ComeOnYouUll wrote:Utter shambles, it was as bad as I feared. Just thankful that Hiku missed four kicks and Rovers were not brilliant.

Nu Brown largely anonymous, no ideas going forward, discipline awful, Pele looks a hothead and players going down like ninepins.

I can see Pele picking up 3-4 games, EseEse one match and SAo given his record may cop a ban too.

No positives at all last night. It looks like it's going to be a long old season.

Dave K. wrote:Think our pack could actually be ok, if (big if) we can sort out the discipline. Thought yellow card aside Ese Ese was good (can't see his stats on the SL site), Sao offloaded loads and Ashworth was decent. Ock was hit and miss did some good things, but also bad moments. Can't judge him on one game.

Our real issue in our backs and halfbacks, backs aren't big or strong enough, dominated nearly every tackle, although thought Martin did well. But having 3 out of 4 starting backs doesn't help. Walker is like Briscoe, all heart, but not sure he has the creative skills to be a top fullback.

Halfbacks are a real issue, desperately need Trueman back, can't fully judge Brown on that game, but I'd be looking to play him 9.

IMO our best pivots would be

1 Hoy
6 Trueman
7 Smith
9/13 Brown/Houghton

Let's be honest with our best side we are at best in about 8th place, a few injuries like we have already 10th/11th.

Not 100% convinced by Smith, but can't see anyone better, he has to improve us this year and get recruitment right.

Could really do with Pearson finding some money from somewhere to bring in 3 quality overseas players and a couple of domestic ones.

GrahamBray wrote:Pele was obviously riled by something, but what a silly thing to do when it was always going to get seen on the cameras, Sao should have known better but it was a grubby act by Parcell, (was there even a gouge in there), who should also get a ban . I thought Ese Ese's was instinctive, so maybe he'll get a fine .
But abject attacking and soft penalties seem our trademark this year, and the lack of halfbacks was never more evident against a team that had two very good ones. Hard to see where we can improve though with Truman not ready and after a bad injury, he won't be at the races from the get go.
We definitely need a lottery winner to buy us or I fear its a return to the Hetherington/Agar era.

mwindass wrote:Just seen a clip of the Pele incident. He threw another punch at Lewis in the melee too. Don't think we'll see him for 6 weeks at least

Steve0 wrote:Why did we actually sign Walker? We had a good quota fullback in Hoy and a promising backup in Littenn...if we were planning to release Hoy then fair enough but I don't understand why we've signed him, feels like the Briscoe v motu tony situation again. Maybe the Walker money should've gone on an extra second row

UllFC wrote:I think he is a good full back and we are thinking longer term as he's only 24. Hoy has a lot to prove, but he looked ok off the bench last night (though it wasn't hard to look better than some of the starters)