Almost right! London??

I think people don't understand what an Aussie No 8 does. They are huge men who are programmed to play two 20 minute spells in a game once a week. He is doing ok in my book but is yet to find a true rhythm - yes he was blowing on his first stint but recovered for a decent 2nd stint, he will get there IMHO.

The runners bit is the key part for me. We lacked runners from depth, even the most basic dolly drop as you put it takes a lot of effort to stop if the man is running on to the ball with pace. You can't blame the hooker for making the half back a sitting duck for not having runners coming at pace - that's crazy.

Aiton's defence is good in traffic, but the way he was rounded for one of the second half tries was woeful.

Pulled off two try saving tackles which is more than most did and missed one which they all did. Raleigh was dreadful yesterday as was Wilkes so a bad day for them all really.

Yes Raliegh nowhere near fit, don't think he was ready at all. Kirkmond seemed to be struggling with a knock through the game and Wilkes made the set. Only really Annakin who showed any real endevour and effort.

As for the reasons why, I don't know. I don't buy the Easter period being the cause as FC had a much tougher game than us on Good Friday and we had the extra weeks rest in the run up which surely must have helped. Maybe we got a bit too big for our boots and switched off after believing the hype about how poor FC are when they still had some very, very good players - and going 10-0 up only made things worse.

Can't say I specifically noticed the try savers, if he did fair play to Poore - can only call on what I saw.

Shame we didn't get the result cos it's going to be very tough in the next 2, Wigan especially.

I would usually go with that. However apart from Wigan most teams seemed to play one good one bad. I'm assuming those who did well on friday had used up all their enthusiasm and those who didn't had a point to prove. It's not an excuse more an observation - we were not alone.

When we scored that second try the Hull players looked totaly down in the dumps if we had scored soon after I feel they would have caved in.Instead through our poor defence they scored and that gave them some fight and appeared to stun us.Fox scored a good try but later juggled with the ball and lost it for them to score I could not belive how he struggled to take that ball the damn thing was in his hands and an 80 year old with a walking stick would have done better.Lets face it we had to many players not up to scratch.I like Aiton his tackeling is normally from the top table but we do have to ask the question are we missing what Ellis brought us at the back end of last season.Certainly makes you wonder that one.

Are you talking about their second try? I'm not sure which game you were watching if you are. Whoever threw that wild pass to Fox wants their head examining. It was from a scrum on our own line, above head height and Fox had 3 defenders in front of him. I can't honestly see what it was going to achieve even if it had have been a decent pass, which it wasn't, not in a million years!

Did we really have to play that well to beat one of the worst Cas teams in a long time? Even with it being the Derby both the crowd and players were fantastically flat and with Rangi playing hide-and-seek for most of the game and their forwards offered little resistance for the most part.

Scorelines would suggest that Bradford, Leeds, Wigan, Salford & Saints all played relatively well in both games (I appreciate that Saints got beat at Wigan but I thought they played fairly well with the personnel on show in the face of what was a very enthusiastic Wigan side) - although I do agree with the general point that the "lower" teams rarely seem to be able to back up after a big effort against one the "better" teams.

Our scoreline suggests we played well, 2 tries difference is hardly a thrashing is it. We are way to hard on ourselves at timeS. We love it when we overcome the odds yet won't accept when others do it to us. We then analyse it to death when in fact it's just one of those games.

As for Cas I don't buy that, you can only play what's in front of you and Cas should be reasonable opposition player for player.

Went the same way from the reformed scrum,Hull were ready for it.Fox was not to blame as it was a horrendous pass from Smith.

The pass was from smith and it was a shocker! I looked at the highlights on ooh choob and it looks like it was meant for collis but either he did not come for the pass, or smith was caught in two minds and chose neither.

Definitely a turning point in the game, but on balance smith will win us more games than he will lose us.

For may money WHY IS HE IN SL? yet another example of what is wrong in SL yes defence text book but does he give us anything that a lot of young hookers dont or hookers in the Championship Ellis being one seen nowt from Poore to impress me yet either other than hitting Bailey
SL is lossing decent young players to Oz and we continue to bring players over who add little to the squad WHY

You don't see what Poore and Ellis bring to the team....really....I mean REALLY!

SL may be losing the odd player to Oz but come off it, it's little more than a trickle. WTRLFC aren't losing any who could possibly claim a spot right now. The players I think you are talking about are not joining NRL teams but bush teams. This is fine for them but don't kid yourselves that these teams are anywhere near SL class because they are not.

Truth is most of our youngsters simply are not good enough and limited though Aiton may be we have not produced a homegrown hooker in the last 5 years who comes close to him.

I'm all for promoting young players who are good enough but I'm not for promoting them for the sake of it either. To say we are losing players is a bit of a myth and to blame the Aussies like Aiton and Poore for all that's wrong in SL is absurd.

did say decent young players and yes i agree not good enough yet but if they are never given the chance they will never be good enough I dont blame the Aussie imports for ALL that is wrong in SL but it is a part of it

Agree.

To suggest Aiton shouldn't be in SL is absolute rubbish imo, complete joke.

For me Poore's been decent enough all season and has done his job.

To start scapegoating foreign players is just lazy and predictable for me.

After Mathers Fox and Aiton we ought to have Smith as the next scapegoat unless we have Raleigh who as one poster remarked had a bad game, this despite being missing for the last 4 games and was obviously not fit, we should probably take all the players' in turn every week to criticise, at least that way nobody will feel left out.

To suggest that Aiton is not SL quality is absurd; one of the daftest things I've seen on this forum in a while, and that's saying something.

I would be happy to wager that if he was available, Aiton would be on the radar of 75% of SL coaches as a player who would add value to their current squad; it's bonkers to suggest otherwise.

Really - one disappointing loss over Easter and some people start to go loopy.

I think that's harsh. Smith is a quality player and recognised as such, however his pass was unquestionably to blame for the second Hull try.

I don't understand why people cannot criticise players without them being shouted down for making said players scapegoats.

I presume he was taking the proverbial with that comment.

Personally speaking I don't think there's anything wrong with criticising players as long as it's constructive but I don't like this OTT player bashing that can go around. Especially when it's completely unwarranted, for example like what's been happening with Paul Aiton.

Just my opinion, but I reckon Aiton is the best hooker we have had at Belle Vue in a generation.

It's a bit of a moving feast, he doesn't technically hook in the same way that Alan McCurrie or even Billy Conway had to, his defence in traffic is phenomenal, but I think he's part of a second slower than he should be on ball distribution. He's certainly up there as a tough guy though, tremendous work rate. He's made a decent start on the field, I hope he stays a good while and progresses.

He would be even better coming on midway through the first half after a stint by a more 'controlling' style hooker.

Every time I've seen Aiton running hard at the line he takes plenty of stopping, If the guy was a foot taller he would make an excellent prop. I personally think he lacks too much pace and quality ball distribution to be considered a top SL hooker, I just wish he would run from dummy half a lot more instead of taking the lazy option. Love the way he defends just needs to show more quality at the PTB.

His ball distribution isn't what it perhaps could be. I'd expect this to improve though, he's a full time player.