Having watched the game back I don’t think King deserves the criticism he’s been given.

If anything Jai Field had his worst game in a Wigan shirt, Cade Cust was caught out of position in defence which will have a knock on effect with King and French. Those 3 need time to build an understanding in defence that’s all.

When I saw the video of the team running up sand dunes, lifting weights, doing the bleep test etc I didn’t see any rugby balls and that’s one reason we were clunky in attack against Hull KR. I think if Briers would have been here he would have made sure first and foremost we are a rugby team, just being strong, fit, fast and disciplined in defence is great but that should be along side being good rugby players not in place of.

More rugby, more ball handling, more work position wise in defence for both edges.

Apart from the missed tackle where he was out of position leading to the try by SKD I think he had a reasonable game. His work rate was excellent.

His defensive effort to hold KR player up over the line when they looked certain to score got us the momentum to get back into the game.

He got the assist for the Field try when the easy option would have been to pass to French but his offload under pressure was poor.

I think he was out biggest meter maker on the day and when we were down to 12 he cut a lot of the overlaps on his side short by his rush defence.

In some eyes the SKD try was “proof” he is a poor signing and they won’t be convinced otherwise. He needs to trust his inside man more as he picked out the lead runner allowing the out the back play and lacked the pace to recover once sucked in.

His offload is a great asset as I’d his height where it will be a nightmare for left edge defences on cross field kicks having to mark both him and KPP.

His defence does need a bit of work but it’s not nearly as bad as some make out and he needs to be a bit more selective of when to offload.

Of the 2 centres I was more disappointed in Wardle on Saturday, a player I rate very very highly. He didn’t really get involved with the carries and whilst he was 2nd on the meters made behind King most of him meters came when he had a clear run to the line. I am expecting to see a bit more from him on Friday.

Let’s see where we are in a couple of months. The team as a whole were poor, identifying one player based on our overall performance is not right.

Agreed. Going to take a little time to build up that understanding and partnerships on both edges with having 2 new centres.

I was rather disheartened by the performance I'll be honest.

It was only Round One and it's not really an indicator to how the season will go but it was extremely disappointing to fall so flat on our faces. I don't want to single out players, it's a team sport, you win as a team and you lose as a team.

That being said, our right-edge defence is a big concern for me. Salford let us off on a couple of occasions during the Sam Powell testimonial by either dropping the ball or crossing for what looked like two certain tries and HKR played to Kenny-Dowall and exposed this frailty on Saturday. It needs fixing and quickly.

A bigger concern for me and what should be a bigger issue for the club is these Yorkshire away games where we put in sub-standard performances on a consistent basis and have been doing so for a number of years now. Wakefield, Cas, Hull KR mainly where we routinely get beat. It's becoming less and less of shock especially for our own fans. This was symptomatic under Wane, Lam and now Peet. It is becoming more and more frustrating as the seasons go by.

My questions would be:

- Has the club been looking at this as a cause for concern?
- What is the root cause of this problem?
- Are we trying things to address this?

We've had many 2nd place finishes during the Super League era, several more than 1st place finishes and I can't help but think avoiding major hiccups on these away days would have seen us have many more 1st place finishes than we have.

I know people will say finishing 1st doesn't matter, point taken to a certain extent, but I know I'd rather win these games than lose them and finish 1st more often than we finish in another position.

I know we got a couple of wins away at Wakefield last season, one in the SL, one in the CC and there was acknowledgement that it is a difficult place to win and we were backslapping ourselves on those victories but we just couldn't help ourselves and had to get beat there on our third visit.

I'm not trying to discredit Wakey, Cas or HKR at all but our neighbours seem to be able to win these games more often than they lose them.

You have got to question the whole camp for our display on Saturday. The coaching staff need a good kick up the harris for having us undercooked for the opening game. I hope that they have looked at themselves and will make changes for the remainder of the season so that we don't see such a lacklustre performance again.
Personally I don't care if we beat Wakefield by 70 on Friday night (i dont think that we will by the way) I want a far more consistent performance week in week out particularly away from home.

Relying on the backs to make metres are the wrong tactics when you have a back line including French, Field and Marshall all small and fast. Only really works if you have big wingers like Hall, Dom Young, maybe even Thornley. So he needs to stop that off right away, fair enough King and Wardle are big lads but that should be no excuse for our props to be making the meters they did.

Copper 64
Singleton 38
Ellis 23
Havard 61
Byrne 28

That’s pathetic from Singleton, Ellis and Byrne as top NRL props will make those metres in a set, they need a strong word with.

Marshall generally does ok on yardage. I agree regards French, he isn’t suited to that style though.

It’s the tactics we have pretty much employed since Wane’s influence took over the club.

It’s obviously proved successful at times, but personally it’s not one I particularly like, but I get why we do it.

Yeah, we've played this way for about 10 years.

As an outsider why would you not utilise your back 3 in terms of yardage? Gets you on the front foot and with a quick play the ball, gaps appear and the likes of Field and French would take advantage.

Look at Saints with Makinson and Percival. They are hardly the biggest of backs but they run strong. Even Grace who was lightweight would make good yards.

Marshall has made big improvements in this area IMO to be fair

Field was 2nd to Ash Handley in meters made last season, Marshall and Farrell were in the top twenty. and French missed quite a few games at the beginning of the season.

A major problem last week was the penalties conceded (6) most unlike Wigan who were the most disciplined club last year.

Watched the Salford game last night and noticed that most of there tries came on there left edge with Abdull's kicking.

On the basis of the fist 2 games their left edge is very impressive. They were creating opportunities and running the play that caught us out very effectively last night even with a change in personnel.

I was expecting KR to struggle this year but they look like realistic contenders for s top 6 finish.

All the tries you conceded were on our left edge

Just watching the highlights of Salford/HKR now. It's very much the Jordan Abdul Show.