A lot of people are getting carried away here. Start of this season we all wanted a changed after 3 years of Lams 1D rugby. We have had a response and although it’s been sloppy at times, there are promising flashes of a side that can cause problems. A few people on here honestly loose their heads when the lads put in a bad performance, I’d be happy to be proven wrong but I don’t see the same names commenting on the first 3 games we played

If we are to the salary cap then it needs to be.

We already have 6 props (Ellis, Singleton, Mago, Havard, Byrne, Partington + Ramon Silva looking like he may be the next one to break through in a year or two.

Sliding defence should be covering the man stepping inside. You cannot adequately defend inside and outside at the same time.

As you say, probably comes down to communication which goes back to training and working on sliding defence in small packs.

Not sure how long he played but didn't seem long, but in that time he delivered far more with 6 carries for 56m and 9 tackles in that time than a certain former prop forward.

I've got no issues with his work rate at the minute and his time on the field seems to be a coaches decision.

Agreed. I was always under the impression that you don't push until the person inside you says so. Definitely a communication thing.

I'm not fully convinced that it's a prop or nothing tbh.

I just think we need someone with size & go forward. That could be a prop, 2nd row or even 13. If we did go down the prop route then I'd love to see Ellis move to 13 and that's how we'd justify an extra body. Likewise a new 13 to replace Isa would improve us immensely.

I think people have maybe got a little too high expectations after the first 2/3 games and need to possibly reign it in. I think most on here said they thought we’d finish between 3rd and 5th (odd one maybe a bit higher or lower) before the season started and on what we have seen so far that’s about where we are. One thing that has improved is our attack without a doubt for me, on the whole we were pretty crap last night and probably only won due to a dodgy yellow card but I thought every time we did pass it out wide after getting some go forward and momentum we looked pretty dangerous, I think if we had the territory Cas had we’d have probably scored 50.
The worrying thing was the defence in the second half and also how much our lack of pace with KPP and Hardaker as a centre/winger combo was exposed. I think that should be changed in the next game and probably KPP back into the pack because I think opposing coaches will target that after watching last nights game.

I'd be disappointed to finish lower than fourth to be honest.

Saints and Catalans 1 + 2 is pretty much nailed on.
Wigan and Wire 3 + 4
Huddersfield and Hull FC 5 + 6
Leeds 7 (due to bad start to season)

We need to improve for this to happen definitely.

Totally agree, the defence should work from the centre of the field towards the wing.

His contract with Cas is up this year so I would imagine that you are right and he will join Powell.

I am with you. Two or three shrewd additions and we will be challenging for silverware on a regular basis. The club has an opportunity at the end of the season to make changes and Rads needs to grasp the opportunity. We definitely need to replace Tommy (who I believe was the best half back on show yesterday), we need a pack leader - preferably a prop (Westerman would have sufficed but that ship has sailed), and a class centre. With Hardaker, Tommy, Powell and hopefully Singleton off contract we should have a fair bit of salary cap at our disposal. As someone has referred to elsewhere, the real issue is freeing up non-federation spots because the quality of player we are looking for may not be available in SL, which means we may have to release players who are contracted beyond this season (easier said than done though). We must also retain Field, he is, in my opinion, by far the best full back in SL and his sort of speed is hard to come by. The other thing is we need to stop playing players out of position.

Our defence in general has been shocking of late but it should not be difficult to fix. Saints do it well and many of the better Australian teams have got it right. It is all about line speed, getting into the opposition's faces and cutting down their thinking time. Somebody suggested that it saps the energy out of players but if done correctly it keeps energy levels higher. It is far easier to tackle 17+ stone props before they raise a gallop, command the ruck and set your defensive line if you are dominant in the tackle. We used those tactics against Saints in the GF two years ago and it very nearly worked.