Can anyone explain why Washbrook is in the team.

It was a classic team with nothing to lose performances by London compared to our first half where we were ultra cautious. I guess the weather added to our no mistake first half policy resulting in us losing the ball and making silly mistakes. This just added more pressure on an already nervous team and I guess they just forgot to adjust to the conditions.
The second half they played the conditions better and once we levelled the score I thought we started to play with more confidence resulting in better rugby by us.
I understand the decision to put Sykes at 6 because he and Smith had played together for the best part of two seasons (injuries aside). I would expect that with Smith participating in more training sessions it will give him an opportunity to work with Sammut.

Not a big fan of Washbrooke but I thought he had a decent 80 minutes, all things considered.

I thought he was worst person on pitch & that includes the ref who appeared out of his depth.

Washbrook was ok last night.

Worst on the pitch was Godinet. Swings and roundabouts with Ref.

Agreed. Godinet was woeful.

Time to face facts that we are 11th in the league table (probably back to 12 tomorrow) because we are not that good.
Let's hope that we can limp along to the end of the season and get stronger for 2015.
If we are cr@p every week, it's probably because we are cr@p.
Our forwards (apart from Tautai) are just not capable of breaking the opposition line.

On the plus side, we did get 2 points and thank god that Mr Glover put a roof on the North Stand

You may have a point to a certain extent, although it's the lack of effort that concerns me more. Imo, this team should be more competitive then it is (without necessarily winning many more games) and would be if the vast majority played like they gave a toss

I was in a box this week so had a perfect view of Kirmond's try.
Perfect pass from Smith. Beautiful thing to see.

Kirmond loved it. More of that please.

Alas we are what we are its a fact we have to face that we just aint good enough but it would help if ALL the players put the effort in instead of going through the motions.I think of all the players sold let go that we have missed is Smith to guide us round the field and Aiton for the pure 80 mins of graft and hard tackling he gave us in the middle of the field.Just a shame we couldn't have let Washbrook go instead of Aiton who could have then gone to 13.

First of all I went, got a £10 ticket from a neighbour. Not the best tenner I've ever spent but hey.

What I'm wondering is what exactly were people expecting?

Webster picked a good enough team, I really don't get this Sammut stuff, he's been anonymous since game 1 and no way is a an automatic choice. Those demanding his selection are either watching a different player or are blinkered to his reputation which I feel he has forgotten to bring with him. Or maybe just maybe he's a bad egg and Webster has spotted that, obviously he doesn't know the team and players as well as we do - let's give him some slack on this as unlike Agar he's not had the time or chance to express his own ideas and after all nobody was rating any of Agars selections by the end anyway and maybe he should have dropped Sammut (just a thought).

Now the conditions.

I'm no Smith fan but for the first game back he did ok. Sadly the conditions could not have been more against his style of play unless it had snowed. For me the ONLY worthwhile part of Smith game is his passing which apart from a sublime pass to Kirmond was wrecked last night - neither Webster or Smith can be blamed for that.

Ditto the rest really. In conditions like yesterdays it's always the team that came out to play that will suffer and YOU yes YOU lot were demanding that. Not easy to change that mind set 20 minutes before kick off. The first half was nothing but a lottery which we lost.

The real positive was a half time team talk that actually worked! The team steadied and were much the better team in the second half (I say that relative to the opposition).

No rose tinted from me, we still don't look a good team but that wasn't going to change in two week no matter who got the coaching gig - there is no Solomona etc in this team.

Still a couple more wins and we are safe. Oddly I feel that with a bit of tweaking and a good off season this team could come back next season a far better outfit - patience required I suppose.

Finally Lucas Wallshaw - he has now convinced me he's a player of some real potential, probably a S/R but for now a centre. He created the last try and was a constant attacking threat. He also made some great tackle. Bit weak in the air and that needs working on as at 6'7" he should be the opposite. He's also not that slow for a big lad which seems to be another pre conceived bit of nonsense peddled on here.

He's out of contract soon and if we don't want to see him at Hudds or Cas next year I suggest MC gets a move on - or history will as ever repeat itself.

So we are still a poor team, it was a very ugly win against a team who probably deserved a point for pure effort and discipline. As did their 8 fans who though annoying deserve a medal they really do. I'd like now to see Webster start to use the likes of Wildie and Anakin as much as possible for the rest of the season (when appropriate of course). But as others have said a wins a win.

Walshaw smashed a couple of knocks out of London late in the game last night and is defence all night looked very good.

He put Riley away but got it slightly wrong and a few minutes later Riley showed him just how to do it.

Worth £10 of my money to watch Walshaw play any day and he's still learning.

He has to be the number one priority to sign up. He is young and there are flaws in his game, particularly passing, but the raw potential is huge. I'd have him working with Ali and Collis to improve his distribution and we could have one of the most destructive wide runners in the league on our hands.