Neither Michaels nor Talanoa were poor but both also displayed the weaker parts of their game in the last match, Talanoa in particular. I would expect with the size of our squad that talk in the week might be about other backs 'putting pressure' on the incumbents to up their game - with neither actually being dropped. That's what having the squad is all about. If you haven't got injuries causing changes then form becomes a key issue. Important that players go into games knowing that they have others breathing down their necks. Same for Green/Bowden - not suggesting that a change is made this time but that call was a tough one at the start of the season and any dip over a couple of games should see it revisited.

Talanoa lost his uncle this weekend. May explain his below par performance but the left edge was poor as a unit so he was gonna be pretty ineffective anyway

Have u watched us much in the last year? Prior to the 8s in which we played full of kids our Defense was 1 of the best. At 1 point we had a freak of a stat were we hit as low as 11th I think it was but had the 2nd best defence.

We conceded more points per game under Radford than we did with Gentle, unfortunately that's a fact many don't like highlighted.
For all the talk of him being a.good defensive.coach in the points conceded it doesnt hold up.
.
We have (so far) however being much better in attack and if we score more in each game than the opposition that's all we need to do obviously.

If we get a win against Wigan that will be a massive, massive boost, in fact I'd go so far as to say it could shape how the first half of the season and ultimately the whole season goes...it's that important in my eyes.
A bad loss against the pies could really undermine the good work/results of the first two games and carry forward to the next week. A battling close loss whilst not ideal wouldn't have the same effect on confidence and morale.

In 2014 we averaged 21 points against us

In 2015 pre 8s we averaged 21 points against us, it got worse obviously.

In 2016 3 games in and we average 20 points against us and we will have our hands full keeping Wigan and Widnes to 20 each as we let Salford and Castleford score an verage of 25 each at the KC.

Defence wins championships and 21 POINTS A GAME won't cut the mustard.

See where we are after 9 rounds and that will give you a very good idea of where we will finish.

Our defence will obviously improve. How much I don't know but some new 2nd row centre n wing combos.
Defence in the most part does win championships. Although Leeds wasn't so great last year. They conceded almost identical to us. And they did win the championship

Odd that Leeds managed to last year then.

yadda yadda
Defence in the most part does win championships. Although Leeds wasn't so great last year. They conceded almost identical to us. And they did win the championship[/quote]

Difference is they scored 306 points more than us

DEFENCE tells you everything you need to know about a team so let's see how we fare after the next 2 games.

If we concede 21 points in each game then we may only win one of them.

Difference is they scored 306 points more than us

DEFENCE tells you everything you need to know about a team so let's see how we fare after the next 2 games.

If we concede 21 points in each game then we may only win one of them.[/quote]

Winning games wins trophies

HTH's

Stop the agenda, its just plain boring.

We need to strike a balance granted. Both you cannot have both. If we did then we win everything and the world club.
We was right amongst the best defences for a long time. But that's cos we gave nothing away. We gave nothing away because we did nothing in attack. We were dire to watch. Now we're playing a bit (which I much prefer) we give a little more away and have to defend more. 3 games in the least we've scored is 24. When we find the balance we'll be hard to beat.