Gaskell for a month isn't a bad option short term.

IF we don't loan a player, who realistically from within could do a job?
Galea? Whiting?

I think we'd probably go with Westerman imo

Galea always did a very good job for us at 6.

No chance .

Westerman played 6 quite a few times for Cas , He's the only obvious choice .

Given our lethargy at getting up for a quick PtB, Cronk or Thurston would struggle to create anything

Lynch is one of the worst for this - gets up like an old man, then takes an age to get his foot on the ball to play it

I'm struggling to think of anyone who tries to play the ball quickly.

Briscoe and Lineham do. Well, Briscoe tries to, but due to the body position he gets himself into in order to win the tackle, he ivariably ends up wrapped up in the defender causing him to fall

One of the big miss parts of losing Sam Moa. Often got over the top of the defender and played it quickly as a result.

Briscoe. One of the few who actually wins penalties because of his enthusiastic attempts.

I'd add Lineham to that list as well.

O'Meley's usually pretty good at getting on his front and speeding up the PTB.

I think the Briscoe 'falling over' is him taking a bit of a dive to try and win a penalty rather than poor play from him.

Without confident players a quick PTB will achieve nothing.

We have shown little or no confidence in any game this season and the only thing that will build confidence will be starting to win games.

It is evident with the teams mid to bottom of the league that once they try to play expansive open rugby that the ball is spilled and mistakes are made.

We need to grow our confidence through safe, steady handling.

I know from a fans perspective that this is not good on the eye but I would rather see several good ground out results which yield 2pts every time than open expansive football which ends with the net result of a loss.

I disagree. Playing conservative is what we did for years under Agar. If we want to get used to chucking the ball about, we need to do it. Practise makes perfect. Losing by not trying this will make us no more confident than losing by trying.

Looking at the next 4 games we are playing sides in or around us in the league.

Our defence if right, is up to anything they can muster so let them play the expansive game and make the mistakes which we can capitalise on with steady rugby. Then by the time we come to playing the stronger teams confidence should have improved.

We cannot go from the way we are playing to world beaters in a week or 2, the team is still very much work in progress which we have to accept.

Getting the basics right is a must.

in order to start executing our set plays and building up our attack we need to get the same people on the field in that spine of the team its no good having different combinations every week every team would struggle to build up a good attack with the changes we keep having in the key positions

Very true - and that means the training field as well as match day. It's time to stop persisting with Azzer as the fall back half. Let him and Danny Houghton get a proper partnership going at 9 and get Whiting (my preference) or Westerman in as a temporary half. Alternatively even play McDonnell at half with Horney and Whiting at FB. As you say though until we get these positions more settled the disjointed nature of our attack will always be there.

its that same problem again if we had a good 7 we would have Horne coming in for holdsworth and we would not have to change our attack but because we have no depth again we are going to be punished we cant play azza there hes to good at hooker to move him and you waste him at 6
i like the idea of McDonnell there tbh some one with speed and can jink in and out of the line creating problems but i would not like to move him from full back
i think we are going to have to put up with westy or whiting playing there and just see how it goes we have the players to win this game but they need to put there hands up and have a good go at it!!

that might have something to do with the players we sign..usually over 30 and finished....

Top post and spot on!

Going on squad numbers...

Average age of squad numbers 1-17 is 28.

Average age of the entire 33-man squad is 24.5.

thats abit padantic...... omeley,lynch,galea,horne,yeaman are over 30 for a start..tickle must be close.....
when you take into account how young nicklas,cunningham,kent etc are then does that even it out?? no. our first team players are too old......

Going on squad numbers again...

We have 7 players who are 30 years old or older wearing shirts from 1-17. We have 1 in the rest of the squad. That's 8 players out of a squad of 33.

The 8 'old men' are Yeaman (30), Ogre (32), Lynch (34), Ellis (32), Tickle (30), Galea (35), Horne (31), and Heremaia (31).

Most people on here think that Yeaman is our best centre. Horne has been one of our better players so far this season. I guess you'll allow that Ellis was a good signing? Lynch isn't that old for a prop and most people were happy with his signing. Ogre was retained because we literally couldn't find anyone else to replace him. Heremaia is not old for a hooker.

Galea I'll give you. Pointless signing for mine.