He's stronger than most in defense, its just that we need the distribution.
So I'm happy for him to be on the field, just not at Hooker when we have an actual Hooker available.

It's a good enough squad to beat Leeds, old man Gale or not.

Exactly this. Eaves looked strong in defence on his short stint last week anyway. Think he put in 4 consecutive tackles in one set at one point. Looking forward to seeing more from him.

Tupou is paying the price for his poor defensive choices and conceeding a number of try’s last week.

My team would be:

Bott
Kershaw
Arundel
Lyne
Senior
Jowitt
Lino
Green
Wood
Arona
Tanginoa
Batchelor
Westerman

Eaves
Fifita
Battye
Walker/Crowther

But defence isn't the problem so much now, it's the attack, in which case a real hooker trumps a stand in one.

no I’ve not forgot anything but our back line just look well short of fire power without tj and bill who are the only ones who make breaks

Lyne makes breaks as often as Bill. TJ is clearly a massive loss to any team but if you can't score tries you shouldn't be in the backs, all those backs can score. They are not the problem for me, we need to win in the forwards and we need Lino, Wood, and co to promote the ball on the back of it.

Mopsey you know better than most that a winger on one leg will score if the forwards and the halves are winning the game.

We need huge games from Fifita, Battye, Tanginoa, and Westy in the pack and then we need the pivot players to turn that into chances and we will score, and if we defend as we have in the last few games we have a good chance. When I say defend better I don't mean our defense has been exceptional because it hasn't but if we dominate possession and territory we won't have to do as much of it and thus won't concede as many.

Easy on paper, I know, but you have to assume the best.

Yet according to his post match interview after the Catalans game Chester was going to spend the challenge cup break focussing on defence!

i think we’ve defended quite well in games and had a good dig but the problem is our attack is so blunt we can’t put anyone under pressure and get them chasing the game because apart from break away tries we can never score, then we just capitulate and let 30 in.

Haha yes and without kelpi too

Gale playing could be a problem for me.he has a kicking game.this is why kershaw cant play in my opinion his mistakes and inability to deal with kicks as led to 6 tries in ladt 3 games im sure gale will be peppering him

Bet365 are giving us 8.5 start. That's quite big really.
They don't rate our chances.

I think far too many people are placing too much emphasis on the hooker position in respect of why we are losing etc.
Against Wigan a non hooker plays and it's 6-6 at HT. Recognised hooker plays second half and it ends up we lose 34-6.
Against St Helens non hooker plays 23minutes and it's 0-0. Recognised hooker comes on and plays until 73 mins and it's 34-0 against us. Non hooker comes on and we score and it ends up 34-6.
V Hull recognised hooker starts and plays 32 minutes and we are losing 8-0. Non recognised hooker comes on and it ends up 20-14.

Crowther isn't a convential hooker or someone who you would want as hooker if you can help it. However he's made a decent fist of it. Facts are when he's been on the field we've competed and been in the game! When he's gone off we've struggled.

I think there's wider problems with our star men who haven't given us the Xfactor. We've some phenomenal players who haven't played well enough, consistently enough. I'm sure they know that deep down.

In a team there's everyone who plays their part and are equally important. The grafter who tackles everything, the finisher, the line breaker, the person who can finish when they're put through a gap, the ball handler, the kicker, the person who links in etc..

Despite some being injured if our match winners start performing we should see a few wins in the next few weeks

It's not Crowther's fault at all. When he's been on he's gone a long way to keeping those scores tight.
But having him at half back slows the distribution, so eventually they start scoring and we can't go with them.

To be honest, it's easy to coach from my keyboard but I think I'd have put Westy in the line earlier and just used 6 or 7 at half back and let Crowther just concentrate on tackling.

1. Jowitt
2. Kershaw
3. Lyne
4. Arundel
5. Kay
6. Westerman
7. Lino
8. Green
9. Eaves
10. Arona
11. Ashurst
12. Pitts
13. Crowther

14. Wood
15. Fifita
16. Battye
17. Tanginoa

Surely you are not putting the opposition scoring at will when Jordans off to slow distribution? I'll add our distribution hasn't been great by anyone. We'd only played 23 minutes v Saints and it was 0-0. A recognised hooker plays from there on in and we get smashed. Two tries through poor defence by our hooker in same game. Recognised hooker starts v Hull and we are losing 8-0. When we've had recognised hookers on we've created nothing and leaked points. That's probably why poor Jordan gets put there. Fans don't look that close and I'll bet three-quarters wouldn't know about the stats and point the finger at Jordan rather than the actual hookers. I like most don't want Jordan at hooker. But our hookers have been injured and not fired upon their return. Hopefully they'll start firing and get back to 80minute footy so he doesn't have to go there.