I've been meaning to post exactly that.
For all the criticism of team selection, he actually got the important bit right.


And on the other bits it was a no win situation.
If he picked Max at 6 and played Rourke, he would have had to play Pitts at 13 and lost Cossa who had a great game


Some say picking Scott on the wing was wrong but he caught every high ball except the one he let bounce into touch and made some key tackles when QQ could have broken easy.
The tries weren't because of him. The first was a breakaway where Griffin missed the key tackle, second was a kick to Hall and third was a kick when everyone was defending too tight.
Walmsley might have got back for the first but I'm not that sure.


I don't think Hall was that great but he's the only one and I assume there because he could give us speed next to Scott's power play.


Also everyone wanted Max back in but he put two awful passes out when we had a chance on Scott's wing. One into touch and one to ground.


So how could Powell have foreseen that.


We weren't terrible across the park. We had some great breaks and made ground in the forwards, we just kept stuffing up the last plays.


We have every chance in France but we have to improve on those plays.

 We were very lucky , we scored two try's  against a team with one of the worst defences in S L .We have  at present two many forwards on the park and very little skill or speed were it should be. . ,I know we got injuries but we should stop looking for excuses for two shocking performances over the first 60 minutes of the last two games ,and agree that  Mr Powell over the last two games as made some bad calls .We have got Catalan, Cas, Wires, and Salford  in the next 4 games , they should show were we are as a team  

I agree with all of that.We have one of the best wingers in SL and it's criminal that we cannot find a way to use him. I can count on one hand the number of genuine passes he's had all season.
Our half back situation Is well documented and it doesn't help. I don't know what the answer is, but Jay Pitts isn't. He's tried, but he lacks the speed and that's not helping.
I'm glad I'm not the coach. Serms to me we need a genuine no 6 as back up to Trueman. 

Max is the one giving passes to Tom, not the 6.
Pitts isn't stopping that.

No, I appreciate that, and I'm not being critical of DP, he's the coach and he does what he thinks is best picking JP at no6. You mention Max being the one to pass to Tom and that situation has been there, as you know, a long time.  It's fine, but it's not enough. He needs the ball more, and half backs and centre should be getting it to him, besides the full back.
We all know what Tom can do but he gets more passes to drive the ball up, rather than half a scoring chance.
JP at no6 was an option. 
IMO it didn't work. I'd rather see Harvey smith at sh and Lino at 6
Anyway, the sooner it's sorted the better because at the moment we have a team.of grafters but lack quality guile at hb.

And here lies the issue. If our Fullback is the only player feeding our winger than how easy is that defend. Should be the whole responsibility of our spine/pivot players to set up and create platforms for him and others to score. Whether that be pass, kick etc.

Got to disagree about Scott. He messed a kick up, dropped a ball cold from a half break, was positionally all over the place (not his fault) and due to his lack of pace could never get round the first man on kivk returns. He was better in the second half though

I agree with both comments. We need more from 6.
Especially the kicking.
Considering how easily Tom gets the ball on drop outs, we need to play to both him and Roarke who is actually even better in the air.

Agree about T J still got the legs to go some distance , would he have scored from the break he made near is own line a few year ago who knows but think you got to give credit to Hoy for chasing him down ( if Jowitt had done some thing like that we would have been raving about it ) Pity we have not got the same skill and pace on the other wing.

Good as the break was from Tom, he had two players in support and couldn't find the pass.
At his level, and especially if he wants to play for England, he needs to be able to do that.

Neither of those two players would have made it to the line and would have been chopped down by the chasing defenders. Cas actually did well to cover the support and I think in a derby they really did very well to defend that.

Johnstone is already Englands first choice winger and played their last season in 2024. Only missing the game back end of season through injury. 


I think you?re mistaking the fact he chose not to pass and backed himself rather than he couldn?t find the pass. They are two very different things and we say him many times find that pass including last week vs Saints to Pratt. 


I?m pretty sure 260+ metres, Strong carries out the back, strong defence, chasing back 2 x breaks from opposite wing to stop scores in field and a break of 90 metres would be enough to retain an England spot. 


Focusing on the one pass that probably wouldn?t have ended in a try anyway imo is very harsh to say it is what will stop him getting into England squad. 


Toms contributions to the Cas game were valuable, without him chasing down opposite wing we wouldn?t have been in a position to win that. That?s the kind of plays that will help him retain his England spot in the ashes. 


We have some consistent top performers and one of them is Johnstone. There are plenty of these coming up that he will finish I?m sure. 

Tom has a hell of a battle to get a starting birth on the wing. Dom Young, Joe Burgess, Tom Davies, Liam Marshall and even Ash Handley will all be in the mix.

There's more to a game than just scoring tries, Tom does the 1%?s and effort based parts really really good. His chase backs for Qareqare tries effectively won us the game in the end. 


Not sure if he?ll play against the Aussies, but to say Johnstone effectively had no pre-season, is playing in a team currently that are offering him limited scoring opportunities, he?s playing very solid indeed.