Looks like he has lost too much weight.

fair point but then you would expect extra mobility from him to compensate but we havnt

You can imagine that.
Fans excited by the win and turn up in numbers for the Derby only to get mullered by a rampant HKR

Getting 18 start from bookies

Seems to happen with a lot of our overseas signings in the past few years, Reynolds was MOTM in his first game, Lovodua started well last year, Clifford & Hoy looked brilliant v Cas / Leeds...it's like they come in with memory of how to play the game well and a positive attitude, then we coach it out of them and they sink down to the level of the rest of the squad.

Wire in peace.

We'll be without Bullock, Harrison (both injured), Kasiano, McGuire (both suspended), Clark (injured).
As a result our bench will be light. Drinkwater should be back.

Dufty
Ashton
Ratchford
Matautia
Russell (keeps his place as he had a stormer last week, even though Thewlis is OK to play)
Drinkwater
Williams
Vaughan
Walker
Mikaele (last match for us - he's had a fantastic season so far)
Currie
Nicholson
Philbin (3rd game back from ACL injury. He might drop to the bench, Matautia moving to 13, and Minikin starting at centre (same position as last week).

Dudson (2nd game back from injury)
Minikin
Thomas (3rd or 4th game for us)
Doolan (if in the 17, it's his 1st senior game)

We're full of confidence at the moment and playing well. Last week Cas couldn't cope with our forwards or backs. After the 1st 10 minutes the result wasn't in doubt.
I don't believe we'll be able to dominate like that. Losing Sam Kasiano is a big blow.

We know only too well what TS can do with a side in a few weeks - and it's just the sort of game we've lost season after season - going in as clear favourites and not putting the hard graft in on the pitch.
If this Wire side is the real deal we have to win well and follow it up in the next 4 matches (even if we lose one or two).

I expect a big crowd even though it's on C4.

To be honest we don’t seem to use our forwards enough as time and again we use the centres or wingers instead of giving work to the forwards. We’ve been guilty of that for a few years now and when we do eventually give the ball to them we are yet again far to static and none of them are running the ball in with any real intent other than Fash, Brown and Savelio.

TS is a proven coach and think this all just highlights the issues that he faces within the playing squad that there’s inherent issues that just can’t be got rid of other than wholesale changes.

I noticed that on Saturday. The wingers especially Litten (who I thought did well considering his inexperience) did seem to be running too much from dummy half bringing the ball back from our line. Obviously this is a play used by all teams to ease the workload on the props but it did seem excessive. Then again looking at how our forwards were blowing out their s walking back maybe they had no choice.

When we had Talanoa and Fonua (in his first stint) it worked very well.

But seriously Chris you shouldnt have to teach a professional R/L player how to run onto a ball and gain more meteres.
For me its more to do with fitness.The more i see of this team in comparision to others the more unfit we look.To try and use lightweight wings like Litten,McIntosh and Swift to gain metres from our own 10
is ridiculous when the likes of Griffin and the bigger forwards are standing around blowing out of their backsides
The club seem to have been too cautious pre season trying to keep injuries down and i dont think our pre season was hard enough to elevate fitness levels to where they should be and it shows.
Hate to say it but HKR look a far fitter and faster team than we do

That's our issues first 15/20 minutes we are out of games(Catalans, Salford and Leigh) but like Saints if we have a dig we can push teams but like you say Wire full of confidence and we are low on confidence.

I totally agree that pro players shouldn't be needed to be taught or retaught the fundamental basics of the game but there are a number of players within the squad that to me seem to have been in a comfort zone for far too long and sloppy lazy effort is now too ingrained. I've said before that we may not have the most talented SL squad and whether they are good enough or not to challenge there is no excuse for the lack of effort & intensity.
Again I'd agree that our fitness levels on the face of it look shocking, even against Leigh there were a number of players blowing quite badly and we'd only just reached the 10min mark.

I think TS is a quality Coach and is proven to getting results but I do question whether the players are being worked hard enough and the coaching team are being too soft with them which for me is showing in the poor discipline on show in the games.

Unless a huge clear out of the majority of the OOC players is done then sadly we will just see more continuation of the same old story next season.

I’ve been saying for years we’re unfit. All the desire and attacking flair in the world doesn’t matter if you’re not fit. Watch saints the last few seasons and all it really comes down to is they absolutely smother teams with their defence, then turn around and run at you like it’s minute 1, which all comes down to having the legs and the stomach for it.

What’s most alarming is we seem worse than ever this season, when we were already well behind.

Hope TS can turn it round before club Hull decide they don’t like the hard work and torpedo another tenure.

how are you guys feeling with tony smith so far? early thoughts?