You'll improve with the signings you've made, I expect next season to see us both up there but only if we strengthen the front row properly which I expect us too

Both sides will finish in the top 6

rlClean slate for Berrorl although it seems O'Meley has change his nickname to a shotened version of ge'orge'.....

Outstanding chicken soup

No confidence for next season. Yes we have what looks like a decent pack, but as many have pointed out our pack was not the problem this season, our problem was creating scoring opportunities.
A huge burden is being put on a 33 year olds shoulders and i just hope we have something in the pipeline as a backup.

Agar i don't rate at all he has done nothing these last 2 seasons to make me think otherwise. I hope he proves me wrong but if the bloke cannot get his players in order on and off the pitch there is little hope.

I reckon that most people agree he has done his best to address that with his end of season "clearout" and I'm struggling to think of a better alternative anywhere in the world to Longy as a playmaker, organiser and as someone to develop the playing skills of our young halves.

I beg to differ.

We may have made some decent yardage, but we very rarely bent or broke the oppositions defensive line. And we had nobody who really hurt the opposition in either attack or defence.

The major issue was the halfbacks, but our pack hardly struck fear into the opposition or helped create opportunities for attacking play.

Totally agree. Whatever the stats say our pack was usually out muscled and on the back foot resulting in us regularly kicking from deep inside our own half adding pressure to an already poor kicking game. We were certainly poor in the opposition 20 but we weren't spending games camped out there as this idea of our pack being OK suggests. Far from it.

I spoke with Johnny Whiteley recently and he said just that: that FC players were not hurting the opposition in the tackle, that an opposition player should get up knowing that he had been hit and hit hard. He said a simple example is where a defender drops on the ball and the tackle is completed by placing a hand on the player while they lay on the ground: he saw that as a great opportunity to drop your weight onto the player (not in a cheap-shot, dirty fashion) in a fair but aggressive manner - that makes the player think twice about dropping on the ball in future. The same would be true after holding a player up in the tackle - once your defence is set, you can drop onto the attacking player as you drop him to the ground -again making your presence felt. So no dirty tactics, just fair, hard, aggressive play.

Im pleased our packs seems to be a lot meaner and we've signed a scrum half.

[iShould[/i help