If you go back to one of our two good performances this year, the victory over Wire, then Roby was, without doing anything audacious, very influential. All the little motions at the play of the ball before the pass to just put that little bit of doubt in the defender's mind makes it so much easier for the forwards to get up the filed. Higham did very similar to that (he's matured into a much better hooker these days). We started to gain momentum when Hohaia moved into dummy half.
Someone mentioned a ship without a rudder, that's what we are. We (rightly) criticise the front row's for inconsistancy and lack of commitment, but at the moment any motivation is probably being beaten down by getting brickwalled everydrive. Luckily Walmsley's enthusiasm is buying him up.
Wire had Ratchford, Briers, Myler and Higham (backed by Monaghan). That was the difference. These four players gacve the side obvious direction and from that, a side plays with confidence and that added commiment that is bred from it.
We looked clueless. Wilkin's first kick was stupid, Ashe's lack of contention for Atkins try was frankly embarrasing - it went from there.
We've got plenty of good players that with an actual halfback pairing and the return of Lomax and Roby can perform well. Even the players like Lffranchi who we criticise would probably start performing better if we had this sort of direction.
If we have signed Walsh, great, that's a very good start. We will have players Wheeler, Yates, Swift and Hohaia to cover six (these could all be good) but, if that's how we leave it, we'll be really stuck if Walsh get's himself injured.
We've got Boof, Perry and TP who are all potentiall (and hopefully in some cases) leaving. We need two good props to replace them, preferably to start the game and let LMS and Walmsley come off the bench. We have clough to back them up whilst Hand, who seems to be having some real success at Whitehaven, develops.
We have a very good set of back rows with a mix of expereince and youth.
