Been hearing so much once again about how far ahead you are of where you should be in pre-season, how the players have been training the house down but Gentle said the team was treating this game as a SL fixture. Im not surprised alot of you are dissapointed and left early, by the sounds of it the scoreline flattered FC a little.

On the other hand and what people need to realise is that was your first hit out, loads of new players to gel, nowhere near upto match fitness yet and a new coach who will have brought in a whole new game plan/structure for the team to get used to. All this doesnt happen overnight.

As for Rovers, apart from the injuries we have had what seems to be a positive pre-season, nice break now for the team and can go into the Leeds game been quietly confident.

You'll notice I haven't argued against that at all.

As I've been saying all through the closed season, I'm confident that Gentle will deal with the situation appropriately. We finally have some options at HB and if Horne doesn't measure up then either Ellis or Niklas will get their chance. From what I've heard and read Niklas seems to have had the better start so far so maybe he'd be a better option ATM than Ellis?

I'm reasonably confident that this will have been looked at in training. ATM Gentle clearly thinks that Horne is the best option, but if that isn't how it pans out then I doubt he'll stick with Horne just for the sake of it.

Score flattered us how? We should have scored 3 tries before you were even in our half with the ball? Rovers have better strength in depth that's for certain, this is as a result of Agar not playing youngsters.

Of the points scored, the Green try was from a lucky bounce of the ball and we plenty of conversions

I thought we started well for the first 10/15 minutes we seemed to have the majority of posession and field position, however we didn't put points on the board (an old failing). Then Rovers gained the upper hand after the interchanges began, they had what seemed like an age with the ball and we couldn't get out of our half when we did have it. However we defended well initially against repeat sets, but it was obvious we would eventually crack and we did. Then we started to make mistakes, turning over the ball and giving away cheap penalties (I thought I'd travelled back in time at one point!). We rallied for a while second half but it was short lived. Best side won, although at a cost. Both teams will need to improve dramatically based on yesterday's showing to make an impact on the competition this year

We said as much yesterday, 2 poor teams, no team showed us any combinations/players with any spark at this point.

Talk about a MASSSSSSSSIVE over reaction on here which doesnt come as a surprise in all honesty.

Personally I thought we were far better than the score line suggested.

The PTB was so slow thought a ton of our penalties came from the ref not understanding good tackling technique should be rewarded.

Its clear in the middle of the pitch our emphasis is having the 1st tackler stand up the ball carrier and 2 others come in to finish the tackle late off with a upper body twist. The problem is Houghton and Heremia simply lack the size to make tackles like that on props like Paea who was their only go forward.

McKinnon looked really classy, O'Carroll went well and probably made the most metres per carry out of all our props, Martin played himself into the starting line up no question.

Westerman looked good in the 1st 20 but seemed to tire big time, maybe down to the added workload required in the middle.

The Whiting knock on when it was 18-20 was 1 of the biggest momentum changers probably ever seen in a game and we never recovered.

As pointed out by Paul earlier, if Gentle wants to start with Horne and Seymour against Wire (and everything indicates that he does) then he'll be looking to give them plenty of game time against the Bulls. That doesn't rule out giving some time to Ellis & Niklas, but I doubt we'll see either starting. Writing off one half of your preferred starting HB pairing after a single friendly would be a tad precipitate to say the least.

It would indeed, however starting at Wire if the combination is as bad as yesterday and other options maybe available is idiotic. If any player out of the combination is struggling to find form one would have expected it to be Seymour, new league, new club, different country etc, not a seasoned SL player who has played with most of the team for several years.
The ideal scenario is that yesterdays performance may hit home to Horney and he may improve massively on Sunday.

The reason fans (including myself) are looking for alternatives to Horne is that he hasn't really performed to a consistent level for a few season now. I am one of his biggest fans. I've enjoyed watching him play for us over the years but I see a player on the downward curve now. However I hope I'm wrong and he has a great season and forges a fantastic partnership with Seymour. That said I would give them both a least 40 minutes at Fev on Thursday plus the majority against Bradford. They need as much game time together as they can get right now imo.

So just to be clear, if Horne starts against Wire then Gentle is an idiot?

Big call to make at this point.

I will make it clearer !

If the partnership is as dire as yesterday next Sunday and other options have not been explored then it is indeed idiotic! considering we have another 2 options in h/backs who are no doubt biting at the bit!!!