Agree, How long will it be before the club realise,How important it is to have a 6,7, and 9 that can make a break. We played some of our best RUGBY last year, when Smith ,and Dagger were at 6 and 7 and and the present 6,7,and 9 were no were near the team Trouble is it is not the Coaches fault as they were no way near the team .If he had have been do not think any of them would have been at the club

Powell obviously not impressed and it sounds like Hood has picked up a calf injury so could be missing on Friday... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRMxrSs ... eldTrinity

Powell obviously not impressed and it sounds like Hood has picked up a calf injury so could be missing on Friday... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRMxrSs ... eldTrinity

I don’t see that at all. Evidenced by the fact last year when Croft came in we didn’t concede a try down that edge for 3 games (maybe 4) I think and that’s vs SL opposition. He’s better going forward and better at putting his winger away as well as being faster. He does have the odd error in him but he’s a better option than Franco or Griffin at centre or wing. Do we really want Franco up against Taufua? If Taufua will have a field day vs Croft then he’ll be having tea and biscuits against Franco who will do a flashy dive but seems to not be up for the tough stuff.

No prizes for where bulls will target us Friday but it’s certainly something for Powell to sort that right edge and the halfbacks. Clearly these are where improvements needed.

As you say, Lino is a rugged tackler and good goal kicker, but nevertheless not a good half.
As for Gale, I think he should consider hanging his boots up. He was very poor yesterday and very poor against Barrow. This season looks one too many for him. To me we have to go with Lawford and then decide who should be the other half.

It tells us in the championship that we're going to have to roll our sleeves up, get our hands dirty and do some hard work. Do some think that proud clubs like Bradford and fev and a few more are just going to roll over and die.

Really enjoyed the game conditions meant it could go either way, I thought when we got level we would get the result, but other than the last play a couple of areas cost us, Gales knock on with about 10 to play when we had them on the rack for territory and in the first half Hood failing to ground the ball, a kick dead by Fev to beat the fingertips and some poor decisions going out wide from the halves.
To be fair to Fev after the Gale knock on they raise their game again. Fair play in the conditions but it probably did us more good as team looking forwards. Cannot wait for the league to begin. Finally Atoni take a bow I thought he was brilliant and Vagana is going be a handful when he gets up to speed.

Hopefully v Bradford it’ll be something like…

Jowitt
Walmsley
Pratt
Thornley
Croft
Lawford
Gale
Bowden
Doyle
Atoni
Ashurst
Griffin
Pitts

Subs
Vagana
Cozza
Uale
Smith

Unless Hood is injured he should start.

We have a target on our backs from the off.
Every side will raise their game to try and gain our scalp, every one.

The one plus side from yesterday is that any complacency that may have been in the camp before the game, will be long gone.

Fridays games will show whether our attitude is right.

Well let's hope we do beat Bradford. There is a massive feel good about the club right now, thanks to all the effort and generosity of Matt and the people around him. They have worked hard to put the club back in a good place. Hard core support is not an issue, but newbies and returners can be fickle. Rubbish on the pitch can undo all the good work.

Sounds like Hood may have picked up a knock and might not be available Friday, Hope Jowitt isn't too serious, when Jones slid into him when the ball went dead, looked at first Jowitt was hurt but seemed to carry on, ankle sprains usually you can do that but hope he's good to go Friday

I'd go exactly the same. I imagine Lino will play over Lawford, mind. He's obviously a much more rounded, experienced player, and has bags of ability, but it's been painful watching him the last year or so, which is a crying shame because he's got the ability to tear these teams apart. If he strings together say 3 more poor games I don't see how Powell can justify keeping him in over Lawford.

Yesterday doesn't worry me too much. We wouldn't have gone any further in the cup, it's just a bit embarrassing isn't it. The conditions just levelled the game, and some of Fev's less-praised players - Jones, England, Gale, Hardcastle - did a great job making it a 50/50 contest.

As the ground dries up I still think we'll be very hard to stop. Thornley and McGilvary would've really suited that game in a way that Franco and Walmsley just didn't. They're not powerful and as soon as they're hit they're easy to wrestle. But Walmsley particularly will be a weapon on a fast track when he can actually try and evade defenders in yardage. Franco was probably intended as cover but is going to end up playing most of the season - he'll be fine this year but I don't think he has much improvement in him sadly.

On a slight side note, I thought Harry Bowes had a 9/10 jumping in as a ballplayer. Fair play to him.

We were pants, they were good and it still went to extra time. I thought Antoni and Vangana were the only forwards to look like making meters and none of our back line bar Pratt looked like doing anything either but I think a lot of that was down to the conditions. Fair play to Fev they were the better team and deserved it.

I think when were were on top and took the 2 to level it was a bit of a turning point. We were going well had just scored a couple of try's and had the momentum but we took the 2 rather than running it and never really got into their 20 again.

I thought it was also a strange choice of team with Doyle at 13 and booth on the bench. Nothing against them as they are both promising layers but I think yesterday was obviously going to be a big battle down the middle and another big body could have made the difference.