I don't recall ever seeing an interchange prop being held back until after halftime before so I can only imagine that was the reason. Mago is easily capable of long minutes. We saw that in pre season when he did an hour straight. Full 40 then first 20 second half.

As you say, we have more than enough minutes in the forwards though, especially now Havard is back (who I thought went really well last night after such a long lay off). 2 good short spells where he goes all out would be far more effective.

I don't understand this. Its not that he looks shattered and is still doing what you'd expect from a top front rower. His lack of fitness is seriously impacting his game. I watched him quite closely last night and there were numerous occasions when he was only one walking back after a Castleford kick and at times he simply gave up trying to get square at marker after a tackle involvement. Its not as if we can say he offset all of that through some big runs or offloads - they managed him pretty easily.

The reality is our big money overseas front rower who was playing regularly for Souths last year is now playing a support role to two young kids (and not doing a particularly good job at that in my opinion).

The only possible mitigation for me would be if he was carrying an injury, like Peet said a few of them were.

That definitely did not happen. If you're talking about the Newcastle game he played about 12-15 minutes before being taken off - then he came back on a few minutes before halftime.

I thought about Truman last night. I wonder if cash + Smith could see us win that signing?

At Warrington next year to replace Widdop is what I've heard.

My apologies if that was the case. I thought he played the full 40 but I'd have to check.

No need to apologise. But he would have collapsed on the field if they'd made him play 40.

Its just one of those things that I can't really accept as a fan. There's no excuse for turning up unfit and this is only a couple of years after George Burgess (I know there were different factors at play there).

It is the rumour and has been since Powell joined them, however believe Powell has a few issues to deal with at Wire and I know he has never been the most popular coach with the dressing room so there may be a bit of wriggle room should someone else show interest.

One other thing, Farrel's defence, been pretty shocking these last 3 weeks, very unlike him.
I'm not demanding he gets dropped but he needs to up that aspect of his game.

The thing is regardless of him looking shattered, he’s making the most ground out of our props, certainly on an average per carry basis and I’m yet to see him ripped apart defensively (I don’t think they scored when he was on last night did they? I’ll need to watch the full game again). Could he get fitter? Absolutely (I actually think he’s slimmed down from the pictures I saw of him at Souths but granted that doesn’t mean he’s physically fitter) but I still think he’d be wobbling around looking like his legs are due to give out.

I’d also question if he is a ‘big money’ signing and a Souths ‘regular’. He played in some games and his minutes were limited and he didn’t get picked in others, including getting left out of their run to the GF. He’s probably not on peanuts but he’s not the kind of signing you expect to come in and dominate the league because you think he’s one of the leagues top earners. That is somebody like Tetevano at Leeds or George Burgess when he was here. Ellis and Mago were NRL fringe players and shouid be getting paid as such here. They’re signings that could go either way and they always were. Overall I’m pretty happy with the pair of them but there’s plenty of improvement in both.

I don’t think it’s helped that he’s played with Cust and Bibby, then Smith and Hardaker, then back to Cust and Bibby and then on to Cust and Halsall these past few weeks. He does need to pick his form up but it’s been a bit disjointed.

You can 100% see this.

Cust seems a little susceptible to a guy stepping back inside. We got done at KR with it and it almost happened again last night. It's probably a chat thing. Maybe he's pushing too quickly and not pulling his inside man with him?