Saddened! wrote:
To be fair, if he had played like that for the past 4 years no one would have been criticising him in the first place.
Games like that suit him still, but if we are ever in a game where we're competitive in the pack, his lack of contribution to the attack will tell.
He sure can still sweep up the poop at the back. Young Hardacer would do well to take a couple of pointers from him.
During the awful first 20 minutes, when he did that dreadful bit of handling, I was cursing, but he did make up for it and more. I still don't think he'll keep his place from Lomax - although Brown may be too tempted to play Lomax as six. If we could get Wheeler back at the same time we could actually start going places.
We had a lot of good performers. Wlamsley and Manu were devestating.
After me saying that TP's big games were becoming less frequent, he was massive.
LMS grew in stature throughout the game, confirming what we have suggested about him being a better bench player. Soliola, although abit silly with his late hit on McgUire, was really putting himself about (Mcguire lost his temper with him a couple of times, so he was obviously getting him flustered).
Thompson took a bit of a pounding early on, but his second stint was very impressive - his try was excellent and how strong must he be to have got that ball down with one hand!?
Percival was a bit grabby in defence, but showed he only needs the slightest chance to make his mark. The try that Makinson (who was also very good) finished was executed in very tight space.
Tuner good, Jones useful from the bench.
Wilkin playing with a bit of swagger and a bit of a platform can do a half decent job.
Even Howarth did ok. I thought MoM was a bit obver the top but...
Pop Roby, Lomax, Meli and Wheeler into the 17 that performed last night and we're contenders. The only head scratcher is that we seem to have a lot of forwards who are better from the bench. I don't see the point in starting Perry for 15 minutes and then withdrawing him for good. Utterly bizarre. Especially when they're leaving out Clough.
Swift should be brought in next week for either Ade or Ashe. If he plays on the wing, then we should look to at least spell Charnock with Ashe. Drop Perry - either a straight swap for clough/hand, or move one prop from the bench and bring in Greenwood.
Basically tonight confirmed the thought that alot of us were clinging to, that we've got a pretty good tent, its just we're missing a few pegs.
