Don't think Sammut is the problem ! Lack of first choice hookers and props is. But we need more structure and Sammut is smart enough to work with that. We were better with Api on the pitch, he knows how to make gaps. With Cunno back we will have the zip at the ptb.

Spot on.

Cunno is in the 19 for this weekend. So hopefully he's fit.

I wonder if be best to go with him off the bench and start with Bathau at hooker. And play Api and Sammut in the halves. Others I expect will know better if this would work.
Also maybe time to give Paul a run on the wing, and move Kear back to FB where he's more dangerous I think.
I don't have anything against Dixon, but like I said above let's see what Paul can offer. So I would leave out Dixon and Walker this weekend.

Hellewell not in the squad so I'm assuming either Kear to left centre and Walker returning at Full-back?
Or keep Kear at 1 and play Pearce-Paul in the centres?

Sorry didn't notice Hellewell was missing.
Also it claims on broncos twitter fed that Adebiyi is playing for Skolars this Saturday

Whoever starts we need to hit Rochdale hard from the word go - there's no 5 hour coach journey for us in the morning so no excuses!

It is an extra early start for Rochdale too,what with the hour change. Unless they are travelling down today that is.

Looking at thier twitter fed, it looks like they must have come down last night. As it showed a pic of the pic in a room with the caption of just going over details before making our way to the ground, it was taken about 2 hours ago roughly.
I expect most teams able to down here the night before as it's only one trip a season, compared to us going up where other week and paying for hotels.


As for the team for today's game. Cunno starts at hooker, but the surprise was Api and Barthau in the halves and Sammut of the bench. Also saw that Harrison was starting on the beach also

Sorry an update, according to thier twitter Harrison now starts and Adebiyi added to the bench as Garside pulled out, so must have picked up a knock in warm up.

Seems a typically poor performance to date... 0-4 after 25mins

UPDATE: Make that 0-8..... Awful

There are some really interesting half time scores at the mo

Sammut come off the bench and changed the game.... Brilliant

Missed this game, seems like it was an arm wrestle for the first hr
What changed it? Looks like us and KR made hard work of it today at the start.

Any outstanding performance today? How come we started so slow again.
Positives negatives?

Sammut changed it. Woeful first half Sammut came on and the game took shape

Poster on A.N. Other forum suggested that Rochdale had a, um, somewhat direct approach to the game. Who cares - it's 2 points.

Sort of brings into perspective the whole sammut discussion, or did he still not do enough to keep folk satisfied

Sammut will always be 'mercurial ', starting him from the bench seems to have had a positive effect

Rochdales game plan seemed to be to rough our players up at any opportunity. How many times did the game turn into a brawl. Encouraged by their coach I might add.
The referee was weak and failed to impose himself on the game. I do not think that I have ever seen a game with so many high tackles, three occurred within five minutes in the second half, my belief is that he should have put Rochdale on a team warning earlier in the game, which may have focus their attention to playing, not trying to knock our blocks off.
Sammuts introduction turned the game, we probably would have won without him, but not by such a score. A score which in truth did not reflect the game.
We are still our worst enemy, numerous unforced and schoolboy errors, we bombed two tries in the first half, dropping the ball, To kick the ball out from the restart is unforgivable. Once Jarrod came on the speed of the play of the ball improved and we became a better team.
We still have a lot of room for improvement, off to Wakefield next week where I hope to see a better display.

I really think we seem to have big confidence issues atm, several times in the first half they always wanted to pass again and again when close to line, and non of them seem to back themselves to actually score. If Rochdale had not tired in the 2nd half it could have been much closer.

I still think that if Rochdale had not bombed that try in the 2nd half just after we went 8 points up, we could have easily lost this game. At least we still manage to win after playing so shockingly bad. But with Sheffield, Fev away and Toulose home coming up we need to improve and fast

This a poor London team. It strikes me they have concentrated heavily on defence during the off season as the attack is shocking. There is an inability to string 4 passes together that sit in front of the player for him to run onto. There's no structure in attack, constantly looking for the inside pass to settle things back down.

On a previous post I asked how many halves this season we have played well. Its probably only 5. HKR x 2, Bulls x 2, Rochdale x 1

Reliance on one individual will win you nothing

Have to agree with that. From what I have seen this season the blunt truth is Broncos ain't good enough this season. Hopefully it'll click but I fear we have a team that doesn't amount to the sum of its constituent parts.

The team have the ability to play really well as shown by the KR game, the Bradford game as well. Away on grass from what I have seen has been poor.
The team has the potential, the skills are there we have seen it, the mental approach seems to be the problem. Poor final pass and bombing tries is an attitude issue, thinking that you have to score everytime ypu get near the line rather than keeping hold of the ball and building pressure.
Defence maybe has been the focus and it shows in patches with some small blokes in the squad putting in big hits. Technique in the tackle in defence and attack is not as good as it should be, in this comp quick ptb will win games.

Not often I say this but I agree with every word Bostwick says. And would add if this is our level forget SL next year we need massive improvement to do that. I also think if yesterday was anything to go by we should have a boxing coach to train us how to come away from a game without broken necks. The ref was a disgrace and did nothing to protect the lads heads at all. Before you start defending the refs Mickeyb1234 you have to have seen the game to know how bad the high tackles were

Have to say I thought the ref was OK. The penalty count was massively in our favour for a reason.

The big one he missed was quite how one of their players ended up on the deck off the ball in front of their fans, who went ballistic. Understandably he was watching the area with the ball in play when it happened. The ref checked with both touchies, no one had seen it. He seemed to explain that to the lad on the floor and got on with it.

Whilst a persistent misconduct sin binning must have been close, and arguably should have been done, all in all I thought he was decent. It's not him making high tackles.

Certainly the attack has not gelled as it did last season. For me, part of the reason is that we've not yet had the Cunningham/Ackers combo at 9, and we did seem to get a good roll on last year when that was in operation, with quick ptbs the order of the day. The centres are also a problem for me. Kear is far better at full-back, and I'm not convinced by Purtill.

And I totally agree with itsmeagain about the high shots. Yesterday wasn't the first time this year. Referees have a duty to protect players, and they're not doing it. I wonder what the legal position might be if a player were to lose his livelihood through a high shot as a consequence of a referee allowing the practice to continue.

Not going to comment on the referee as I was not at the game. Think it's quite interesting that halfdan has a different view and assuming he was at the game.
Not sure how you can suggest that a referee could be held legally responsible for a plater planting a high shot on another player though. It's the player commit job the offence pure and simple.