I do wonder if weve been sold the most incredible rope a dope performance ever

Tonyicon_surprised.gifk Tom, we want you to play really bad to start off the season, then were not gonna play you or Kevin, well have rhys and Matty on the wings, And the fans will be disappointed, opposition fans will think me inept and as we get to the finals all the coaches will be gameplanning for exploiting their flaws.

THEN WE BRING YOU BACK IN ANd WE WIN THE FINAL ON THE BACK OF IT,

I'll be the new jack Gibson.

Confidence could be the key . The opportunity of a few games in a settled position for both wingers could do them the world of good. It can't be easy thinking you are only one knock on away from being dropped.

I really hope Tom keeps this up too; I wonder if he, like us, thought his career was over before he got this second chance.

I have to say though, as much as I like Penny he really annoyed me last night by constantly running not just sideways but backwards! There was one moment where he got the ball with an untidy defence in front of him, and he ran sideways straight into a Wigan player

So we played Wigan as well last night,makes it an even more awesome performance

Not sure where I got Wigan from, I meant Hull of course



I think Penny does seem too inclined to run across the line though, when sometimes he'd be better just going forward. A few times in the Hull game he ran backwards and ended up where we started the last tackle, losing around 5-10m from the point where he was given the ball...

Generally it's better to run forwards, but at the same time a sideways run to the other side of the pitch makes the Hull forwards have
relocate to set up for the play the ball using more energy up.

I watched the game again last night. Lineham's contribution was pretty special. As well as his two tries he chased back to save two tries when it was odds on that Hull would score (Talanoa in first half and the Shaul break). He also took ball up and gained good hard yards.
Penny also had a good 'un. re. running sideways Players who are very quick are allowed to run sideways a bit trying to find a gap. Some on here may have watched Brian Bevan (who had a pretty successful career) he was never adverse to the shuffle sideways.
He'd have given you a very funny look if you told him never to run sideways.

Matty also runs crab like but tends to then run forward making some metres but Kev gets tackled before finding a gap and sometimes ends up further back. Love Penny tho think we need him for pace and he's great under the bombs.

Toby King and Clark ran sideways twice against Wigan and we scored twice off it. That's the idea, suck the defence in with a drop off and catch the defence flat footed. The problem is if no one runs a line for you, well... Like you say, you can lose meters

If you were to ask me who the best winger in the league is i'd say Manfredi.

Ask me who the best finisher is i'd say an in form Lineham. I want him at wire, full of confidence

You'd pick an in form Lineham over Denny Solomona? Even more-so.... You'd pick Manfredi over Solomona?

I'd have Tom Lineham over any SL winger if he maintains that performance.

I understand the tactic of running sideways, especially if you've got Penny's pace you want to find a slow forward who's not paying attention. However I think in this game in particular he ran sideways (and backwards) several times when it was a terrible option, he was closed down quickly and lost us ground. I have to admit the main one I was thinking of, where he ran sideways straight into the Hull player, that player was actually Watts when he was offside so we got a penalty; however I don't think Penny was doing that intentionally and without the penalty we'd have blown that chance completely...

As I said to start with, I do like Penny, I just don't think he had a brilliant game on Friday and that's probably why Russell will be moved back out to the wing again if Gidley and/or Sandow are fit.