If Herbert wasn't an "Aussie" he'd have been dropped by now.

Who would you put in his place given Briggs isn't fit and Sykes isn't a halfback? Addy?

This kid we have in the 20's who's a natural 7 goes by the name of Southernwood.

A terrible first 30 minutes from the Bulls today, it looked like they hadn't met each other until 5 minutes before the kick off. Far too many dropped passes and poor efforts defensively.

We then all of a sudden upped the pace with 10 minutes to go and were rewarded with two tries, the second of which was an especially brave decision. 40 seconds to go and a penalty in front of the posts, most teams would have kicked for 2 and trotted off for an orange and a tea... but we didn't and we were rewarded handsomely.

Bulls were on top for most of the second half and looked comfortable until Price's late try. Not a great performance but a win is a win and we are up to .500 as the Americans would say (4wins, 4 defeats).

Regarding the pull back on Ainscough, from my view it looked like Child walked on to the field at the same time as Alibert was blowing his whistle. How on earth it wasn't a sinbinning I'll never know.

Burgess looked good in his short spell and it will be interesting to see if he gets more game time, Whitehead, Donaldson, Burgess... if only we could make a good half back...

We made Karl Price look unstopable today. He was far too quick and powerful for our edge defence. If only he could fulfill his potential, it would be great for England. I didn't quite understand him being booed as when ever I've seen him he has always come across as funny and polite and not at all like his brother.

There really is a bad atmosphere problem at Odsal now and I'm not sure how it can be fixed. We were outsung all match by 20 Quins fans, an embarressment in both respects.

Also, am I the only one who thinks we aren't playing with enough depth when attacking? We always seem to be too square on when we are moving across the field (hope this makes sense to someone!).

Off topic slightly, anyone know the score/scorers in the U-20 game played before the main fixture????

Really? Has he improved since the pre season friendlies?

Yeah, that was the main reason for the majority of dropped balls in the 1st half near their line. You give yourselves no room to move and the Quins defenders had nothing to think about.

I can't wait to see that first half completion rate mate. I think it could be under the 63% we had at Huddersfield.

Im sure I can remember 11 dropped balls at least off the top of my head so that'll be somewhere nearer 50%. I was going to do an error count too but it slipped my mind. Im actually glad because i'd have run out of ink

I think I know what you mean. Similar thing occurred to me. On our ball you could have covered 3/4s of our team with the Bulls banner that goes across the terrace.

Its the other ankle apparantly. Doesn't sound like a long term injury.

Exactly, we need players standing further back to give some space and to cause the defence to think.

We seem to play like this:

*
*
* * * ** * * * *
* *
Should be like this:

*
*
* * * * *
* *
* *
* *


Well maybe not like that, it's not meant to be a literal representation but something with more depth!

That didn't look like that before I posted it!!!!!

Know the problem mate.

Don't think it's very good at handling spaces.

You might have been better doing a full stop instead of a space, and an X instead of an *.

That said, I've never managed to get a decent graphic up on here yet

He's been performing quite well in the 20's, much better than the 2 games Briggs has played.

I caught the second half of the 20s and he playing pretty well. Looked bigger than I thought he was too. I actually didn't recognise him from the Dewsbury game.

Here's one many of you will like. Took me 20 minutes, that.

Score was 38-30 to Bradford.

Not sure on the scorers though.

Review is up on the Bulls site.

Dunno about a 'natural no. 7' but Southernwood is far from being SL quality right now. He's only young and has time to develop but he's not, as yet ready to step up imo.

I don't think Herbert has been in any way outstanding but he is holding it together and seems to have the ability to create gaps with the pass, I think also he might be helped by playing with a natural no.6. I'd agree he's no Deacon with the boot, though I've certainly seen far worse kicking from a halfback. He perhaps needs to take the game by the scruff of the neck and assert himself more, perhaps, in a similar way to Southernwood, needs a bit more time.

Well if Briggs gets a call up before him then maybe he has a right to feel aggrieved. In the meantime I hope he keeps playing well because with all these injuries he'll get a game soon.

Tom Burgess:

Metres - 89
Carries - 8
m/carry - 11.1
Tackles - 6
Misses - 1

Not bad for a 1 spell debut is it. Not to mention the gaps he created as a dummy runner. I see a bright future for this lad. I just hope he's continued to be eased in so he doesnt end up like Feilden.

not sure what Fielden has to do with it, tbf. The circumstances behind his demise, and subsequent comeback as a run-of-the mill half-decent forward may remain forever unclear, but we brought him through to become very arguably the top forward in the game, and we got more than our money's worth out of him. Fantastic player, he was, and the envy of every other club.

Plus we got arguably THE best ever deal when we sold him, too.

Dont get me wrong. That wasnt aimad as a slur at you. I just meant that he was relied on to do too much as a young guy and burned out at a young age. He was the best prop in the world 5 or 6 years ago and Andrew Johns wanted him at Newcastle. I just meant that I hope Tom is brought through slowly and not rushed into 1st team on a regular basis.