problem seems to me that we can defend against anyone who runs across our line, we have noone who will step out of the line and enforce himself on a half back, this then means either a centre or the winger has to come in, leaving either the winger exposed or a gap behind the winger.

I look at the squad and dont see a mobile tackler, a "slater" if you will.

correct. just got back and watched the game again. if our game had been refereed on the same lines as wigan and saints the penalty count would have been halved. our players and cas players were clearing the ruck faster than saints and wigan and we were getting penalised. the refereeing was an absolute farce

I did not see the two games before ours but i believe they were reffed in a similar manner, the along comes Silverwood and does the opposite, now the first game of the season at the same venue when the whole of RL's watching and they can't even sing of the same hymsheet.

No problem with how the games reffed if its consistant, how the hell do players work with Refs.

I have the utmost respect for Refs, its a hard job but Cummins is making it harder.

Thats a fair point. We always seem to let half backs run across the line instead of someone getting in their face.

Don't like to see it myself but Saints and Wigans halfbacks do the same, its maybe considered to much of a risk for someone to come out of the line a nail them.

The other thing we seem to do is take a couple of yards forward and then stop and wait for the opposition to come to us, whereas most of the other teams keep coming and cut down the space to work in and the momentum you can build up for the collision.

Whether it is a fitness thing or not I am not too sure, but in a weird way it probably takes more out of the tank having to stop players who have had the extra yards to build momentum, then getting off the line to meet them.

One of the problems with the defence seems to be the spacing between defenders.For me we seem to get too many players too close together in the middle of the pitch leaving us just the winger and centre to mark 4 players.Luke George saved us a couple of tries yesterday when he came in quickly to stop the ball getting to a 2 man overlap.

basically ther team that do it have the SO about 5 yards further back than we do and the rest of the backs flatter, gives SO time to assess the defence and defence time to be put in 2 or 3 minds, means also attack is naturally on the move quicker than the defence and its easier to maintain spead than to pick it up, and its not new Shaun edwards was a master at it, Nigel wright best ive seen do it at wakey.

I agree and i thought that Luke George had a good game yesterday saving a couple of trys and also scoring a very good one.

Agree with the last few posts about the technical side of how to combat the problem/create the problem for other teams.

What I did notice crucially yesterday was Mathers was involved in their attack a lot more than Blaymire was for us. Full back attacking play now is crucial if you look at the top sides, Tomkins, Wellens, Webb, Hodgson, etc.. just in SL. With the depth of full backs to choose from, we should be able to get someone who can become part of a pivotal attack.

Im afraid Kear got it all wrong yesterday. Millard on the bench at the expense of a mariano/howarth, Lee at lock, Vievers on the wing, Spiers on the bench we all mistakes. We ain't got a great squad but he managed to use what we have extremeley poorly.

Think Millard was on bench cos of move to Catalans,dont want him injured then stuck with him.If he was in team then he should have been centre with veivers fb,blaymire dropped,murphy on wing and mariano or howarth on bench.

So should everyone be fit, what would be your ideal team be.

Morrison should have been at lock with Mariano 2nd row. Lee as interchange hooker off the bench. He was knackared when he took over from Rinaldi and we lost our spark. Vievers looked like a fish out of water on the wing, he should be at fullback. Blaymire doesn't offer enough going forward. Ideally Gledhill would be fit to be the fourth prop but until he is or we strengthern then Hendo should do the job. Spiers doesn't look ready yet. Millard either starts or doesn't play. Howarth should have been on the bench.

Personaly thought Hyde was non-existent.