agree, Miller has to be given a chance, as he's an Aussie can't play for Donny, so playing him in the 1st team is the only way we can see if he's improved or not.

Wasnt that one of gentle's major problems,playing players out of position.I think that is one of the biggest mistakes coaches make is playing people out of position unless injuries force their hand.

And wasn't saying Houghton had bad game. He was at fault for his lapse in defence. Couldn't scoot as much as cas tackling techniques were spot on. Turned the attacker everytime. Gave danny no time to run. Great game though. No complaints with the result.

You'll struggle to get one unless you give them a run and time to bed in. Said last week I'd be delighted if you picked heremaia in the halfs against us, ties up yourbiggest attacking threat in the wrong position.

Firstly I think it's important we don't get too down hearted by this result. It's disappointing, but not a disaster. Cas look a very accomplished side and at home they will be hard to beat. Had we defended that winning try we would all be saying what a good battling win it was without 4 of our 6 props. So I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bath water when it was a game of such fine margins.

I don't want to write the kid off yet but I am starting to fear that Crooks might turn out to be a one season wonder. From what I have seen of them both this year I would give Arundle the right centre spot. I think it's also time for Miller. I rate Heremaia very highly but he is a hooker, his talents are wasted at 6 and I think Miller just gives us another dimension. I like Rankin at full back too, Shaul has showed glimpses this season and I still think he'll be a top full back but he still has a few too many flaws in his game currently that he needs to work on. It kinda goes without saying that we need a couple of big guys back. Without Feka, Carvell, Bowden and Green we are very lightweight up front. Ultimately I think that was our downfall today.

I'm still not unhappy with our start, and I still think 4th is achievable, but we've really got to knuckle down and start knocking out some wins now.

I only hope that Miller and Arundel have both been given time to get it right in training before playing. They both have bags of talent and whilst I think heremaia is a great hooker he isn't a half back and should only play there in an injury crisis. Crooks has just been a bit crap, especially defensively, this season.

Couple years time we will have our home grown halves.. I no it's not now but future looks bright.

Had enough possession and opportunity to extend our half-time lead after the break which would have made it very difficult for Cas to come back at us.

Our Captain was outstanding again.

Two points bombed.

Disappointed.

I wonder why we bother buying half backs because we don't give them time to settle and show what they can do, seem to want instant results and if not... drop them ! strange way to take this team forward.

hope i can wait that long,i`m 74yrs now.

Miller has to be given a go now. Shaul needs dropping, he's solid under a high ball and running in open spaces but some of his kick returns were embarrassing yesterday, on one of them he ended up running towards his own posts! Rankin looks much livelier and able to link up play.
1. Rankin
6. Horne
7. Miller
Interchange hk. Heremaia (can change the game when he comes on - which we really could of done with that impact yesterday).

I was in the opposite stand so I'm not sure who was at fault for the last try, and if it was crooks fair enough, but in the first half I thought he did a much better job defensively. What did worry me in the lead up to their last try was how Webster made 20 meters with two men on his back!

Great game yesterday, thoroughly enjoyed it. Great support from the FC and a great effort by the lads.
My opinion of the game
Thought losing Bowden early doors was probably the reason for the loss, although I thought Thompson was outstanding, we lost a lot of the collisions up the centre of the park. I thought the ref was lenient with thier tactics of slowing the play of the ball down, they were very Wigan-esk in the way they slowed down the rook. It was hard to say anyone had a bad game, although for me Ellis, Thompson and Westerman were my stand out players. Thought Houghton made some great runs from dummy half, yet some of his passes leave a lot to be desired as the forwards invariably had to check thier runs to catch the ball. Tanaloa worked hard also, showing plenty of ball handling skills and enthusiasm. Ifs and buts, well if Carvell and Feka had played I think it would havei been a different result, but that's easy to say I suppose. All in all it was a good game, and all the lads showed plenty of effort and commitment, just a shame the result went against us.

Let's hope Arundel is given a go instead of moving Whiting.

Agreed.

I'm hoping for a side (injuries permitting) like this:

Rankin
Colbon
Arundel
Yeaman (very lucky that Crooks was marginally worse)
Talanoa
Horne
Miller
Paea
Houghton
Watts
Ellis
Tuson
Westerman

Heremaia
Feka
Carvell
Thompson

Am I the only one who thought Crooks wasn't as bad as being suggested? I thought he did pretty well defensively (didn't get a clear view of the final try) and his "errors" were forced and borderline penalties.

My main gripe with the game was that dipstick with the whistle who I can only assume had a cheeky bet on under points. That game should have had 60 points minimum in it and instead we got 34 points and the sight of grown men wrestling on the floor for what seemed an eternity. We got 1 penalty for slowing the PTB in the entire game (against us) which was an absolute joke considering what had gone on as he blew his whistle almost instantly after contact. That should have been a high scoring free flowing entertaining game and instead we got the slowest PTBs i've ever seen and not a lot else.

Seriously? I lost count of the amount of times Shenton got on his outside. Cas made metres all afternoon down his channel.

We seem to get into a good position all the time near the opposition line and just give the ball away too easily.

Who is the idiot,who said Yeaman had a crap game,he had a very good game,absolutely caned their centre and made very good yardage every time he ran it in.

Their was one man, head and shoulders above any on the pitch,Gaz Ellis he was immense.

Disapointed yesterday. Cas are a good side and I was impressed with them.

Hull look like a really good side lacking a bit of confidence and composure. The positives for me were Tanaloa (who could of had a hatrick if yeamo could pass and that intercept had stuck.) Ellis was immense, Mickey P some great carries, Azza busy as always and Rankin at FB thought he brought more to our attack than Shaul offered.

The negatives was [usome[/u of our game management from Houghton and Horne. Some lousy kicks and wrong pass options such as the dropped pass after Hornes 40/20. Five out from the line we had great shape set up on the open right to left with Azza and westy calling for it and Houghton goes short to Horne who's stood too flat and sends a suicide ball to Tuson with no chance. This is not isolated and needs addressing.

Ben Crooks was poor and I think Arundel has got to be given a chance.

I put that down to Cas shifting the ball wide very quickly and leaving him and colbon slightly isolated. They may have made some meters but they didn't actually break away as such.

Fully agree on both counts.

well I've read through some fairly well advised comments on here so I'll try give my two-pennorth.....

I generally felt that Hull were the better side and but for bombing chances to put the game away they'd have won by 20. We defended OK but no better than the first four weeks, and Hull were getting enough quick PTB's to really hurt us - the one that sticks in mind was the Owen knock on where Hull dropped the ball on the first play which was 2 minutes before our last try.

Paea needs to get fitter as he was denting holes but only played 30 minutes tops - for me oyou can't have him and Paleaasina in the same team as it'll put too much pressure on Carvell to play 60 minutes.

Houghton's attacking play is one of the best in SL and his battle at hooker with Clarky was a joy to watch.

Your left side is really quick in attack and our right sde failed to cope - I don't thik you utilised this well enough in the second half and you crowded it making your plays predictable.

Nobody has mentioned Crooks' kicking - his failed conversion was brainless. Into the wind, I've never seen a conversion kicked as high in my life, whereas Sneyd was drilling his.

Heremaia isn't a half back - though he gave 100% Miller had a stormer last year in this fixture (is he injured?)

Huby is probably the most underrated forward in SL and some of his offloads baffle me - we are a different team when he's on. He's not far off the complete front rower (fitness, impact, defence, hands)

Over the first 80m Hull never made any mistakes and look well drilled so I aren't sure where the negative comments from Radford are from. You're halves are unsettled which for me cost you the game, but in terms of coaching you nullified our attack and returned the ball really well.

It was a totally different ball game to other weeks as we really had to dig in and scoring ponts didn't come easily - we've score 30+ in our last 9 games.

The difference in the end was that we are used to winning this season - we had a similar situation last week and it showed us the way to win IMO

As a Cas fan, I thought we got out of jail yesterday. I thought your guys looked more coherent than us, and it really was a game that could have gone either way.

I wouldn't be too down hearted, I am obviously glad Carvell and Feka didn't play, but with those two down the middle the game could have been different. Our forwards were very lethargic for me, and I put it down to what an effort the Wigan game took out of us, as they looked like the walking wounded after the match last week.

I thought Rankin looked good at Full Back and would seemed a little sharper than Shaul. Heremaia always looks dangerous, and Gareth Ellis put in a captains knock for your guys.

I thought we did well to hang in the game, and after the awful errors Owen and Tansey made from clearing kicks we really did put ourselves under pressure.

Finally, the Hull club should be immensely proud of your support. What an incredible turn out from your fans, a real credit to yourselves and the club, and every one we spoke to gracious in defeat and knowledgeable. Always a pleasure to chat to and knowing your stuff about RL.

Good luck for the rest of the season, I'm sure you'll win more games than you lose with a bit of luck and a few injuries back.

Looking at the stats they seem to back you up.

Crooks had 5 miss tackles, 2 errors, 3 penalties he made 37 metres compared to 154 for Shenton.

Our right hand defence needs to really improve, it has cost us 2 games now IMO.

Good points barring paea. He played 25 before going off. Then back on before half time. Then did another stint, went off and came back on. Raddford was obviously stinting him to keep him fresh to give us impact as with 4 front line props down we missed some go forward and the extra work your defense would of had. Bowden injury that early on was costly for us with the other big lads already out.