If Ellis is going to be first choice half back then he has to be given some responsibility. I am not saying it should be 50/50 but he should be making at least 25% of the calls in attack. As it was i think he got the ball about 5% of the time and Brough the other 95%.
We need the half backs to perform as we no longer have the likes of Faiumu and Patrick that could spark the team into life with a moment of individual skill.
I thought the defence went well. Of their three tries one was from a forward pass and the last one was down to Brough rushing out of the line and missing his man.
However in attack there was no cohesion. The backs never got the ball in any space and the play the ball was slowed down well by Hull meaning the forwards never gained any momentum.
And please can the management address Brough and his constant arguing with the ref. It is not doing any favours. He needs to concentrate on his game.

We were POOR and played dumb rugby again. When will these players learn that if they give penalties away then they are going to get beaten.
An example in the first half was Hull coming from their try line, Hudds give away a penalty then another which brought Hull into OUR 20 metre zone and they score.
What has changed from last year? Nothing, but I hope I am proved wrong.
I agree with a previous submission, bring a buddy and watch us cock it up AGAIN, the buddy won't be back.
Stop the players talking about what they are going to do in the Examiner and make them start playing like they have the potential.
One bright spot was Murphy at full back, barring injuries Grix won't get back at full back I hope.

There needs to be an epiphany of some kind at the coaching level. We get a good prop in like Huby to give us more but unless the current props step up and show more mongrel then all that'll happen is Huby will go soft too.

Eorl is too upright and too nice. He was on twitter mentioning he was gutted not to be shooting in the morning. His career getting in the way eh! Crack on like that and he'll be back shooting clays sooner than he thinks. They're all too nice. Ellis giving Eorl that dig yesterday that the old biddy linesman missed; when can you imagine any of our lot doing that? Hull played with more enthusiasm than us and as a result they get a bit more leeway. We are so half a4sed that it's embarrassing. And then with 10mins left we try to play a bit. 70mins too late.

yes agree about Ellis on Eorl, big swinging uppercut that everyone saw but the officials! said at the time eorl should do it back but we know hes not that type of player

yep agree, eorl used to be great at that but seems to have been coached out of him, hope the same isnt going to happen to huby, he tried it yesterday and nobody was with him?!! this is how he plays, why bring him to the club if you arent going to utilise his style of play which is top drawer

Thoughts the day after are that we werent very good yet only conceded 3 tries? 1 looked from a forward pass, the last very well could have been waved off for obstruction on wardle.

defence pretty good which is where we needed to improve from last season.

the area we were poor is attack, which is understandable with new hooker and half backs partnerships... lack of games in pre season not helped on that front.

such a shame there will have been many new fans with the buddy vouchers yet we served up that, how many times does it happen they wont be back for the next home game against widnes now, the usual hardcore will be.

regarding brough, he is the captain..he is allowed to talk to the ref, he can lose it abit too much at times but this is him and what makes him what he is.... a maverick player, not long ago man of steel and still one of the best player in the league.. he will win us more games than he loses us this season.

his kicking game was off yesterday though too.

All good halfbacks have a bit of a screw loose and can get into a battle with the refs.

So you had a slow start to the season, no dramas. You’ll improve I’m sure.

If you miss out on the top four by a mile then think about a change of coach. Until then it’s hardly doom and gloom.

If Eorl had have hit him back then no doubt it would have been spotted and he would have been red carded.

Thing is if that had happened to a Wigan, Sts, Wire or Lids player his team mates would have rushed in, not neccessarly punching, but in doing so they'd probably force the officials into awarding them the penalty. At Fartown it seems to be "every man for himself" don't know if this is why our "Giant" pack look so soft and ineffective when teams take us on down the middle and get stuck in., We're sadly carrying on from our woefull displaysfrom the back end of last season. Amazed that Anderson, who mixed it with the best when he was a player seems content to let this continue. jerry also got a bit of the Eorl treatment in the first half and as usual our players just stand around hands on hips looking at the ref for a decision that isn't coming, all the top teams force the issue by showing theyr'e not going to stand for iticon_eek.gif . Time all our players started standing up for each other and stop being pushed around so easily. Don't know what our "game plan" was yesterday but it clearly wasn't working, if we have got a "plan B" why wasn't it used and if we haven't got a "plan B" we'd better hurry up and get one because if we don't it's going to be a long long season.

He loses it too much. He nearly threw the ball at the touch judge yesterday. Stopped himself at the last second.

I just don't think he's captain material. Great player, poor captain.

yep he's a maverick player...what makes them special

like you say its early days, didnt look good though but warned people before about this disrupted pre season.. going to take a while for us to get into gear, not the season to be doing that though!

yes! someone said the exact same thing infront of me yesterday

Our players are too soft. When Ellis punched Eorl he should have been given 10 minutes, but the touch judge just came for the money and a stellar view of the game. He was never going to make any calls. If it had been the other way round and Eorl had got 10 minutes our fans would have been sayng how ill-disciplined he was. Having said that we can be more tough and stay on the right side of the rules. The problem is other than Brough and a couple of others, nobody appears fired up. More raw meat needed, players need to know if they are not putting everything into it, then someone else is going to get picked. Anderson needs to think about pre-match and how to get the players ready for a battle.

said the same elsewhere, wish the players would show the same passion as brough does, we got rid of one softie in patrick.. might need to be a few more on yesterday

ferres and wardle show aggression... funny that , they both play outside brough too... inspires them? others should follow