How do you get, bigger, fitter, faster and more skilful

They've been good in a lower league and aren't as good as when they played in SL (from which they were relegated)

I think Belly should be watching Bradford then.
Apart from Annakin he doesn't seem to like anything about Wakefield.

The banter between Chase and the Wakey fans goes way back to his Cas days. He gives plenty back when he ends up on top.

How ironic it was when he moaned about a leading arm and got put on his arass He ruined Rapartis career with probably the cheapest shot in RL history.

In all fairness I think Rangi let you off lightly after his full length try, didn't see him direct anything to the Wakefield supporters which was surprising given the grief he got.

Its more to do with him giving up with 40 meters to go

I thought our pack was poor walker mullally and molloy apart.im big fan of anderson but thought he and scruton where not at the races yesterday.but its all about opionins

Pop Tart, I have moaned about the club not having a Rugby committee to advise the board re players, as a result we have had our legs lifted. Webster was allowed to sign a bunch of useless soft forwards, only Simon has looked the part. Other than Simon and Anakin I do not remember any aggression from a single Wakey forward all season. And as for Anderson Dreadnought , wow he really bossed that Salford pack yesterday. Him and Scruton really smashed in and got us going forward. I moaned about Ian Kirke as its a disgrace that he has had the time off that he has had.This is not me being clever after the event, I was posting about it six weeks into his 16 week holiday for a slight groin pull. The time off the players have been given, the lack of fitness. The signing of known poor players , Anderson in amsterdam the week before the Salford game. The total lack of respect shown to Anakin, and the final nail in the coffin the ridiculous swap of MacShane , a real quality player, with Scot Moore, a real poor player just beggared belief. So Pop Tart I suppose you are correct there is little to like on the Rugby front. That said I understand that there was effort on Sunday and that has to be admired, the pity is that we have allowed the standard of player to drop so far that effort alone will not get us a result against Bradford and Leigh as both those teams now have superior players to us in almost every position.

You're late to the party; Wakey fans and Rangi Chase go back a lot further than his recent stop-start Salford career, hence the stick he got.

The different point of view is that I saw the same game but see good points too. I think you see them but focus on the poor aspects


The first half was frustrating but the forwards in my opinion did smahsh it around with the Salford pack. It was nip and tuck and we really tackled them hard. There were some shuddering tackles going in.
The problem was that Smith's last tackle play was just not working and although the forwards were working hard, the Salford forwards were gradually starting from further up the field.
Their tries came from field position gained by penalties which is probably from them getting the better in the tackle but we got nothing from their laying on so is hardly a criticism of our forwards.

There was one tackle from Anderson and Scruton where the whole crowd went "oof" because they smash the guy so hard.
A couple of times Scruton was the only one chasing kicks so did a lot of work that wasn't even his to do.

I have to say Molloy was particularly good yesterday and hit the line really hard and made good yards (I haven't seen the stats to back that up yet)

Now saying all that, I thought we would drop off when the props rotated but actually, for all they look like little and large, Mulally and Walker were very effective. Both have a good step and always get their heads through to make a dominent play the ball.
Was very impressed with all our props.

I thought early on that Moore was doing well as he put some big hits in too, but he gradually started making bad decisions that cost us. Sio coming on made a big difference.
Even Scruton's dropped ball was down to Moore in a lot of ways.
Scruton had just got in to position and was ready to take the ball. Moore decided to go on his own when there was really nothing on but left us with no hooker and Scruton having to rush back to cover. He then fumbled in his haste to pass it.

In the backs for all he is getting criticism from his chase back on Chase, Lyne made a lot of yards for us and worked the ball away from the line every time.
Owen made a mistake with a high ball which was poor but then, when they went back to his wing and he had a two on one with Thorneley and Jones Bishop who both were standing 10 feet tall, he picked the right option and drove BJB in to touch to win us the ball back. That's a massive improvement for him and should be recognised.

Tim Smith was poor early on with his dropped ball and poor kicks but again managed to turn it around with some absolutely perfect passing to put the guys in for tries.

In all those cases we have turned our attitude as a team around 100%. For some people to imply there was no effort is frankly insulting to those players. The fact that nearly every person who was at the game stayed behind to clap them off the field speaks volumes.

So I agree there was a lot we could improve on but they in my opinion were single issues rather than total team performance.
Hopefully we will sort out Smith's long kicking game, and our decision making at hooker but I reckon other teams have much bigger issues than us so I am still quite positive if still a little disappointed we didn't close the game out.

I realise I've now taken the Bradford game thread off subject but I have now looked at the stats and it shows a lot of effort.
For me, exactly the same team as played at Salford for the Bradford game. Just work on improving the small issues

You make some good valid points Poptart, but there are still some aspects down the middle in defence that would still concern me, Scruton just sometimes gets flat footed too often and is brushed aside too easily for me. I know you can't tackle everything, and players will miss tackles, but I could understand it when a little elusive runner like say Burrow sidesteps a big bloke down the middle, but Scruton sometimes just gets his technique all wrong against guys of similar size, like in the Cas game against Millington was it? That was early on so can't be fatigue. Also, their first try was from inside their own half wasn't it? No disrespect, but I don't think I've ever seen Josh Griffin run that far! That was pretty flimsy defence, as were the efforts to stop his brother near the line. I just thought the first 20, 25 minutes they could have ripped into it a bit more, given they had been building up to that game for weeks, but you're right, overall they have improved, but silly errors and bad decision making are still evident at crucial times in games, and that's the bit that worries me, when the pressure is on I would be worried that some of them just aren't up to coming up with the goods when it matters most.

Looking at us as a team, we also just look a bit slow, all across the park, You look at Leigh and they just look quicker, but of course that's not the be all and end all, their strength is also their weakness which we've got to exploit. Bradford are obviously a capable side in their own right, but if we can't beat them at home, then I really don't think we deserve to stay up, think the whole club will be shot to pieces if we lose, we gotta beat them, it's imperative.....

I'd like to see the following 17 against the big Bradford Bulls side with some pace, size and creativity on the bench plus 3 props in the starting pack...

Lee Smith
Tom Johnstone
Joe Arundel
Bill Tupou
Richard Owen
Jacob Miller
Tim Smith
Nick Scruton
Michael Sio
Anthony Mullally
Jon Molloy
Matty Ashurst
Mikael Simon

Subs. Anthony Walker, Scott Anderson, Ali Lauitiiti, Pita Godinet.

I agree about the two Griffin tries. I don't understand how we can be so good yet make such a fundamental error.
That's why I'm not a coach.

Our super 8 maybe, but Championship Shield is over already and Super League as good as too.