I agree, he gives us go forward and nearly always gives us a quick play the ball as he is so hard to put on his back and usually finds his front.

This for me though is the issue.

Clubb like the rest of the players we have in that position is relatively inexperienced at Prop.

Bring in a Craig Smith or Pongia type player to lead these lads who is battle hardened and can help develop that side of the other lads games.

I'd start Flower and Clubb with Taylor and Crosby coming off the bench. Pettybourne should be a luxury 15-20 minute prop providing impact off the bench, if we were playing with all forwarsd on the bench, but he doesn't do it. I definitely don't think he's a second rower, he'd get torn to shreds defending outwide. Once we have Tautai on board I really don't see a place for Eddy in the squad.

The props didn't muscle up well for large parts of the game last night but I thought a large part of the poor performance was down to a lack of direction. Sam Powell isn't a hooker IMO and I can't wait for us to get McIlorum back. Green should never have started the game after 3 months without playing, though he was instrumental in getting us back in to it late on. Sarginson is really doing my head in now, he's not a centre in a million years and I really hope Thornley comes back in against Widnes and keeps hold of the left centre position.

Add Bateman, Clubb, Thornley, McIlorum and possibly Burgess to last night's squad, plus once Green and Tomkins have more match fitness, and we can still make a good go of the playoffs IMO. My first-choice squad from now on would be:

Bowen
Charnley
Gelling
Thornley
Burgess/Manfredi (not sure when Burgess is meant to be back)
Green
Smith
Flower
McIlorum
Clubb
Bateman
Farrell
O'Loughlin

Taylor
Crosby
Tomkins
Williams

I think it's a bit harsh on Pettybourne. He's only played two of the last eighteen games, so is bound to be struggling a little for match fitness. There has been a lot of criticism of Dan Sarginson but he made more metres than any other player on the field last night. www.superleague.co.uk/report/10064

I think it's a bit harsh on Pettybourne. He's only played two of the last eighteen games, so is bound to be struggling a little for match fitness. There has been a lot of criticism of Dan Sarginson but he made more metres than any other player on the field last night. www.superleague.co.uk/report/10064

Pettybourne was disappointing. The only excuse you can make is he hasn't had much game time this year but you'd hope for some significant improvement in time.

Sarginson looks like a full back or half back for a mid table side.

He may have just about scored but Manfredi would have had a walk in. Thornley isn't the finished product by any means but he looks a better bet at left centre going into the playoffs.

I still wouldn't rule Goulding out. He may be leaving but he's ours for now and we've got games to win.

His centre play is light years ahead of Sarginsons at the moment.

Wane has said he sees Tautai playing in the middle. Sounds like he'll play more front-row than back-row for us.

It was a repeat performance of the Bradford game with a different result.
Did we score too early as at Odsal? Not too much effort and we had a four point lead. The props weren't hitting up as usual and Chester employed the same tactics as Lowes in shutting down out wide out runners.
Clubb will probably come in at Widnes but he played at Bradford so I'm not too sure things would have been much different had he been out there.
Another performance like that at Widnes and I don't think we'd get the one League point.

As for Sarginson, he's repeatedly getting the ball surrounded by three players. That he can beat one or two is an achievement. The runners and dummy runners are taking up too much space and crowding out our centres and wingmen. Game after game he and Gelling do not have any space in which to work and bring their wingmen into play.
I think Sargy is a talented lad playing in one of the most difficult positions on the field.

In two weeks at Widnes it's the ipitch and perhaps Bowen won't play with him having so called "dodgy knees" so Sargy may well play full back with Thornley at 4.

Whoever plays where if we want the two points then a massively improved game is needed.

Gelling had enough room to get a few balls away to Charnley including the match winner (although that included a few bad passes). He also had enough room to score three try's against Salford and get Charnley some ball.

To say Sarginson is being crowded out is incorrect for me. There's times he has plenty of space in 2 on 2 or even 2 on 1 situations with his opposite centre/wing combo but he just plays with his head down and runs away from his winger. Even when he got nailed by Gardner last night I felt he could have done a lot better. A proper centre would have flicked that ball on at pace to his winger yet Sarg got hammered because his first instinct is to run the ball. Either way he was getting nailed but instead of a knock on he had a 50/50 shot at getting his winger in.

Ultimately I want to see signs he's learning but I don't and that's worrying.

Taylor, Flower, Clubb and Crosby, time to stick with these four for the rest of the season.