A wins a win I suppose scoring early didn’t seem to do us any favours because we were crap for the rest of the half Cunningham outplayed Drinkwater Atkin should be in the halves and I thought Dagger went well Masoe is becoming a luxury we can’t afford Garbutt went well again need a big improvement next week but I don’t want to take anything away from London who I think will be a lot better than people were predicting pre season

Straightforward enough with the game comfortably put to bed by three quarter time. With Salford demoralised we go 3 from 4 into March. And although we have four games out of five away next month we should be building nicely as most are against teams we should be beating. What a signing Garbutt is proving. Hats off to getting him on board.

I bet the Leeds fans are not happy we have garbutt hope he stays fit great player

Really poor attitude from the players today, it looked like they'd gone out with an its only London attitude, but this side isnt good enough to be like that.

I said in an earlier post about us missing tackles and dropping off them, i bet were close to 40 missed tackles today.

Great to get the 2 points but a massive step up in effort needed.



Fair play to the London fans that came, made a lot of noise

First half really looked like a relegation battle we were dire and London should have been further in front. Had they gone for goal when they had the opportunity they would have been but half time 4-6 definitely flattered Rovers.



Opening 20 minutes or so of the second half Rovers looked like a different team. Defence - we decided not to let London run the first 10 meters unopposed as we had done in the first half and there was more energy on attack. Suddenly it was one way traffic and Mitch Garbutt produced 2 superb finishes Craig Hall got another after good work from Vaivai.



22-6 after a quality spell of rugby and Rovers decided they had done enough for the afternoon. Cue firmly in place on the rack London got another after excellent work from Abdull and Rovers seemed happy enough to see out the game at 22-12.



London will be relegated I have no doubt, things will only get more difficult as the season goes on. Rovers sit in a play off spot which may well produce optimism to match that of the 28-14 defeat at Warrington.



Rovers really DID play well for about 20 minutes today and we won the game . The fixture list has been kind for the opening weeks and we seem to be getting the breaks we haven't done in recent seasons. We are nowhere near where we need to be IMO but with 2 wins from 3 and a home game v Salford next week, yes I would have settled for that.

Not a bad sign (wining while not playing well)? My first live game this season & I really don’t know how good or bad we are. At times our half back pair looked like they have had a fall out & wont talk to each other? Early on after that first score we threw the ball around like we were 30 points in front with seconds to go! Will be back Saturday but I haven’t a clue as to what I will be watching.

Well, that was a proper toilet performance.



Bad points:



Our kicking game is shocking.

Our defensive effort for the most part was lazy at best. VaiVai had a defensive nightmare.

The team looked like they were just going through the motions for most the game.

The number of unforced errors was disappointing.

Why we haven’t learnt to put an opposition kicker under pressure yet, especially after Sneyd almost kicked us to death is beyond me.

And why have any player on the bench only to use them for the about last 6 minutes, especially when it’s Atkin who is arguably our most potent play maker.



Now the good points:

Dagger (as most fans suggested is a better natural fit at FB).

Garbutt, great performance again. Looks a better signing every game.

Hall had a decent game.

A win when playing that bad is a bonus.

What is this often repeated horse sh#t about Masoe. A luxury, lazy. People seem to believe this nonsense based on his performances for Saints.

If he's lazy why has he lost 10 kg plus and why do we dominate when he's on the pitch. When he went off we had our worst spells. He took two hit ups in the first set and never stopped. He defends like a brick wall and the opposition attack avoid him. He also attracts lots of defenders in decoy runs.

It's repeated as fact this rubbish. He's been out second best forward behind Garbutt so far this year.

London will go well barring injuries. Their halves outplayed ours. McGuire's kicking game is awful Drinkwater needs to be allowed to run the games. It was Masoe and the forwards that won the game today.

Mose is lazy because he takes up the ball 6 or 7 times per game. Garbutt 25-30.

It's funny to see a couple of Newcastle Wests juniors from the same neighbourhood - Mitch Garbutt and Luke Yates - go up against each other on the other side of the world.

If they hadn't got ESL contracts, they'd probably be both playing for the Rosellas next weekend.

Thought Dagger was excellent at FB. Garbutt was obviously stand out but I too don't see all this bad vibes towards Mose. Yes he looks laboured sometimes and doesn't always break the tackle for a man of his size but he's worth his place on goal line defence alone. Lawler had a great game. VaiVai was poor defensively and needs some basic schoolboy positional training in my opinion.

On the whole their pace worried me the most. We didn't look to have anything like their energy levels in the first half but a good clinical job done in the second so well done boys.

'Masoe is lazy'.....stop repeating sh#t without thinking. He can't take the ball up if they don't pass him it. He is used as a decoy more than anyone in our team. Watch the game back. He's the decoy for EVERY try we scored yesterday. He offers every set hits the line hard and gets us going forward. His defence? What's lazy about that? The opposition avoid him because he's a brutal tackler.

You compare him to the biggest metre maker in the league that's not a fare comparison also to a man with a very different role.

Sheens has Masoe playing short bursts so his carries have more impact and then so do his decoy plays. His short stints mean sometimes we're defending for the majority of the time he's on hence sometimes he gets few carries. It's not laziness that is just a terrible insult from lazy observers.

1st try yesterday inside dummy run from Masoe slows the defence for Linnett to get on the outside. Same for Garbutt's 1st try. His 2nd Garbutt throws a dummy to Masoe giving him room to get over. Hall's try Masoe again stop the defence drifting with a decoy run.

The opposition handle Garbutt and our other forwards a lot better when they don't have Masoe to worry about.

Masoe is slimmer and fitter than he has ever been. You don't lose weight being lazy. When he left the field we had our worst spells yesterday.

Please stop spouting assumed truths. Masoe being lazy is a lie and an insult to one of our best and most important players.

Or maybe they would come back to the NRL far better forwards and tear it up for evidence see



Burgess x3

Graham

Cooper

Hodgson

Soliola

Morley

Gavin Miller etc etc

There is a very long list of Englishmen and Aussies forwards who have come from our league and dominated the NRL. Something about our league improved the forwards.

Didn’t he make something like 28m in the derby if you think this is enough then I’m glad your not our coach and saying they don’t pass to him well don’t stand third or fourth man out then and you might get the ball yeah he took the ball up twice in the first set then went missing for 15 mins in my mind he should be doing more when you compare him to our other props

Also to just give evidence to Masoe's role. The 'lazy man makes 2-3 meters more than any of our forwards per carry, hence he attracts defenders all the time he is on. The 'lazy ' man has also missed 1 (one), that's ONE tackle all year. That's 1 out of 60 tackles. Terribly lazy.

Don't fuel a lie. Watch him not your pre conceptions.

Sheens doesn't tolerate laziness from anyone hence this is our fittest squad ever yet Sheens picks Masoe every week and signed him up to a long term contract.

Stop spouting lies. He's far from lazy it's an unjustified insult.

He makes decoy runs because......He's told to. Watch the game back from yesterday. He Garbutt Hall were our best players

Well if all he’s used for is decoy runs he is a luxury and to me he isn’t much of a decoy as you can see what’s happening pretty easily why we never use him close to the line is beyond me one thing I will say is his defence is pretty good

Mose deliberately makes runs designed to ensure he doesn't get the ball. It's obvious every time he does it and I can't imagine other teams fall for it any more than the fans do. It's totally telegraphed and just looks like a trick to avoid work.



If it really is a policy for Mose not to get the ball then it's one I don't agree with. Mose running hard and straight is something to be feared that is what he does best IMO. If I was a defender I'd be far more worried about Mose running at me full charge than doing decoy runs for smaller players to run in.



Garbutt takes the ball in far more often is making more meters and has made 90 tackles to Mose's 60. Yes Garbutt has been outstanding but Mose is capable of far more than he is giving IMO.



All I ask of Mose is to return to how he was playing prior to getting his 3 year deal. He was almost unstoppable whilst he was seeking a deal but since he got one he has preferred the decoy runner role. Which is a terrible waste IMO.

If and its a big IF Masoe is being told by Sheens to run dummy lines then its definetly a waste, oppositition coaches would soon work that ploy out, personally i just think hes a bit lazy too, 1 big drive or 1 big tackle and he goes hiding for a bit,

Ive noticed him plenty of times walking up behind the play the ball so theres no chance oh him getting the ball. He should be crashing onto the ball near the oppo's line not dummy running.

Its true hes lost a lot of weight and worked hard to do it but i just wonder if he has the stamina to put big work in

Im obviously not privvy to Sheens team meetings though so these are just my opinions, the good thing is were all entitled to them.

That first paragraph is gibberish. Watch the games. It appears the opposition professional players don't have your eye or knowledge as they do seem to be falling for it.

There was far little of the taking the ball straight up on Sunday but that wasn't down to the forwards that was the halves calling all sorts of wrong plays.

Yes I have no problem with people's opinions. However when these assumed truths start being bandied about as facts 'Masoe is lazy' and people repeat it as fact without justification then that needs a bit of thinking about as being lazy is about one of the worst insults you can throw at an athlete. Nothing posted so far justified this label of being lazy. Comparing him to Garbutt, the best prop in the comp so far is hardly a reasonable analysis. Nobody can justify calling him lazy in defence. That's 50% of the game. His role in attack is different. He doesn't hold back when he runs hence he makes over 8 meters a carry. He has a different role with the ball hence we have a more rounded pack this year. He's lost 10 plus kg and kept it off.

In no sense of the word is he lazy so please don't insult him using this word. We have had lazy players at Rovers Mose Masoe isn't one of them.

If Mose isn’t lazy then who is

I thought Mose played well v London. Too much reliance on stats can colour opinions. I'm more concerned with Mulhearn form/fitness.Looks a shadow of last season's player. This reminds me a little of Tilse getting criticised whilst Allgood did nothing of consequence for us but escaped any pelters.

Mulhearn might not have hit the heights of last season yet but he still puts in big minutes and hasn’t really done anything wrong but his kicking game needs work

No one in this current squad.

With you on Mose Burton, just couldn’t be bothered to argue the point like you have. Exactly right on his D, our best defender, hits them hard, puts them down and they don’t come back.