I think people overestimated what Pele would/could actually do this season, possibly highlighted by you referring to him as an experienced player. He's only 6 months older than Will Gardiner and played a very similar amount of games. The fact he's come from Australia probably puts expectations up, but he's still fairly young and very inexperienced.

Whilst I agree, that makes him a poor signing. Not really in a position to be signing projects FWIW I think he could be a decent signing off the bench, but we have to surround him with some quality.

If you had Ese Ese and Fash starting, with Pele and Ashworth on the bench I think he will do better.

Ah, well!! Nearly objective achieved!!! Doubt any of us were too surprised as to how last night panned out.
Onwards and (vaguely) upwards we go.

To cut a long story short! I would guess that didn't work out too well either.
We don't need this pressure on!!

That is true.

In Tony we trusted

iwould take Pele any day over Gardiner

I know they do, we have done for years but it’s clearly not working with the lightweight kids we have in. The forwards need to pick up the slack. Several times last night, only 1 forward took a drive in per set.

That's because we're not fit enough and spend too much time defending and forwards take 3 tackles to get back behind the ball. Add in shorter and passive defence and our sets invariably start within 10 metres of our own line

Whatever the issue, it needs addressing. The back rowers should be getting more involved. Either way we aren’t making yards, resulting in kicking from deep and inviting full sets to defend in our half. Can excuse the likes of Moy or Martin not making metres but not McIntosh, a senior player, who instead of belting back into the line, is crabbing across the pitch, throwing drop offs and speculators, one of which was miles forward.

If he was signed as a 5th/6th choice prop then maybe, but he's wearing the no.10 shirt, is taking a quota spot, and the club heavily hyped him up with the merchandise, so I think fans are right to expect more from him

If only we’d have dropped Okunbor and played balmforth like people have been shouting on here for years , we might have taken the 2 points last nights eh …. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it ! Coaches galore

Yeah, Radders just wasn't backed finacially after delivering us our greatest times in modern history, and that cost us losing one of the best coaches in the business. He was still savvy enough to bring in some cheap gems like Ratu, Satae and Swift. And while we went backwards, he went on to be part of the coaching staff that took Samoa to the World cup final.