DH certainly does look a totally different player, as does McIntosh, Scott and just about everyone in the squad. I bagged McIntosh earlier this year, I thought he was gone, but, for me his improvement is massive and just shows what a coach of Smith's calibre can do with a squad of players that we all thought were finished. Lewis' petulance is great, for opposition teams. He coughs up penalties and gets himself so wound up he loses his head. We'll take him, apparently he supports Hull, although I didn't believe that, but under uncle Tony, he can then reach his undoubted potential.

Well, I reckon if you were a neutral is was probably a shocking game to watch. In the first half I thought we looked like a bunch of players who had never met before. I was really surprised and disappointed by the lack of cohesion we showed in attack. Second half we found a little bit more quality but it was hardly a stellar performance. Rovers were just poor from start to finish. If they don't reach the CC final their season is done imo. They look like us in many previous years, started well, imploding at the back end of the season.

All that said I'm thrilled to play that badly and still get a result. It's a cliche, but good teams know how to win ugly, and that was certainly ugly. Looking at the respective fixtures of ourselves, Leeds, Salford and Rovers over the next month, you have to say we are in a decent position to make a playoff push. Although playing against teams who are fighting for survival brings its own challenges of course.

There were some positives from the game (aside from the result). I thought Cam Scott was again excellent. His improvement under Smith has been enormous. The same with McIntosh. He's making much fewer errors, which I think is probably a confidence thing on the back of a good run of form. But the thing about him I'm most pleased with is how much stronger he looks in collision. He used to get dominated and pushed back almost every carry. Now he actually looks like a bit of a handful for defences. I'm not sure if Smith has worked on his body position, his footwork at the line, or if he's simply been working hard in the gym (he does look physically bigger) but something has obviously changed and he looks a miles better player for it.

Houghton continued his good form with another very solid performance, and he showed his versatility when we had to reshuffle after Hoy's injury. Credit to Clifford on this front too who I thought looked really assured at full back. The guy is clearly just a very good all round rugby league player and if he is leaving at the end of the year he's a huge loss.

A mention for Dwyer too. I've been really critical of him, and it's been fully deserved, but I thought he had a lot of success yesterday sniping around the ruck and I thought we looked more dangerous when he was on. He also managed to keep his dumb decisions and wild passed to a minimum.

Downsides. Tuimavave is having an awful season and Smith needs to have a real think about what to do with him. On form, when Sutcliffe is fit, it has to be him and Scott as the centres. So do you move Carlos into the back row, or drop him completely? The latter would be a bold call. Lane also continues to be a problem. He's offering nothing and is a weak leak defensively. The amount of times Trueman bails him out is crazy, it should be the other way around! Thank god he's such a good defender for a half.

A win is a win, but it's given us some things to think about. The important thing is that we once again dug deep and found a way to grind out a result. On to Cas.

Agreed with the above. Trueman's tackle on Parcell was massive. Clifford made 2 huge tackles in the set after Satae offloaded from the kick off. Walker broke through and Clifford held him up brilliantly. Clifford and Trueman then smashed Luis Johnson a yard from the line in the same set.

Excellent defensive work by our halves

all clear for Cas https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... view-panel

all clear for Cas https://www.rugby-league.com/article/61 ... view-panel

Amazed SKD didn't pick up a ban.

Somebody like Liam Watts would have been sent off and banned, no consistency, no wonder fans are shaking their heads at some of these findings

If Clifford stays down and milks it like Lomax et al he may have been.

Right decision by Clifford not to milk it though because then he might have been sent off for a HIA or green carded

I've looked at it a few times, wasn't really malicious and I'd be aggrieved if a Hull player copped a ban for that, but, as you rightly say, someone with Watts' record would have been red carded and banned, so there is no consistency in the process. It should not be a panel review, it should be the ref's call- yellow card = 1 match ban, red card = bigger ban, then we'd have a bit more of a clue how the process works. The biggest laugh of all is that I'd heard Paul Cullen is involved in this; don't know if that is true but he was the personification of the word grub, when playing. Parcell should get a one match ban for knocking out 'ickle Mikey , what a joke that was . Made me chuckle anyway.

I agree, it's just frustrating when you see players doing it, trying to get other players carded and feigning injury. Last thing we would have needed was Clifford off aswell as Hoy.

It was a lazy grab, no malice in it. He did catch him on the chin so the yellow was justified, but if a Hull player saw red or got banned for that I'd be very annoyed.

Cullen is definitely involved. I recall him being on Sky last year (or maybe year before, I forget) trying to explain how it all worked. I think I ended up more confused.
It's probably all changed since then, especially as this year's bans bear no resemblance to last year's.