I've seen the talk on here about the team the issues the wingers the centres, and I agree with most of it, we really do need some wingers, but nobody has mentioned the pack, we are missing Hilly but for me the others haven't stood up meaning we have no go forward, Sims plays better with Hilly around, he huffs and puffs but doesn't do what I would expect, Cooper was average when he went and hes done nothing to change my mind now hes back, Crosby hasn't made an impact and for Smith to give him time off after his baby was born when were short is ridiculous, I know you have to have paternity but I would of insisted on playing. Hill should be back on Thursday and whilst we cant expect to much with a bit of go forward it should start to change.

Smith giving him time off after his baby was born is ridiculous? Well I think we've established that you're a moron.

I think youve missed the point of the post

I have zero issues with our pack. ANY pack in super league would be massively worse off if the best prop in the league, and one of the top 3 second rowers in the league were missing - end of!! We have a good pack imo.

As has been said on many many posts - it's obvious where our problem lies, our right hand side - we have had Russell, Johnson, Evans, Livett, Patton or Blythe defending that side this season - and teams have just run through us over there - scoring for fun.

When Ratchford is back, if he plays at full back, Gidley defends that side - if Curry was playing, Hughes would defend that side. That side will be 100% more organised just by having Ratchford back, and Gidley telling his 2nd row, centre and winger where to be and who to target. OK, it won't solve the problem of the winger and centre on that side not being good enough, but it will improve us.

So, Ratchford coming back is more than him being just a very good player - it adds so much more elsewhere!

We have not got a very resilient side if 3 players missing renders us relegation fodder.

Exactly - if we can't sort that side out quickly teams will / have target it. Ratchfords inclusion will help though.

I would guess that most wire fans were happy with the pack in readiness for the start of the season.
I think we have also forgotten about George King. He was starting to become a decent SL player.
We also still miss Grix and Harrison. They have been replaced but the players don't appear to have the same work ethic as those two. There was a point in the game in the second half on Thursday that Gidley fielded a kick and we started our set on our own line. All of the forwards were stood as far from the play the ball as they could with a "don't give it to me" type of body language. I know that the 2 ex players that I have mentioned would have been ready to take that next ball in no matter how knackered. We can't expect Chris Hill to be the only one to do the hard yards.