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.

Give Hill more minutes now we have Dupree. I’d rather invest in his development than Byrne’s who has never shown any form of dominance of a number of games in his career. He should be the next out of the door like Partington was.

Exactly. It is the penalty that Faz gave away that annoyed me.

Talking of props running with vigour, I’m just watching Harvie Makin playing for Barrow and my word, he knows how to smash a ball up! Not the biggest but he’s causing all sorts of problems. Not seen a great deal of him before.

Played at Judes in the same team as Junior. This Judes team was almost unbeatable, I think they lost less than five games from the team being 7 to 16. Harvey has a good engine, not the biggest as you say. His dad Craig played at Widnes back in the 90's.

Aka Andy Platt.