Wigan will need all of those five front rowers fit and in form at the end of the year to give us any chance in my opinion. St Helens' remaining fixtures are easier than ours with Wigan still needing to go to Catalans, Leeds and Leigh. I think Saints will finish 2nd with Wigan 3rd - if that's the case we'll need to go to St Helens and win. Their injuries in the front row might give us a chance but only if our forwards are in a good place.

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He did run it in harder on a couple of occasions but it wasn't consistent. More importantly he was way too passive in defence (again) which contributed to 2 of their tries and I think this is where the bulk of the criticism is aimed.

I said previously that it looks like 'burn out' to me. He's shouldered a lot of the burden of our missing props this year. However, it is up to the coaching staff to handle this and I don't think they are, albeit possibly more out of necessity rather than anything else.

He needs to be better. That's the simple truth. Whether that will come through time out, a kick up the backside or something else I don't know. The solution needs finding though as, at the moment, he isn't justifying his position of starting prop.

Not in my book but I’m old school, each to their own.

He’s an NRL GF winner, pretty sure after all these years his ability and tackling technique are fine, does not for one iota strike me as a player who would purposely go out to hurt anybody

Well he has, tongue in cheek about it being you - although your wishing of him or anybody else harm makes you a by far worse person than he is

Well said Col.

Just saw the TV highlights of the game - Wigan's first try was as good as it gets. Beautiful team try.

He was a bit unlucky with the first try as Smithies was called offside by the ref and left a gap.

Yes, I saw that on rewatching it yesterday. I do feel he could have been less passive though. The second one was wholly his fault as he didn't number up and bit in to the outside man leaving a huge gap.

That said, he definitely tried harder on Saturday and ran with more purpose. I think I was a little guilty of being negative towards him after recent displays. I still think he would benefit from some time out though as he tends to switch on and off a little too easily.

I wonder if he was told about holding the line and not shooting out looking to put shots on. He has looked passive ever since the Wakey away game and in that game and ones before, I’d noticed him flying out of the line hunting for players but that seems to have been shelved. He looks to have gone from one extreme to the other but I think it all ties in with your point about a rest. I think he needs a couple of weeks out when the chance arises, just to freshen him up. Every player hits a dip at some point and I think he’ll be fine in the long run.

Quite possibly NK.

As I've said previously I do believe there's a player in there but when you see the impact Dupree had in that game or how Havard is making himself into one of the best in the league, both at a similar age, it does leave me feeling a little frustrated with him. He has the tools. He just doesn't seem to be getting the best out of them. I think he should be rested this week as we're playing a team with one eye on the final next week and with Dupree's addition we have enough up front not to miss him. Bring in Hill or Havard, if fit, and we're good in the front row. Alternatively, play KPP at prop and bring Nsemba/Shorrocks into the back row.

Do it this week and he'll get a 2 to 3 week break.

Smithies needed to give a penalty away. Staying back opened up the gap which Byrne couldn’t fill.

You're probably right in hindsight Zig, but then hindsight is always right. He'd have copped plenty of stick if he'd deliberately given a penalty away as we would never have known that it actually saved a try.

I'm guessing he believed the gap would be covered as perhaps it might have been had Byrne been less passive.

In the end, there's a shared responsibility there though. Neither got it right.

I would always have given the penalty away if I was defending in my own 10m.