I like it when they are both on the pitch - Clark is such a dangerous runner around the ruck and can do big minutes. Walker is also becoming more influential. It gives one of the bigger guys (last night it was Harrison) a chance to take a break if not 100%. I'd actually like to see Harrison get a couple of weeks off to get his knee sorted but looks like that is still a couple of weeks away.

As a neutral I really enjoyed that game.
Certainly a game of 2 halves as was the case with Salford last time out.
Thought both 8 pointers were harsh on Salford and if that is now the new norm then fine but I doubt it.
Also thought you got the rub of the green where the decisions were going last night
Agree there was no need to keep harping on how you would have lost that game last season it`s getting boring now.
Williams played well as did Ashton and Clark in the second half.
I think with Drinkwater he is the perfect foil for Williams and will give him more time to do what he does best.

Scouring the middle east for tubes of banana flavoured Toffos, perhaps.

Reminds me of Higham and Monaghan. Rowley's teams have always played good rugby. Unfortunately they have also tended to be ill-disciplined.

Tim Lafai was superb in the first half. What a player. He would be a handy addition to any side.

Just to clarify... The ref doesn’t give an ‘8 point try’ he only awards a 2 point penalty kick.

That is a good point. The 8 point idea muddies the water. It is quite simply a penalty kick for the offence. There can be little argument that both incidents would have resulted in a penalty kick anywhere else in the field. The punishment for going in with knees or clonking someone in the head as they score is a penalty under the posts ... it seems reasonable to me. The fact that it happened twice just shows how rattled Salford were.

all props are playing well arent they.

Mikaele had his best game, looked a handful and didnt fade. Ran hard and caused them all sorts of problems.

Bullock - outstanding again for me.

Paul Vaughan is a machine.

its gone from our weakest position, to probably our strongest.

Yes, they need to come up with a better name for such incidents. I have heard some people calling last night's two incidents penalty tries, which they were obviously not. The referee asked the video ref to "check for the merits of an eight-point try", but when one of the kicks is missed, it ends up not being an eight-point try, so that's an inaccurate name too! On a matter of protocol, it was interesting that when they were looking at the Thewlis one, the video ref checked if Thewlis was onside. Had there been no knees in the tackle, I assume the ref would have simply awarded the try, so was the video ref within his rights to check the onside? Thankfully it didn't matter on this occasion.

while im not arguing against that... twice the ref said

'Its an 8 point try'

So he kind of does.

For anyone actually at the match, was Thewlis onside?

From the limited TV replays, it was very unclear and, from where he collected the ball, he must have shifted at a fair rate to have been onside?

It’s the name as we know it, because it’s the only time the penalty is a straight kick, like a conversion, the option to run the play isn’t there, but the reality is, it’s only a 2 point penalty.

So can we have the extra 2 points then for the purposes of points difference?
I think it is short hand for “can i award a penalty on top of the try and conversion for an offence committed in the act of scoring”

It was more or less level with me, and yes I thought he was on side. He did shift to collect the kick, but the ball did, also, seem to hang in the air for a while as well.

I agree that Bullock was very very good again. I thought he was good last season but he’s getting better and cutting out the little errors that had let him down. I’m yet to see Dudson in a Wire shirt but I’d be very surprised if he’s got the game to take Bullocks place if all are fit.