Horne kicked a couple to begin with I believe then Miller took over and wasn't much better. I agree that he was getting more distance on the kicks the more the game went on. Very frustrating.

I thought the same thing and you have to wonder if they are only kicking it 10meters under coaches orders as a means if playing safe, because later in the game when it was effectively over as a contest both Horne and miller kicked it 30meters plus so they're clearly capable

Why was miller kicking the goals? If he can kick why wasn't he in previous games when whiting was failing?

Only one person knows the answer to that question and he's clueless

Seems the logical reason to me. Its alright going for maximum distance all the time but a missed touch is far more costly than an extra 15-20m gained, so there is some sense in being relatively conservative when kicking.

I don't think there's much between Miller, Crooks, Westerman and Whiting as kickers - all are adequate without being top notch like Tickle was. How each week's kicker is selected baffles me though - do they draw lots? I thought Crooks kicked reasonably well in his last couple of games and was surprised he wasn't used on Friday.

Not really because when we got the extra distance it was comfortable. Better than wasting 2 of your 6tackles making the distance up. I usually roll my eyes when people say 'i could do that' or 'i could do better' because they can't 95% of the time. But do I think i could kick for touch further than 10 metres? Yes.
Leeds get a pen on their 20 they're attacking opposition 30/20 metre mark 1St tackle. We're lucky if we're outta our half

Further to the last post-Westy drops out cos has a good boot on him and whiting kicks off the same. Why don't these kick for touch?
You can constantly in this league get between 5 and 10 pens a game. If your making 20 metres less than your opposition kicking for touch that maybe as much a one/two full fields of distance. Seems silly to be so conservative in this area when we decline kicking for kickable penalties so often. The two mind sets don't make sense

I know. I bemoan the short kicks every time. I know Horne doesn't have a long kicking game so there's no point in him trying to boot it a great distance only to then miss and it's better that he kicks it short but surely someone else could put some distance on it. I'm sure Houghton's been able to kick a 40-20 before so why not let him have a go.

You never see anyone place kick penalties any more. Are you still allowed to do that? Should be guaranteed at least 30 to 40 metres that way.

The inability or unwillingness to make decent yards at a penalty always surprises me. Not a great fan of the other code but you see kickers make great yardage at small angles, it always surprises me that we (and other teams) dont work with kickers from union

On the subject of Westy, i think he is going to be a great leader. He lets his feeling be known to his team mates when points are conceding from errors.

I remember Paul Cooke berating every player behind the sticks and 'sorting it out' in the aftermath if a conceding try. Remarkably we havent had anyone do that since he left. This for me is why we need a vocal leader on the pitch as well as players leading by example