In the past, we had backs who utilised the short kick through to turn the opposition forwards around, and tire them, for example; Edwards and Gregory. Or as Harry Smith did last week, take their line on in the attack, with a short burst of speed to open their defence up. Both Edwards and Gregory were 'masters' at that.

We certainly haven't got any ball playing forwards in the mould of Brian McTigue (I wish) . 'Mac' used to tell his backs, to just follow him and he'd get that ball out to them, and he used to break opposition defences for fun.

For me, it was a real tactical miss by Lam. He was so concerned with neutralising their kicking game and playing a territory wet weather game, he forgot about our strengths, and ignored their weaknesses.

The weather wasn’t a monsoon, slight drizzle for part of the match and actually ok for the rest.
We had far the better team on paper and we should have played to that teams strengths and let Hull worry about us. They were without their main talismanic flair player, with a winger filling in at FB and a very inexperienced player taking his wing spot.

We were stronger, faster and more nimble on the edges and when we threw the ball wide we had our only success, but you can’t rely on playing just 5 of the 80.
Add to that very under par, uncharacteristic error strewn performances from Hardaker, French, Byrne and a couple of others.

We let them run time and again from dummy half and letting in a couple of barge over tries is very disappointing,
One crumb of upside was Bateman had his best match since coming back. And I'd like to see Smith kicking for the next few matches as Hardaker isnt that top class goal kicker we need. Maybe we get Botica or Deacon in for a few sessions with him or even Owen Farrell on a zoom call !

We are a top prop away from being the best team in the league imo, if the money for GB was spent wisely and we had say Watts or Thompson, I’d fancy us to beat anyone. Even without a dominant pack leader i think we could still win the GF, we have a great crop of young prop forwards coming through and I’m not sure where as lightweight as people think. Byrne, Havard and Bullock are all big lads, Partington is small but he could easily put a stone or two on in the next few years which would help.
We seem to have this debate running on a constant loop for probably over 10 years and we have managed to win plenty of trophies in that time, also with less subs and the 6 again rule I think it’s more advantageous for the fitter props plus I think in 3/4 years we could have one the best set of props we have had in my lifetime watching Wigan unless the NRL come crawling.

Not once did we try an early kick behind Fonua for French to chase. Or exploit their big men around the ruck - Powell was literally anonymous.

We played extremely low percentage rugby even when we were 8 points down. And even that low percentage rugby was coming up with loads of errors - there was just no plan B.

A large issue of course was lack of field position to try those things which again comes back to our powderpuff pack and Hull managing to control the ruck with complete ease.

it was, on french and hastings

Perhaps one of the worst things is Lam's apparent bewilderment at the loss.
Missed goal kicks first half must have knocked the lad's morale.
The weather was poor must the ground under foot couldn't have been that soft.
Lam should have made changes either just before half time or at the break. Not 5-10 mins from the end.
We scored within minutes of French to fb and Smith made it six with an excellent conversion.

The players must be shattered after that loss as it was so avoidable. Lam simply made the same mistakes he made in the semi defeat last year.
Does anyone seriously think we'll win the Challenge Cup with Lam as head coach?

I don't think we'll win anything under Lam. Our big game management is non existant. It was poor under Wane at times, but under Lam it's even worse.

I genuinely believe that he’s way out of his depth

If he doesn’t know what the problems then he should move aside and let someone else take over the role

I’m tired of his “it’s not us” routine. The defeat on Saturday is us as we’ve seen several times over

His lack of graciousness in defeat also grates.
He should have thanked Hull for the lesson on Saturday and wished them well in the SF. Instead he mumbled he didn’t know what happened which if doesn’t know by now then he never will.

His lack of tactical awareness is alarming

Thanks for stepping in on the Edwards debacle but you’re not the guy for the longer term

I’m not sure what Lam’s role is within the club

Peet sorts out the defence and Winder the attack.
What does Lam actually add?
We have nothing that other teams can’t replicate. Maybe not as good as us say defensively but it can be replicated. Hard work is a gimme it isn’t unique nor does it guarantee success

I wouldn't sack Lam at this stage, but I wouldn't be renewing his contract either. Get a replacement sorted to take over in 2022. Saints are the best team right now, but we aren't even getting as far as being knocked out by them generally. Week-to-week we're probably the 2nd best team in the league, but once it comes to big knockout games we aren't even 2nd. Five different teams have knocked us out of the Cup/League under Lam. Other teams raise their game in those fixtures and we choke.

Did you actually though? I'd say the sides were pretty well matched on paper.