I do think our defensive patterns seem not to be working completely to plan at the minute, we are playing a combination of compressed/slide defence but the slide in the outsides three is not either moving quick enough or missing the slide altogether; think its probably a defensive tactic by Kear to try and compress the middle of the park to emphasise our strength in the pack, against the weaker sides it is working but against the better sides who can move the ball we are been caught short very badly - we have shipped 50 against Wigan, Huddersfield and were lucky not to against Warrington.

The stats of opposing teams MOM coming from their 3/4 line is an indication (one for the stats men to work out if this is particular unusual, my hunch it is)

Looking forward for Cooke feeling confident to start putting his hand up and claiming the ball now that Brough has left, it's just a matter of time as think. In the mean time would like Obst to stick at 9, i feel we lack direction and organisation with him at half back.

We look a bit downhearted from the off Sunday - imagine the loss of Brough and Tronc unsettled is affecting us,however we should remember that when we did look interested on Sunday we went and scored a few tries, so like to see a bit of belief from someone.

Credit to Wigan though-class team- their backs especially are probably the best in the game at the minute.

Still expect us to take the points off Celtic.

That's a good analysis but we can't paper over some weak defensive displays of some of the players individually!

Blanch was guilty on at least two occasions of coming in to tackle the centre, finding himself in no man's land and leaving Pat Richards free on the wing.

That's just poor defensive awareness whatever system you are playing and he's not the only one to be guilty of it this year. You have to play with some discipline with regards to your positioning and you also have to have confidence in the man on your inside. As a centre it always P'd me off when my winger came off his wing to help me make a tackle that I could complete on my own, more often than not it costs you points!

I have to say I am really impressed by the well-balanced comments on this and other threads on the Wakefield board, what a great set of fans.

Thanks, its a shame some of the comments on the Wigan board don't match it though.

Thats because a lot of them are total idiots and I can only apologise for them. I use other forums primarily I usually come on here (RLFans) for a week or so and end up getting really annoyed so clear off for a few months. At the moment I've got a few Wigan fans arguing with me for daring to suggest we are scoring more tries from free flowing rugby rather than kicks to the corner and a fan on the Hull board who wanted to drag me into an argument simply because I went to the Hull V Warrington game and thought Hull were hard done by, I'm not a Hull fan so nothing I say could possibly be right. Bearing all that in mind I think either you have a great set off fans or your mods have done a good job getting rid of the idiots, either way its worth complimenting.

Would bringing back the five yard rule help?
In those days players had to use more skill to open up a defence. Or, have we had the ten yard rule for so long now that apart from a select few most of the current crop of players do not have those skills, having played a crash, bang wallop kind of rugby at ten yards since they were kids.

Perhaps I'm getting old but I'd settle for a slightly slower pace of game with a lot more skill on display.

Fair play to you mate, wanted to post on the Wigan board but gave up after reading a few posts, of course plenty of decent Wigan fans also post on RLFANS.

Bit of both matey

I'd have thought that since the Huddersfield game our defensive pattern would of changed,maybe JK has and the players are not following it.The way forward maybe is to stop using our terrible sliding defence and use the blitz defence so we can stop the opposition going wide and forcing them up the more,we are obviously weak out wide and more and more teams are going to try to expose this so we need to start blitzing to pressurize opposition and give them less points of attack and time on the balland to stop there go forward,obviously there are advantages and disadvantages of using this but as things the way they are especially against the better teams it's worth the risk especially in the opponents half of the field.We just don't get in their faces quick enough and using the sliding defence we just don't seem quick enough to use it out wide and get found out all too often and the lack of communication between the players is also missing in defence.Attacking problems you could almost forgive with the change of players etc but defence is something that should be a constant because everyone should be able to tackle at his level.

The only games we have lost,thus far,this season,have been to teams coached by those of Australian heritage,with the defeats from messrs.Brown and Maguire particularly unpalatable.
3 men tackles,slowing down our p.t.b. negates completely what little creativity we have against these sides,particularly after they score an early try.It will take time for Cooke and BJ to gel but as from Sunday,we have games against English coached sides,(and a Kiwi) all the way through to the 13th June when Wigan come to The Hearwell.
With Wigan and Huddersfield meeting in Scotland and then again in May at Huddersfield, further observation of both sides can be made and our tactics and methods can be adapted.
I have no complaints against either Huddersfield or Wigan - not only has the conditioner at Wigan got 2 large fellas to lose a lot of weight but he has a second rower,Tompkins,doing what he did.( Proving our defence is in urgent need of improvement)
I wish Amos Roberts a full recovery.
I must praise Paul Cooke for finding the time,and the good sense,to have a consoling pat for teammates who made mistakes,were a little dispirited,and even for Darryl after his 10 minutes for his professional foul.Wigan appeared to have a very good bond,expected after the start they have made,and it was interesting to read that they go for a post-match swim prior to a meal with their partners/families.
( I also experienced car trouble - mechanical, and sincere thanks to the gentleman in the Honda garage who put me in touch with a former work colleague who aided my return home )

Can anybody tell me who Wakefield's captain was for this game in lieu of Demetriou's absence? Was it Sam Obst?