Much improved performance yesterday .... although I don't think our two props plus Dale Ferguson played that well.

Anyone who watched or has watched Wire V Pies and other games this season will realise that both sides go flat out very physical for the first 20 minutes as Warrington did against us when we lost despite a decent comeback in our league game there.

They built a lead that was difficult to come back from as did Wigan at the DW. At Miilenium and at home we hit the straps from the word 'go' and beat Warrington twice.

Yesterday Harlequins blew a couple of early opportunites to score, I will also accept some good defence helped as well, but that might have changed the game probably not the final score but would have made it harder and closer.

My belief is that we need to play our strongest team against Leeds including Mason and Lunt and come out for the first time in weeks and hit the straps straight from the kick off. Leeds is a match we should want to win but it should help us muscle up for the probable game the week after at Wire where I believe what 'we' do in the first 20 mins will shape the match and decide our chances of a Grand Final.

PS.... Thought Rob Purdham looked good yesterday in a well beaten team and despite our plethora of forwards he would add something to our pack/ squad, his ball handling/passing out of the tackle is very good and he is available and wants a Yorkshire /Lancashire club maybe a replacement for Graham Horne or/and Andy Raleigh if he goes... Any thoughts ??

I agree thet Purdham is still a very good player but i am not sure that commuting down here from Whitehaven every day is feasable. Plus the Giants would surely not be looking at another second row.
I thought our two starting props did well and so did Ferguson. Ferguson is very strong in defence while in attack he is not making massive yards but was landing on his front nearly every drive instead of getting turned in the tackle which meant he was getting a very quick play the ball. His hard work enables someone like Faiumu to come on on display his tricks on a tired defence. For me Faiumu always seems to go better from the bench.

the props were not getting speed up and making enough yards for me .... i had the Wire game on my i phone and carvell makes lots of metres with leg drive and turning eorl and griff at times get stopped too easily for such big men..

there seems to be an opinion that we are a bit light in the prop department and they do not make the hard yards other clubs do. However if you compare our props average yards per carry this season copmapred to the to the top teams it shows up very well
avearge metres per carry

Pulutea 7.79
Mason 7.54
Patrick 7.51
Carvell 7.46
Griffin 7.38
Lima 7.29
Morley 7.18
Graham 7.10
Crabtree 7.07
Coley 7.05
Peacock 6.51

i've no qualms with any of our forwards yesterday i thought the starting props did a good job driving into their line which took some sting out of their tackling later in the game. i was under the impression purdham was semi retiring to go run the family farm? he's always been an excellent player in his time !

Purdham has said he wants a superleague club where he can commute yorks/lancs... but not london

www.superleague.co.uk/article/pu ... well/23450 link here purdham still feels he has something to offer in superleague - i for one would be willing to take purdham for 2 years at the giants

www.superleague.co.uk/article/pu ... well/23450 link here purdham still feels he has something to offer in superleague - i for one would be willing to take purdham for 2 years at the giants

I prefer our existing policy of signing players at the other end of their career (Gilmour accepted!)

Watch quins regularly, Purdham has been a great player, but he's gone. Sorry he has struggled to be the player he was all season. Definitely not someone we should sign!

With the personal tragedy in his recent life he has done massively well to maintain himself at Quins. I'm sure his heart was back home.