that pen just before half time to salford was a killer as was the 40/20 just after half time from that those they gained 8 points

got to give the giants some credit for getting back in the game twice and almost pulling it off

early days still plenty of postives

salford we really good too, especially in defence and obrien had a cracker with a try and 7 from 7 kicks

Just turned 34.

This probably ought to be his last season as a first pick, although I suspect he will soldier on to the bitter end like Briers did.


IMO the club needs to be putting 100% into finding his replacement and have him in place for the start of next season.

Didn't he play with Ikahihifo for Illawara Cutters?

Not sure. But even if you know one or two people it can still be hard to adjust to a new place.

The players are just people. And they come with all the same baggage and personal stuff that non-players do.

yeh will take wakeman a while to settle in, also not had a pre season, same goes for mamo

look at ikahihifo now after a full pre season with us! a beast

Just said same as GIANT DAZ last night. We always make a mess after a good away win. We promote the home game as good as we can, and when a reasonable crowd turns up, the team always put in a substandard performance, making the future home games an uphill battle to attract extra supporters.

Brierley is another Danny McGuire. Does begger all but can finish given the chance. Unfortunately that team cannot give him a chance, so he offers nowt

As far as swapping him with Gaskel, we saw last year he can not play fullback

Lots of positives and negatives from last night however I feel pretty frustrated that we aren't finishing our created chances once again. I'm hoping it's just early
season-syndrome.
Confused about Rapira's role... not sure if Brierlys strengths were deliberately not used and very much questioning why Mason and Smith are sitting in the stands over Wakeman at this point in the season until he adjusts to new lifestyles, settles in and gets used to our training regimes.

Defence is an issue that needs sorting.. probably a priority.

Seb and ta'ai were brilliant. Leeming was outstanding and should start games to see how he goes. Broughs kicking out of hand is as impressive as ever.
Nice to see good attacking on our left edge too. Mellor has great potential.

I suppose we have to take Stone's comments on taking a couple of years to start challenging again seriously and take any win we can and hopefully scrape into that 8.

Agree with most of that apart from boroughs kicking- his long range stuff from hand is good but his short kicking game has been very poor.
What worries me is the same problems are still there. Still forcing those last plays and messing them up- whether that being the forced pass, getting caught with the ball or a poor short kick. Still clueless from close to the line- we made it so easy to defend against us in their 10. Still letting in tries down that RHS. Still generally poor defensively. Rapira at loose was a terrible choice- he's not mobile enough to fill those defensive gaps like Hinchcliffe or Lawrence can.
I can sort of understand why he's playing wakeman- he needs game time if he's going to improve and he can't get it anywhere else as he's not allowed to go dual reg whilst mason and smith can.

True.

He's also missed pre-season which is a big minus not just for fitness but knowing all the plays. He's also playing at a higher level for the first time in his career.

Lots of hard work and adapting to do - think it will be well into the season before we see him really settle down.

yep happens every time

chance to get off to a good start at home and we blow it with quite a few newcomers, hope they come back next friday but may have missed the chance again now

All can say is after the way Sebastine & Ukuma ran the ball up,the interchange forwards now know what they have to live up to,if they don't put the same effort in they are letting the opposition off the hook.

Rapira didn't look comfortable as the loose man,maybe better off the interchange

A fb joining the line looking so dangerous to the oppositon,how long have we been waiting for this.

Stone needs to keep building Brierley's confidence in terms of decision making,I think RB's capable of getting this right in the long term.

Yo Paulie...bang on that lad, Seb and Ukuma have set the standard now, can the others match it ?? they will need to !!

Yo Daz b me say u is gangsta with that call b - safe an summa dat b - touch.