I stand by the statment that the defnsive plays do not help our wide players. Carmont and Bailey at times looked totally lost in defence again, but generally i thought that both especially Bailey given his start to the year had decent games.

In the second half we actually moved up as a line and stopped moving forward and holding something i feel tha swung the game our way.

There was an incident i the first half i made a note for those who recorder it in the 25th minute london had the ball crap offload ball back in the qunins hands on the back foot, who then has the time to turn move forward and throw a speculative pass out wide while our defence held its ground. Madness. Thankfully in the second half at least in spells this tactic for the first time in god knows how long went out of the window.

I posted this on another thread jon. Made hell of a difference didn't it! Hope to God Noble has abandoned this tactic rather than it being a case of the team disregarding it.

He has scored tries like that plenty of times before so why not.

The Goulding myth that some on here like to push that he cant defend was totally blown apart last night. Bailey made more mistakes in defence, and missed more tackles, last night than Goulding did last week and Phelps was worse in the first game. In fact as many tries were conceeded down the left last year as the right but some just seem to ignore this. The truth is it is the defensive structures that are awful and the fact is that our forwards are too lazy to slide. Smith playing has just made an already bad situation far worse.

Jack Kerley said the quota players arent showing up and he is right. Carmont is one of these players, I am not saying that I would drop Carmont, because I wouldnt as based on last season he is still our best centre. However he has done very little in his 4 games so far.

Smith is just stealing a living at the moment.

Goulding had similar chances at Hull and blew them.

He made poor defensive decisions against Castleford.

For those reasons he got dropped.


Carmont has not been as good this season, but who would you replace him with.

His timing of the pass for Ainscoughs first try was top class Centre play. Would Goulding have done it?

I'm not anti Darrell Goulding but he has been poor this season. When his chance comes again (and it will) he has to take it,just as Ainscough and Tomkins have.

I agree with both you and John on your comments regarding the defensive line, to see or 1st team using good line speed made a nice change instead of only seeing it used by the reserves and academy sides .

Next week will show whether this is going to be the new way or whether it's back to the same old tactic! Here's hoping...

Goulding was one of our best players at Hull and was one of the better ones against Castleford. He was made a scapegoat for Smiths shocking defence last week, as Noble tends to do with the younger players. I really dont see how you can criticise Gouldings defence last week and not Baileys last night. If Gouldings was bad last week then Baileys was as bad last night. Goulding missed one tackle last week, Bailey missed more last night.

However as I have said our defence out wide, whoever plays, is awful and it usually is not the centres fault. However some on here dont seem to realise this. Our defensive structures are poor and our forwards do not slide. Smith playing has made an already bad situation far worse. To slaughter Goulding for last week but not Phelps in the first game or Bailey or Carmont last night is hypocritical.

I have already said that I wouldnt drop Carmont as he is easily our best centre.

I'm sorry but I'm gong to have to disagree.
If Goulding had made the right decisions with ball in hand at Hull Wigan would have won the game

He made poor decisions defensively v Cas.

Brian Noble obviously sees it the same way as I do.

However, is it poor coaching, or players not obeying instructions?

I think it was John Monie who said that defense is a team thing, tackling is an individual thing.

Tim Smiths tackling was diabolical v Cas.

Darrell has to learn from his mistakes otherwise he will be following Aspinwall down that well trodden road.

Has Darrell improved since he's been training with the first team or not ?. I'm not sure i've noticed any real improvement in any of our first team for the past two years in skill ,speed, mistakes, penalty's etc, with one or two exceptions . Which leaves me rather disappointed overall with the coaching team .

Who is better ?