Grovelling apologies, I take full responsibility for starting this thread https://www.rugby-league.com/article/36 ... QhrkV4rAeU

Grovelling apologies, I take full responsibility for starting this thread https://www.rugby-league.com/article/36 ... QhrkV4rAeU

Nothing for Bateman, then? He's lucky.

Didn't see him do anything untoward. Mcilorum squared up to him and he didn't react (to his credit).

Singleton out along with Ellis is a tough one. Mago just doesn't look fit enough to do long minutes and its asking a lot of Havard even if he's fit to play. Not good with Challenge Cup games coming up.

That's really poor and ties in with what we've been discussing on the other thread.

When is Havard due back? As much as I'd like to see him asap (and we certainly need him now) I hope they don't bring him back before he's ready.

Been trying to find the Singleton incident. From what i can make out from the discip minutes, it seems to be shortly before the punch-up, but I can't see anything.

He started full training in France according to one interview I saw with Peet and the aim always seems to have been this Cas game. I presume that was with a view to easing him in though, so losing your two starts is a nightmare on that score.

I can't work out the "OPTA time" it says the time of the Ellis incident was 1 36 39. It was actually 69:29 when it happened and that doesn't correlate with 1 36 39 at all.
Anyway, the Singleton incident was 1 25 25 according to OPTA so it's 10 mins before. If it's any help, Powell apparently does a late hit on a kicker at 1 24 21.

We're going to have to pack the bench with forwards to try a negate the loss of Singleton and Ellis. If Havard is back then I would assume it will be limited game time even though we know he's capable of long minutes. The slack will need to be taken up elsewhere. Partington will no doubt feature. I'm wondering if Silva will come into the reckoning?

Found it. 60 mins 50 seconds.

What a tool. They literally are just devoid of brains some of these players. I’m more frustrated with that than the Ellis incident. I can accept somebody losing their head in the heat of the moment but Singleton knows he can’t do that and is that slow getting to Pearce that he could’ve pulled out three times over.

I can’t even be bothered defending him by saying it’s a love tap and I don’t see a great deal of flexion of the head/spinal column or whatever it is they’re looking at (even though that’s all true) because he just knows he can’t do it.

Pathetic from both of them; could easily see us get knocked out of the cup whilst they are on the sideline.

it *is* a love-tap, though? Two matches for that? Not to say it's not poor from Singleton. We wouldn't have been there if they hadn't penalised Powell for a challenge on the kicker, which the discip thought was OK.

I don't know why it's taken as a given that suspending players is the best mode of punishment. Feels like a punishment to the viewer as much as anyone and also puts clubs in a horrible position if they're already dealing with an injury crisis.

If you ignore the off season (for obvious reasons) it's Singleton's 3rd ban, totalling 7 games, in the space of just over 4 months of rugby. He's a liability and I'm not sure his performances make up for that. He can be a good player at his best but he rarely seems to be at his best.

Ellis will probably get 5 games. I have a little more sympathy for him. He lost his head and it's happened to plenty of players before him, but he'll have to be squeaky clean for the rest of the season.

I think Ellis will be the one we miss the most. He's been quiet but hard working. I think he's our best metre making prop and our top tackling prop. Maybe not a world beater but he definitely helps the players around him.