Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:56 am  

NickyKiss wrote:

The whole team were pathetic for the first half hour or so. After that I thought Smith played very well. Night and day to his Salford performance IMO and he clearly did something right if he’s walking away with a man of the match award (and I know Sky love a youngster). To read people saying he had a shocker is plain wrong for me. I thought he showed a glimpse of the game manager we can expect in the future.

Without doubt in my opinion he got MOTM for his last 20 where he did step up and take control.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not writing him off but he was missing in action for the first 60, and when he did get involved made some poor plays.

In his defence he was on the back foot for most of that first hour and Leigh targeted him in defence sending their big lads at him which probably affected him when we had the ball.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:04 am  

jonh wrote:

Without doubt in my opinion he got MOTM for his last 20 where he did step up and take control.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not writing him off but he was missing in action for the first 60, and when he did get involved made some poor plays.

In his defence he was in the back foot for most of that first hour and Leigh targeted him in defence sending their big lads at him which probably affected his post when we had the ball.

The whole side were missing in action for most of the game in fairness to him. I’m not bagging Tommy Leuluai in general but if we’re talking about a half missing in action (with the ball) in that game then he’d take that award. I just thought for a young half to take control like that in a side that had been beaten up through the middle was excellent. My overall view is probably clouded by that last twenty minutes and I think that comes from the fact we’ve been so poor in managing close games at times from the halfback position these last few seasons. I’m guilty in a positive sense for bigging him up as being brilliant throughout the game but we have this weird ‘feast or famine’ attitude with youngsters as fans and he certainly wasn’t very poor or shocking either.

Does a mean post match interview as well

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:28 am  

We are renowned bad starters. Added to that the injuries, losing field early on, plus I thought Leigh were fantastic, a lot better than I expected. Liam hood and Adam sidlow tore us apart in the first half. Good to get the win. We will be better.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:36 am  

2 Pts, good run out for Smith. Move on, nothing much to see here.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:49 am  

Lucky to get out of that one with a win, a lot of factors going against us -

Missing our 3 best backs Hastings, French, Gildart

Missing both Wingers.

Field early injury - leading to 2 second rowers in the centres. A centre on the wing and a young rookie full back on the other wing.

Covid impacted preseason missed 2.5 weeks are training.

Playing Leigh at the worst possible time I.e there small squad is relatively fit, players chomping at the bit to make an impression in super league and to beat their big rivals.


After being 18-0 and winning against any team takes some doing.

I’m not happy at all with the packs performance but feel they will improve as the season develops. Their fitness showed tonight.

Partington - 22 years old
Smithies - 20
Havard - 20
Bryne - 21
Shorrocks - 21

It’s a long season and we can sleep walk into top 6 in reality. The more game time and experience these guys get the better.


As for Harry Smith (again just 21) he coped a lot of stick first half from people on twitter etc but iced the game for us with his kicking game at the end. At least he was trying stuff. Our new captain was totally anonymous the whole game imo.

Hanley I thought was steady for an 18 year old in his second start. Again he’ll improve.

We’re not a Warrington who drop young players after a shaky performance and bring in quick fix Australians, remember that year they bought Bodene Thompson and Mitch Brown!

Stick with them, support them, they’ll come good.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:35 am  

Not read all the thread...has anyone brought Bibby up? Showed up again massively (in fairness he never hasn’t)...he gets bagged week after week because he’s not Offiah. Every side needs a few players like him in it. It’s attitude & getting the basics right week-on-week that pulls you through the sh**e performances like last night.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:33 pm  

ralvag wrote:

Not read all the thread...has anyone brought Bibby up? Showed up again massively (in fairness he never hasn’t)...he gets bagged week after week because he’s not Offiah. Every side needs a few players like him in it. It’s attitude & getting the basics right week-on-week that pulls you through the sh**e performances like last night.

i'm quite fond of bibby now. his support for the last try was great, dont think anyone else was within 50 yards of hardaker.

don't know why he didnt go for the line for the hardaker try but it worked out anyway

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:06 pm  

ralvag wrote:

Not read all the thread...has anyone brought Bibby up? Showed up again massively (in fairness he never hasn’t)...he gets bagged week after week because he’s not Offiah. Every side needs a few players like him in it. It’s attitude & getting the basics right week-on-week that pulls you through the sh**e performances like last night.

Agree with your comments on Bibby he was slated by a few before the season’s start. For me he stays in the team until others force him out by performing better in 2021

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:56 pm  

Bibby, Hardaker and Powell were great.
Everyone else was below average.

I’m surprised no one is hammering some players like they would if it was Tony Clubb.

E.g.
Partington - barely 40m with the ball and 9 missed tackles.
Bullock, Singleton - barely 40m and under 5m per carry.

How can a prop not make over 5m per carry?? The defence is 10m away ffs.

Re: Team For Friday : Sat Mar 27, 2021 5:00 pm  

Wigg'n wrote:

Bibby, Hardaker and Powell were great.
Everyone else was below average.

I’m surprised no one is hammering some players like they would if it was Tony Clubb.

E.g.
Partington - barely 40m with the ball and 9 missed tackles.
Bullock, Singleton - barely 40m and under 5m per carry.

How can a prop not make over 5m per carry?? The defence is 10m away ffs.

I like partingtons aggression but he let himself down last night, he kept going in for the big hit and missing, ie the 9 missed tackles. Can’t do that against a better team.