was taylors' worthy of a 2 game ban? i dont think so, but we are dealing with the rfl, plus watts got a sin bin so hopefully it may give him 1 less game on the review

fingers crossed. We need both of them

I think we're in for a rough time on Thursday. .
Watts I'd say is nailed on missing
Hopefully Taylor and ellis play
Combined with a really bad timed (for us) England camp involving 3 key men I'm not remotely confident tbh
Hudds really don't scare me as a team but I'm not sure we can switch up from the dross we served on Friday to a win Thursday when pre season we've shown nothing and could have suspension and injury concerns with key men in England camp

When is the England camp?

Wont Hudds have a couple of players in there also?

Three days isn't from today

Won't have their fullback or hooker there. Kinda key positions when training to sort your attack out. There today I'm sure I saw. Given a thursday game only leaves today and tuesday at best as real training days. Usually a couple before you have off..Then a run through (captains run) of what you're gonna do in the game day before. So prep is far from ideal considering the level we're off going by Fridays performance

Hopefully Huddersfield won't play in the same grubby manner as Catalans. This would mean us not getting dragged into the turgid sort of game we had on Thursday and will allow us to play more in the fashion of last season. We can but hope!!

Just looked, it's only today, not much needs changing really, better weather and using our brains will be a start, don't think the camp will effect us at all.

How the opposition play shouldn't dictate what we do, if that's the case then we've got problems.

I think people expect too much of the squad given the salary cap we have available. You simply cant have first class players in every position all the time. Wigan and Warrington have players who I wouldn't even consider for Hull's 17, but its all about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.

Yes Bowden and Green are a drop in quality from the starters. But Taylor and Watts could feasibly be the England front row, of course there will be drop off. Bowden and Green are as good a two props as anyone else carries on their bench.

That said when Hadley is fit I think I would start him and bring Mini off the bench to try to keep a bit more impact on the field across the 80 minutes.

As for the way we've been attacking. Well the Wakefield game was a write off on that front, and although the weather on Thursday wasn't that bad in the end we no doubt prepared all week to play very patient and simple. Its not easy to change that at the last minute. Lets see how we go on Thursday with Kelly back and (hopefully) decent conditions. If we still look as toothless then we can maybe start asking questions, but now its far too early to tell.

But I believe that's exactly what happened. As you say, we shouldn't be falling for it and Radders needs to ensure that they play to our gameplan and not the oppositions.

Couldn't agree more. We'll struggle on Thursday IMO and anything other than a decisive loss will be a tough ask.

The Catalan game really was a disaster on all fronts.

Ignoring how the opposition play will lead to greater problems. Of course we should be setting the agenda but nullifying the opposition is part of that process and some adjustments for each team makes sense.

"Anything other than a decisive loss." I had to double check the poster, I thought it was Mrs. B talking.

Its going to be difficult. No Ellis or Watts, and I guess Taylor is 50/50 at this point, but we still have plenty of quality on show, and Hudds will be without a couple of important players too. We just need to shuffle things about a little, tweak our style (Kelly being back helps), and we should have enough to win.

IF we are to challenge for anything then Radfords use of the less established players in all (or the majority) of the friendlies needs to pay off. Have faith folks!