He saved our bacon quite a few times last night with last ditch tackles. I might criticize Macca's attacking ability but I'd never question his defensive ability. Last week was just an all round lax effort from all involved.

Trust me he was. At half time I actually said to the guys next to me he was world class. Maybe a bit OTT, but it seems when the half-backs and outside backs don't take advantage of the work he puts in to get us on the front foot we blame him.

I bet a lot of people forget that last week we dominated the giants territorially for much of the first half. MM had a massive hand in that. Just a shame we can't watch it back, or access his stats.

His defence dropping off clearly stems from the end of his long stint when he was blowing up. He even made the odd error like that last night, arounf the time Leeds scored, but we had run him into the ground.

He wasn't. The team needed more than McIlorum could offer against Huddersfield. That was partly down to the fact that the whole team was playing pretty badly but if you're playing in the most influential position on the field you need to play consistently well in both attack and defence. Against Huddersfield the pace around the ruck wasn't there while it was when Leuluai moved to hooker.

More often than not in the past McIlorum's impact on the team going forward hasn't been enough. Against Leeds he was far more lively and was playing with more aggression.

Micky Mac has a new fan after last night. Even though my missus has been coming to matches on and off for a couple of years she last night 'realised' that MM was a deadspit for an actor called Channing Tatum (GI Joe).

Next week I'd go:

FB 1 Sam
RW 2 Charnley
RC 3 Goulding
LC 26 Hughes
LW 5 Richards
SO 6 Finch
SH 7 Leuluai
P 21 Lauaki
H 9 McIlorum
P 10 Mossop
SR 11 Hansen
SR 16 Farrell
LF 13 O'Loughlin

S 12 Hock
S 14 Lima
S 23 Flower
S 27 Russell

I'd like to see how we would go with Russell at full back and Sam in the halves, give it a go once the game has settled down a bit.

Farrell will come back in I'd have thought.

Spencer for Faz straight swap. I don't know why Hock would drop to bench as I thought he was one of our best players on Saturday.

Micky Mc was awesome i take back what I said about him last week. He now needs to play like he did on Saturday on a weekly basis.

I too thought Mcilorum was excellent on Saturday but until he develops a little creative nous and directly instigates breaks/tries, I will always have my doubts.

Defensively awesome, much improved distribution, directs the side increasingly well. But the very top hookers like Roby and Monaghan create things on their own and make things happen. Its very rare you get that from Mcilorum from my perspective.

Same team as v Leeds. No one should be dropped after that performace.
Faz can wait for his place in the team. If he can't get in then perhaps he will learn to be more disciplined in future.
Him not being an automatic choice will send a warning message to all the others as to what ill discipline can cost you.
Same 17 for me!

I've brought in Farrell and Russell for Tuson and Spencer. Now no disrespect to Tuson and Spencer, but they were hardly the difference between us and Leeds now were they? Despite beating Leeds we still lack pace in the halves and we still have a very talented youngster (Russell) who is being wasted in our academy. Why not try out a possible solution to this problem part way through a game we *should* be looking to win comfortably?

I think Farrell should get back into the side. He was one of few good players against Huddersfield and I expect he will come in to replace Spencer, although I still can't quite see why Tuson seems to be an automatic pick despite getting less game time than most other players.