Goodwin will be as effective, hopefully more so.

And regarding the NZ caps. That doesn’t always suggest that a player is going to be a world beater. Mr Asotasi probably has 20+ caps and was mediocre when he played for us, at a similar age/time in his career.

I watched highlights of an NRL game and the commentators stated they thought Goodwin was one of the best Bunnies players last year. I’m inclined to trust those guys more than my own eyes based on one performance, where I actually thought he looked head and shoulders above the current England first choice Centre opposite him anyway.

King already has shown a vulnerability to repeated injury.
Crosby didn't feature much in 2016 so I am surprised that he is not fit until March 2018.

So we have an injury issue of our own and then we compound by signing injured players, or players needing pre-season surgery.

A lot of our expectations for a better 2018 are based on the new recruits filling the void of the 2017 post season exodus.

With Patton and Brown in the halves vs Huddersfield another defeat is likely on the cards.

Does anyone know for sure that Roberts is out?

Giants are missing
cudjoe
wakeman
symonds
lawrence
walne
mellor
simpson
wardle
and possibly Mcgillvary

yours is a minor blip compared to us.

PS: The legends bar at the stadium will be open from 6pm, it's a HGSA members bar but non members and away fans will be admitted for £1, beats the long queues at the Ropewalk

Yes

Ratch copped a load of stick because any decent last line of defense would of made the tackle...and he didn't. Irrespective of whether Atkins and Russell were also to blame for allowing the initial tackle bust. Not the first time he has done that either i might add....

It's not just missing the tackle though is it? If you can't make it then at the very least slow the runner down, make him break stride/change direction - I think he's now into double figures with these kind of misses. The only improvement is that at least he didn't deliberately pretend to be fooled by the runner's footwork in order to avoid even attempting the tackle.

It is a big weakness of Russell in that he can’t turn easily. He gets stepped, as well as struggling to defend grubbers into his corner (certainly last year). I expect Brough to kick him to kingdom come, and also to expose our current massive weakness under the high ball (across the park). That’s not just based on last week’s game but also on pre-season where we didn’t seem to communicate or compete for the high ball. A tad worrying I’m sure you’ll agree...