Could have brought wheeler on at 6, pryce to 13, Moore to 9 and given roby a much needed break for last 20 minutes. On the long term, flogging roby will come back to bite saints. Maybe not this season, but sooner or later he will break. Graham will also break down soon, which is less of a worry as he is leaving.

They did give RObes a rest towards the end of last night, didn't they? I don't think that in such a physical game it would have been a smart move to play with 1 less forward on the pitch, though.

I don't like like it when he leaves a forward on the bench (a bit like clough last week), but I'll forgive him last night. It was a tight game and too much tinkering could've upset the apple cart. All it would have taken was one score and Hudds could've been right back in it.

Wheels will get plenty of time to have a run out in the upcoming, more modest fixtures.

Wheeler would have been more effective than Armstrong on the wing to get some game time.

I really dont think we can continue with a back on bench policy either unless we have a genuine impact player like Eastmond there.

Wheeler really isn't a winger.


We would have had Eastmond there had Eastmond not been injured!

Some people are making no sense. They want a bench full of forwards but we had no forwards left to use last night. They don't want a back on the bench - even during this season with our horrendous and regular injury experiences to the backline - but would moan very loudly if we lost because we had to play James Graham on the wing or something. They want us to win games but complain about the nature of that win. If we'd thrown the ball around last night and lost people would have moaned about Royce's tactics because it piddled it down all night but they moan about his tactics anyway even though we won!

We won. We won by defending and by our depleted pack working its collective butt off because our attack is sheeite just now as Leon is not stepping up to the plate consisently and our backline is fooked with injuries again.

We also have a drop goal kicker on board. Did anyone notice? It was a superb drop goal and took me and everyone around me totally by surprise. And Lee Gaskell had the confidence and maturity to do the business just at the right time. What a great step forward for him.

But lets complain about Lee Gaskell too, hey? Because he isn't Sean Long. Or about our rubbish kicking game or whatever.

Ridiculous.

Really no forwards left to use?
You can argue for a bench of forwards and still have cover in the backs. Wilkin can cover a variety of positions, as can Scott Moore, as could the likes of dixon, Soliola etc etc etc.

Kermitt the frog would have been as much use as Wheeler last night, it's not that we can't play with 16 men, the point is why should we shatter our guys when other team effectively have an extra man against us each game.

So, who is this mysterious forward that we have squirrelled away somewhere who could have replaced Wheeler on the bench?

I think we may see Forster next week.

Well I'm not totally up on the injury list but is the likes of Scott hale out?

No idea. He's a second rower and anyway he's played just one game for the first team so far. You'd really rather have him play against Hudds in a third place (potential) decider after just one game?

Seriously?

Well, he came off the bench against the u20s after just returning from injury I believe. Fat lot of good he would have been! Especially since he would have been a first team rookie. Next week is a different scenario as Hull KR are not a massive pack with ridiculously pacey wingers fighting it out in the rain for third spot. They have their own challenges but that would be a better match to blood a first team rookie I should think. In fact, it would be a shame not to blood a rookie prop over the next few weeks just in case we need one come play off time!