Effort is not the same thing as performance. Until we realise this, we will continue to be also rans.

As per normal we haven’t any tactical skills to unlock our opponents defence when camped in the 25 yard area. We never put pressure on the rovers full back. Our kicks to him were far too long, gave him all the time in the world to receive the ball. Rovers deserved the win although we didn’t have much luck. I never thought we would win over there, especially when big mik was unavailable. I am also not reading too much into the defeat, I think next weeks game will be a true test of our capabilities. A poor performance will definitely start alarm bells ringing.

When Rohan Smith said about Sam Lisone last week, “training is over rated for players like him”,he couldn’t have been more wrong. He needs to be in for extra training this week on several aspects of his game. The forward pass, penalty, penalty, sin bin sketch is unforgivable at this level. I really don’t get the hero worship for this fella, he performs one game in every two at best. As for Frawley ? His kicking game was really poor and he obviously doesn’t have a running game. He’s just been filling a shirt for the first two games. Edgell was a nice surprise, we would all have taken a first full game like that from him. Ackers got through a ton of work, and Handley once more showed the “his legs have gone” brigade what fools they are. The guy that sparked much debate through the week, Sangare, had a cracking first half but should have been in a taxi back to Leeds for the 2nd. Rohan Smith and Cam Smith need to take some responsibility for this fella. After we had been penned in our own 20” for an eternity in the 2nd half a fresh Sangare didn’t make a single carry in our first set of six when we got our hands on the ball. We had Edgell and Robert’s being battered back on their own line while Sangare wandered around. Tell him to make a carry Cam for flips sake if your boss decides he’s going out there. Ruan should have had loads more minutes than he got. As for Momorovski, when does he get in from Australia ?

Hmmm.. look, we were always going to take time to click even with a full strength team out. We have completely new spine which will naturally take time to gel. On top of that, we had both our starting props out injured, our starting FB pulling out late, a very exp NRL winger out who is very good when fit and can take pressure off the pack close to our line. One of our best young forwards out injured... Momorosvski hasn't had any pre season with the team, and you can tell, he will get there but he needs time.

I get people are frustrated and there's definitely some hangover from fans on here from last season and understandably so, but last night needs putting into perspective, it was a close game away from home in awful conditions against a good team, particularly on their own back yard. if we're not in the mix after 10/12 games then absolutely pressure is on RS but not yet. Patience needed.

We actually defended pretty well considering we had 12 men for a lot of that second half, the hall try was lucky and the Hiku one was just a great spot from May noticing our young full back was out of position.

My biggest concern is discipline that needs sorting out before the Catalans game.

Thought we were the better team in the first half. The pack were making good metres, and thought Goudemand and Sangare stepped up.

Second half we struggled to make the metres, but we did play 20mins of it with 12 men.

Our defence is much improved compared to previous seasons, previously our slide defence was terrible and we always got caught on the shift play, we now seem to be working as a unit and look more solid.

KR got the bounce of the ball and scored a couple of lucky tries.

Our attack needs improvement but again, im not worried, new season, new spine, gonna take a few weeks to click. Same issues in April/May, that will be concerning.

Rohan Smith would disagree with you, “trainings over rated for some of these blokes who have done 12 or 13 pre seasons, they’re good players, they know what they’re doing”. Unless Momorovski was injured, he needed to be embedded within the squad and training with them to hit the ground running. I’ve referenced part of what Rohan Smith said elsewhere , he made this statement regarding Sam Lisone after the Salford game. I really don’t see how a pre season with a different club in say 2014 or 2015 has a beneficial effect on a players fitness or sharpness with his current club in 2024.

I beleive Momorovski was granted extra time in Aus to sort things out also he had to go back for a bit... not ideal and not the clubs fault. He will get there i am sure. He's been a good player in the NRL. He will be taking time to settle no doubt, don't forget it's a huge change for him and his family.

Yep, spot on

Lisone is in ten times better shape than he was this time last season, so clearly hes had a good pre season. Yeah he had a bad spell this week but he changed the game last week.

We're a poor attacking side. Off the cuff is occasionally very entertaining but most of the time won't trouble an organised defence. And any side will struggle to control a game with only two or three scores on the board.
I hear the theory that the new spine ought to get better in time but I worry we're simply running with four Blake Austins, given the apparent absence of any structure. Actually, make that three; Ackers appears to know what he's about.

Hopefully he will come good when we get on to some firm pitches. Last night’s pitch was dreadful ,especially if you are playing in three quarters

Agree. And it's good to see Newman come away with hamstrings intact after that sort of test, he seems to be increasingly confident in his running the longer he's staying fit.

The problem with playing off the cuff as your main ( and seemingly only tactic) is you need forwards that can bend the line and get a quick PTB or second phase offloads, a hooker that can nail passes abd knows when to scoot, support players hunting the above and enough brains to know when to pass or put a kick in so even if you domt score you can trap them in goal or pin in their 10.

Much easier to play with structure / to maintain possession and turn the screw or play % when you have a depleted front row and struggle to make big yards on the best days.
You just need some brains abd good kicking game with some dummy runners and hard direct contact.

Alfie can't fault him but you can tell we missed Fusi making yards early in the tackle count

You’re making a load of assumptions from a little quip and joke from a 1 minute interview.

Momirosvki had prior engagements that he had made before we signed him, remember he was signed for the roosters for next year and wasn’t expecting to be in the UK for the 2024 season.

KR didn’t really play with any structure either it was that sort of game

Yeah Fusi's returns in yardage are missed, Roberts and Edgall's carrys are what you would expect from too light weight youngsters.

Give over Chris! KR were far more organised than us in their attacking moves and defensive shape.
They look a really well coached team.

I know you disagree with the knives being out, but unfortunately RS is now in his third season and we still look totally disorganised and lacking identity.
The kicking from hand is a prime example.
When they kicked to Edgell, he was immediately under pressure. He was excellent btw.
When we kicked to Hiku, Frawley was under kick pressure and Hiku had all the time in the world to catch and make yards.
There's something missing.
The player rotation in the game is also terrible. This was the case last year and has simply carried on.
Keeping Bentley on when he is out on his feet and not bringing Ruan on until 73 mins is a joke.

As I said months ago, RS has 12 games. If we're in the bottom half he has to go.

I said last night, the scored two trys off unstructured plays both of those had a big element of luck.

Smith has been here for 18 months and totally restructured the whole set up, cleared out a hell of a lot of players.

I get fans want instant success but unfortunately the whole set up was so broken it was always going to take time to fix.

Were two games in and last night we were troops down and playing on a cow patch.

There is a difference in the structure both in attack and defence from last year and i think we’ll see that as the season progresses.

Wether Smith is the man to take us forward in the future is yet to be seen but I wouldn’t underestimate the work he’s done in the background with the whole club, which if you remember when he was signed that was part of his remit.

Smith has made an excellent job of reshaping the squad, and of putting the focus back onto developing younger players, a really good job here. He’s less than impressed me so far with his actual coaching. We often look lost in games, and focus far more on effort and unlikely plays than on playing with structure and discipline.

As i say ultimately it might be another coach that benefits from the work in the background that Smith has done.

Look at KR, Uncle Tony went in and restructured everything and now Willy Peters (who i really rate by the way) is benefiting.

Ironically Tony Smith benefited from the work Daryl Powell did in clearing out the squad in his stint.

What i find a bit baffling about Rohan's coaching is that in his first season he completely changed to attitude of the team and really galvanized the place, he got us running that extra mile, getting in the faces of the opponent and generally playing some really decent stuff... which was superb considering he joined mid year... That then collapsed significantly last year, partly due to some horrendous cap and contract management previously as we had a load of players off contract so wasn't a happy camp but generally since that first season he's struggled to get his players to play the same way since... time will tell though and i am happy to give him that for the moment.

Rohan Smith wasn’t joking or quipping, he clearly said that training was over rated to certain senior pros. It makes me wonder whether that is a general theme running through week to week training.
R.S: “Chev, kick the guys some balls onto the training paddock. It’s time for us to get down to Costa”
C.W; “ Aren’t we working on any set plays or structure gaffer?”
R.S; “Nah mate, some of ‘em have 12 or 13 pre seasons under their belts, what are we gonna teach ‘em? If we don’t hurry up all the brownies will be gone”

No, Rohan was clearly being facetious