We ran the forwards (back three particularly) away from the ruck and A & B defenders much more tonight - the only way IMO as it plays away from our weakness, which would be to simply cart it up direct off the AHB due to lack of quality size. We were dominated much less even on a small pitch as a result.

Everyone seemed to drop the hard man attitude which is a refreshing change, as we looked much more composed for just getting our heads down and doing respective jobs.

Shorrocks clearly isn’t a 9, however he does show real quality hands when linking in between halves. We’ll never see another Lockers, but Shorrocks offers just as much as any other forward across the league when he steps into that role. I can see home being a really good long term asset.

Next week…Powell in, A N Other in (not sure who??), Bullock & O’Neill out. Pointless O’Neill being there for 10-15 minutes on the field.

Lams been bagged for not selecting Bullock at times (and I’ve jumped on that as well) but my god, he was dreadful tonight. He just doesn’t look to have the desire or will to even concentrate when playing.

O’Neill always seems to add something when he’s on. He’s quicker at getting the ball away and it’s refreshing to see us with a 9 who will run from dummy half. I’d like to see more of him but I’m prepared to wait until next season if necessary. Powell will be back for Warrington on Sunday and Shorrocks deserves to keep his place in the squad, albeit not at 9.

Cas were appalling. Looked like us of the last month.

The number of inaccurate passes they put in even when not under pressure was shocking.

We were bang average but that is all we needed to be to get the job done. B

Credit where it is due though we picked up the W.

Look forward to the next one.

Lost count of the times Evalds had to stick a hand up to try and parry the ball in to the air so he could grab it on the second attempt or how often he had to pick it up around his ankles.

Imagine if we did panic and move for Danny Richardson

He is absolutely dire.

Hopefully, that game will have killed off any interest in Richardson, even if we are in desperate need of a goal kicker.

Shorrocks was dreadful from dummy half, don't just base playing 9 solely on his ability to pass to 1st reciever alone. When O'Neill came on we looked like we had direction and he upped the tempo but went off soon after which was a shame, was he injured or was it classic Lam?

It’s a waste he is big enough to cover back row to spell others not just hooker

To win when you're poor is often taken as a good sign.

I doubt anyone would argue we were great, but as you say, at least we were better than Cas.

Hopefully it's a sign of an incremental creep back towards form.

Hope we finish the year with Halsall and Bibby on the right.

Think Halsall is a better winger than Bibby

And

Bibby is a better centre than Isa.

I agree about Halsall, I’ve not seen any of our wingers as solid under the high ball since Pat, he’s excellent. We’ve not seen much of him close to the line or when he’s been put away but certainly deserves to stay in the mix.
I think the issue we’ll have is accommodating Field. If he’s fit, I can see Lam playing him at FB and moving Hardaker back to centre. I hope not but I can’t see him dropping Smith to get Field into the halves. To be fair, Smith was much better yesterday.

Granted I'm only basing this off one game, so it probably isn't fair, but without the right patterns Field looks to be a passenger at FB. I do think he's got all the tools to be a great FB btw, the team just need to play a certain way to unlock him.

ZH works at FB for us because he's off the cuff. He's very good at playing what's in front of him and making guys miss.

Still think it, but we're one prop off this being a competitive side. If they focus the rest of the season on hard nosed defence & don't listen to Lam. We might have a few upsets in us.

We’re definitely an outside shot at upsetting a few sides but that’s all we are, an outside shot. As for Field, I agree entirely with your comments, again with the caveat of it’s only one game. I’d like to see him play in the halves with Hastings for a run of games, I just can’t see it happening. As you rightly say, ZH at fullback works for us, I just can’t see Lam picking Field and Hastings together and leaving Smith out.

I thought Hardaker was solid without being spectacular yesterday. Bateman was average again and Hastings was the best player on the pitch by a country mile.

I thought Singleton was awesome

Good job Gildart scored I was screaming at him to pass to Marshall in the corner.

Talking of Marshall how fantastic to see that he's not lost his blistering speed post surgery.

Either side of his ban he’s been excellent and we need that level going forward now. He’s got the weight of the front row on his shoulders really with him being the only experienced option we have/trust and he’s taking that on. We really need to get more experience around him next season. I still think we need one more prop yet but can’t see it happening. I watched Cas yesterday and guys like Massey, Millington, Watts and Griffin are all able to back each other up. Other than Watts I doubt they cost much. We’ll have Mago and Ellis come in but they’re still not hugely experienced.

think he struggled after it but has been building up fitness since, looked back to top speed with that run

Is Clubb injured or out of favour? Not many games left for him in a Wigan shirt.

Stepped up massively yesterday and it was good to see. When he first came to us he looked like a missing piece of a jigsaw and really added something to our pack. He soon drifted though and his performances were less than impressive. He’s getting back to the prop that first came to us and that’s exactly what we need in this run in. If we can squeeze a bit more out of the others, we could really look a different side. Bullock on the other hand was truly awful again. It should be him that misses out and Clarke should come back in next week.

Injured

I’d have hooked Bullock after a couple of minutes, with his 2 drops in 2 carries. The lad has to be the most frustrating prop I’ve ever seen. He should be an absolute wrecking ball of a forward but he just doesn’t look like the game really bothers him that much. The easiest way I find to describe him is that he plays like he’s a junior forward still even though he’s 28 years old. Him and Byrne looked as wet behind the ears as each other yesterday but one should be in his prime and the other is a junior in his early years.

They both really struggle in the wet weather.

As for Singleton I agree he was pretty good and played some long stints. Mago, Ellis, Singleton and Havard should be an improvement next year though I'm still doubtful about the Ellis signing - post contact metres are what we need and it doesn't look like he'll bring that.

We do have three front rowers leaving in Clubb, Clark and Bullock. Would be great to get one more in particularly as St Helens look to be signing another sizeable and well established NRL front rower. Their dominance in this area is key to their success IMO.

I think our lack of quota spots (if that's a thing) will hamper us as it forces us to look at British players. I still think that Hill would have been a good shout, but it looks like we've missed out on him. Outside of that, who is there? Maybe a project signing and looking at Mason at Leigh again?

On a separate note, wasn’t it good to see Jake Bibby have a decent game at centre? I’ve been very critical of Bibby since we signed him but I thought he had a cracking game yesterday in his favoured position. I know he scored some tries filling in on the wing but in general his overall game hasn’t been good enough. Yesterday was different and I really hope he can continue to build some form.