[quote="Adam_Harrison9":16p3fsmd]This sums it up for me. We will need to be far better at competing in terms of intensity and line speed up the middle in future games as Leeds controlled territory and marched us down the field for the first fourty minutes which strangled us. We defended our line superbly well which was pleasing but if Leeds would have kept their first team on we'd have lost that by 30 in my opinion. However, we've got Atoni, Storton, Mcmeeken and Pitts to likely come into the seventeen in terms of middles as well as Johnstone who willg ive us some punch in our exit sets. I thought we looked extremely weak carrying the ball out of our own yardage which is my biggest concern this season I think in terms of our backline. Apart from Johnstone they're all a bit lightweight.[/quote:16p3fsmd] Agree Hope you are right about those forwards .Hope we do not use Johnstone as a battering ram , with is injury problems on is legs . Defence looks good but you can not tackle for 40 minutes like we did in the first half against Leeds .You got to create something in attack that we did not do against Leeds

The full game is now on YouTube, still the Leeds commentary not TC

[quote="Trojan Horse":31mluv5u]They would certainly stiffen the defence up which in turn would improve field position and have an effect on where we play our sets out. Hood especially is a strong defender. Regardless, those 3 would strengthen the team in a few areas, not just down the middle.[/quote:31mluv5u] Hope Hood is not around a lot ,struggled in is last stint in S L .Need more than a player who can tackle at 9 as not even got a kicking game. Defence looks decent, lot more work to do in attack . Hope Russell plays 9 and Lino 7 .If we are struggling to make some ground ,we got 3 good kickers on the park

[quote="alegend":2ocf1d3f]Hope Hood is not around a lot ,struggled in is last stint in S L .Need more than a player who can tackle at 9 as not even got a kicking game. Defence looks decent, lot more work to do in attack . Hope Russell plays 9 and Lino 7 .If we are struggling to make some ground ,we got 3 good kickers on the park[/quote:2ocf1d3f] Strange reasoning there. You want to not play an experienced 9, replace him with an inexperienced 9 who wants to be a 7 and play a player at 7 who struggled in Superleague last time he played there. That just doesn’t add up to me. The issue with Hood imho isn’t that he isn’t good enough for SL but that he wasn’t managed properly. He was slogged on the pitch for 60/65 minutes a game. Too long imho. He needs to be spelled better in SL this time round. His defence is very good and his distribution is fine, he’s a danger on the opposition line too as he’s quite strong. What he is, is a solid 9 who this season will help us transition and play his part well enough and also allow Doyle and Smith to grow their game this season.

Hard to disagree with any of that, Trojan

[quote="Trojan Horse":1x1kopeo]Strange reasoning there. You want to not play an experienced 9, replace him with an inexperienced 9 who wants to be a 7 and play a player at 7 who struggled in Superleague last time he played there. That just doesn’t add up to me. The issue with Hood imho isn’t that he isn’t good enough for SL but that he wasn’t managed properly. He was slogged on the pitch for 60/65 minutes a game. Too long imho. He needs to be spelled better in SL this time round. His defence is very good and his distribution is fine, he’s a danger on the opposition line too as he’s quite strong. What he is, is a solid 9 who this season will help us transition and play his part well enough and also allow Doyle and Smith to grow their game this season.[/quote:1x1kopeo] I agree completely. He was great until he sometimes ran out of steam because we left him on too long. That would be the same for any front rower who tackles like him. I'm more than happy for him to start and Doyle to come on. Or at first, Smith if Doyle not ready.