But smith has brought in most of this squad, mostly his Ozzie journey men and players he never saw play prior to their arrival. Sorry but the buck stops with him

I've no doubt the buck will stop with him.
As for the players brought in do you not think money played a little part in the type of player we could sign? (A. Tupou apart who must wander where the hell he has come!)

Smith didn't sign Scott Anderson or Nick Scruton...he did sign Tupou, Arona and England who played well today...

I felt Hall was weak in defence and attack today. He did some flashy stuff but he's a loose canon and I don't like him in the centre. I think I'd play him on the wing now.
They targeted Finn a little bit and he let a few go through too. Can't blame him alone as they were tough to stop for anyone.

Clearly Johnstone was pure gold today.
Tupou made a difference to us when he came on.
I like Sio but I think Howarth is proving the more valuable player. If Moore has any form on return Sio will make way.
I'd like to see the whole game video as the tries were score left right and middle so it's hard to blame any one part of the defence.

Attack I liked. Defence has to improve drastically.

I believe only one Catalan score came down the Hall Johnson wing, and it was that side where we looked the most dangerous. I would ask why you believe Hall was weak on defence and attack. I look forward to the stats on the game to access if you are correct or just prejudiced.

From what I saw it was Arundel and Reece that was the weak side not moving up sometimes and giving Catalan momentum. When we started to ship the ball wide even if hall didn't make a clean break he made 40 meters on several occasions. Throwing the ball wide was the only tactic that would work against such a big pack. We did this for 20 mins and Catalan couldn't handle it. We went back to down the middle and struggled. Smith should have said want no more than 2 straight drives out of a six second half.

The tries were split, two on the left, four down the middle and two on the right.
I did say they were spread and not all on one player, but the two on Hall's side were between him and his inside man not Johnstone and not a finger was even near the player.

In attack Hall made some good runs but on more than one occasion kicked through when I'm not sure it was on, though I haven't rewatched it so could be wrong, but it was most irritating to see passes miss Johnstone when he should be getting try assist passes. Especially the behind the back one. It just needed a good centres pass.

Said the same about "the round the back pass". he had enough time to give a regular pass, which would have been a certain score.
It was the first 20/25 minutes that killed us and I looked typical of our efforts f the last 2 season.

Everyone knew that the Dragons would hit us hard from the off and we simply couldn't live with them but, we were so lethargic and that isn't good enough.

Enthusiasm and willingness to play for the team are minimum requirements and these were missing from too many players.
We looked like a team that had seen the size of the opposition and didn't want to know.

You often see that in kids rugby but, it was disappointing and unacceptable from a professional RL team.

Scrutton off and Toupu on made a huge difference but, we'd got too much of a mountain to climb

Thought Hall looked good in the centre, with the limited ball he got.
Johnstone will score plenty of tries, if Hall stays as his centre.
As for Hall's frail defence, that's nothing new but didn't look out of place with the majority yesterday.
A.Tupou arrival on the pitch changed everything, he did more in his first 10 mins than the rest of the team did in a he first 20 mins.
Thought the back two of Molloy and Ashurst were none existent.
After yesterday A.Tupou should start, with Anakin replacing him off the bench.
Pop Tart has mentioned that Carney was like an advert for Daz, they has a simple commit the man and pass the ball game, whereas we didn't have any sort of passing game.

I would persevere with Hall. I think he is the only creative back we have on the books. Give him and Johnstone longer to form a partnership -it won't happen overnight.