I’ve been accused of and called worse things so I’ll take being called a Vastman pseudonym



Yeah, I can’t quite fathom it all out to be honest. The last time we worked as a collective was after the Daily Star drama. In 2021 we seem to have reverted back to where were last year before those 3 wins.

I think there are individuals you can pick out and I’d say we are weak in the front row. However, like you say they don’t all have a drop in performance at once. I honestly feel like we are seeing the breakdown of aging players. Most of them are only 31/32 which doesn’t sound that old but when you look at the number of injuries they have had I feel like that may have brought the aging process on a bit earlier. If you know what I mean?

My biggest criticism of Chester at the moment is him picking players out of position when we do have alternatives. Playing both J.Wood/Crowther is stunting our attack as both do the same job really in that they tighten up defence. Randell used to do the same job but his passing from the floor was good and he did know when to run and get a quick roll on. With Kyle Wood out I can’t see why we don’t give Harry Bowes a whirl from the bench. He his a hooker after all and if we are worried about his defence why not just bring him on for a 25/30 min period with his main instruction being to get the team moving forward with more urgency.

As you say though it’s all just speculation and theories on our part. Just frustrating to watch at the moment

It looks like I was almost right....quote from Chester in today's Wakey Express "Mason has trained for 2 weeks with that oblique (abdominal) issue and I think that is still giving him some hassle".
Hopefully he can shake it off soon and we will then see him being more creative ??

Surely the ashurst dilemma all stems from poor attacking structures which are too easily read by defensive structures which isn’t helped by often ponderous play the balls .Not that ashurst has a thing about running into brick walls ,as there is only one winner in the long term on your body, he’s already suffered with disc problems over the recent seasons so can’t see him doing that willingly week in week out. Our best attacking structures recently were in the Randall era ,we've really missed not only his tackling in the heat of the battle but the scoots from dummy half, half the reason why K woods was affective in the second period was down to him IMO.Very early days yet for our half backs to get any kind of consistency but we need these to be firing behind a pack going forwards and you may hopefully again see the likes of ashurst and kelepi running out wide into holes instead of brick walls . So far our tries have been mostly individual and opportunistic tries not from set plays or moves ,as you can tell by our ineffectiveness near the opposition goal line we still have a lot of work to do in the set play department and the clocks ticking .

Fair points. I suppose it's fair to say that the 2 Woods have barely played together yet, so maybe that partnership will form. At the moment Josh and Jordy are not different enough.

Kettykat you are bang on about Randel he was the best 9 we have had since Sam Obse (will get shot down for that or the ,spellings of is second name lol) Same as a lot of our players he was rushed back after injury ,not quite fit ,got a bad tackle making the first injury into long term.This was down to poor decision by our coaching staff ..Let's hope this is some thing that will not happen this season under the new coaching staff .It's going to be a hard long season as it is ,with out playing players half fit

When Randell was with us, all I saw was Randall cop negative comments for his performances, now he`s gone he`s the best hooker we`ve had in a long time not directed at you old boy, but I didn`t see anyone on here rushing to his defence.

I can`t see the rushing players back from injury thing being true, this should not be the case in a pro set up, if it is, some serious questions need to be asked.

Fair points. I suppose it's fair to say that the 2 Woods have barely played together yet, so maybe that partnership will form. At the moment Josh and Jordy are not different enough.

No offence taken homme vaste.I was one of them who liked him from day one ,He could tackel, could make yards .,.When I Wood came on would move to lose forward still giving 100% in defending and attacking .also ment a forward could go off for a rest .Two games that stand out for me.were Hull away, and Leeds at home the week after .Both Finn and Grix were injured so we had Jowitt at full back ,Rocky at 7 Randel at 9 .The attacking rugby we played in those 2 matches were the best that had been played for a long time .We lost both by less than 4 points and then Jowitt and Rocky were left out and went back to the bad rugby we are playing now

Flair players are rare and Brad Walker has some. Reminded me of Nigel pound on the gate Wright. Time on his hands when in possession of the ball.
If Lino is unfit, what’s the point, same with Rocky, or anyone else. Give them a break. After all, SL status is priority. Give Arundel game time this weekend.

Flair players are rare and Brad Walker has some. Reminded me of Nigel pound on the gate Wright. Time on his hands when in possession of the ball.
If Lino is unfit, what’s the point, same with Rocky, or anyone else. Give them a break. After all, SL status is priority. Give Arundel game time this weekend.

Think the hooker role is an issue i said at first play jordt there to stiffen defence up and still think that may work if kyle was playingbut as been said haveing both jordy and josh is killing the ruck.by sounds of cc interviews there struggeling to know when kyle will beback every week he says next week but goes on to say he may need another scan or he should be back up at it by now so my concern is that hes going to be out for fair few weeks.however i do think there is currently a hooker in the championship who could easily do a very good job for us brandon moore from fax im sure somthing could be done with fax even give them tangata back