To be fair to Hall, he ended up on the wrong side of the pitch after desperately attempting to produce something from deep in our own half. The better of our two wingers today IMO. In fact Whiting and Hall were the better partnership for most of the game. Very disappointed with Yeaman and Briscoe in defence - neither one of them has a clue how to handle a high kick under pressure.

Thought we really missed Tickle today - his workrate and the lines he runs.

Ridiculously underrated by many of our fans, easily our best/most consistant second row forward.

Hall played well today, agreed. As you say tried to conjure something from nothing, a long shot, bet we clearly were having no joy from more conventional clueless bashing away at the line type options.

I'm not so sure that was the game plan ,our forwards dominated the game and Crusaders had one attack in the second half and scored from it. Attacking wise we was very poor, numerous times we had overlaps and Washy and Horne just kept dropping there shoulders. If Longy had of played we could well have racked up a big score.

A few things concern me ATM.

1) Lauaki is a bit of a liability in defence and has cost us vital penalties.

2) Briscoe is not too confident under the high ball.

3) Horne is just garbage, all his last tackle options and execution is very poor.

I'd be concerned but not worried. If Long plays alot of games this season we'll go ok, however if he gets a long term injury we are fecked.

Depressing, wasn't it? Using Hame like a big, dumb battering ram. We didn't even do that right though as most of the time he (or any other forward) received the ball standing still.

Agreed, me and my uncle said the same. Manu and Lauaki would run riot in most teams.

He did, but the execution wasn't there. Fitz was first receiver today a lot of the time.

Horne should be nowhere near FB. Whiting to FB, Tansey to SH, Calderwood in and Hall in the centres. Drop Houghton and give the bench spot to Washy or Turner.

You can try Turner there but what will he bring to the team that Washbrook and Horne couldn't deliver for you yesterday?

I cant remember the last time Tansey was even given a role at 6/7!

We missed Tickle badly, been in fine form the first two game.

Was disappointed with Whiting yesterday, he took the wrong options a few times. God knows what he was thinking in the first half when we had a two on one with loads of space and he aimlessly kicked the ball forward instead of drawing the winger and allowing Hall to take the FB on.

Hall was good when he got the chance to run and he must be played in the centres, give us a genuine attacking threat.

i agreed with you there and i still do now

horne ran some good lines i thought but nobody was running along side him

Sorry guys, not Tansey, I meant Turner.

He played 13 a lot in the first division but in SL has mainly played centre. He is an unknown quantity in that respect in SL. Would be a risk to play him there but he did play there when we played Sheffield in preseason, I never went though so don't know how he played.