rugby is a simple game. dominate your opponents in the forwards, good line speed, good kicking game and good discipline.

these are the basics. everything else comes after.

smith is trying to go against almost all that. he comes across as smug and arrogant. I personally have no faith in him whatsoever.

We've had 12k through post 2015 slump. It's a loyal fan base and I would imagine it will stay that way.

I agree with most of that but this seasons squad has improved on last year and yet we have gone backwards, so far at least. Smith did a great job when he took over last season but this year we look like a team of strangers.

Smith ain’t it. It’s a project we’ll end wasting seasons on. We shouldn’t be doing worse as smith has more recruitment and time. Last season was momentum and new coach bounce.

I have to say that other than Austin's suicidal drop out the errors last night were not the result of high risk rugby. Depressingly they were the result of players inability to hold the ball in contact and catch simple passes. Even more depressing is the fact that the senior players (Myler an exception) who are doing this. It was dire stuff last night, just as bad as anything we saw under Agar. I do worry that the off contract brigade may not react well to the enevitable and justified retention decisions that will be made over forthcoming weeks. I would hate to see a downing of tools similar to what occurred at Wire last year.

Nah, i think people have very short memories, some of the games st the beginning of last year were absolutely dreadful much worse than last night.



We were beaten by 3 trys to 2 by a very good Salford side people are talking as if we got 60 point nilling at home.

Good question, I think we have less with the ball, stood still receiving and hoping Newman or McDonald make something out of nothing.

"Heading in the right direction"?

Sorry Jim, but you're watching a different game to me.

I think we're going backwards. Every loss gets worse.

It’s the manner of the loss and the error ridden, low intensity stuff we’ve seen a lot of, we never gave ourselves a decent chance to win.



We are playing against the RL odds

Agree. Salford are a decent side this season.



For me this is all a process of elimination. Our pack has been awful for years; we have just about sorted it now although I’d be letting a couple of high earners go and replacing with a better fit.



The pack is generally young and should mature.



With a better platform set, that has exposed issues in the spine and clearly we need answers for 1, 6/7 and maybe 9 too.



I genuinely think RS can take the side forward given some freedom in recruitment - actually who we sign (and how long for) this season is absolutely critical bc it will set the tone for the next few seasons. Off field bigger than on this year.

The one thing Smith could fix from last year was the pack, and clearing out he’s done that which as you say has highlighted the things he needs to fix from this year.



I want us to be in the top positions this year but having said that Smiths brief was always a long term one.



Fans clamoured for youth to be given a go, well fine i agree but that strategy is not a quick fix

Have to disagree with your glass three quarters full assessment, Chris. Last night we failed to do very basic stuff. The slow and self inflicted start that we were meant to be sorting out was more sluggish than ever. The score really flattered us, and if Salford had Lafai and Sio available it would have been more. I'm not part of the "Rohan out brigade" by any means, but there is no point pretending last nights effort was anything other than poor. Also worth remembering that the dark days at the start of last season were partly mitigated by an awful injury crisis. Not so this season. Apart from a couple we are picking from strength. Depressing. I'll be there next week and hoping for a lot better.