Again looking at the stats, Rankin did alot more tha Shaul in even though he played less minutes, time for Rankin to play FB for a bit.

I know Crooks has taken a bit of flak for his performance yesterday but I didn’t think he was that poor tbh. However he was involved in some on the crucial moments of the game and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Arundle playing on Sunday. On Crookes, one of the key moments was his loss of possession following the Owen knock on scrum. But in my opinion he shouldn’t have received that pass, you could see it unfolding before it happened. Cas rushed out in defence and were in his face, I think it was Horney who passed to him but he should have held onto it and taken it in himself. It was a case of playing what’s in front of you rather than going with the set play.

Didn't tnotice Paea come on so ften so my mistake - any news on Bowden? I pointed out he was hurt straight away and he looked in agony.

I think Paea had to play more than he is currently up to becasue of that, he did a fair bit of puffing - but when fresh he made yards

Disagree about Yeaman - yes he was the same old Yeamo in attack, but defensively I thought he was outstanding. Their right centre was in his pocket for most of the game.

I don't think we're that far away tbh. We're playing some attractive attacking rugby and defensively we're getting better. Hopefully things will click in both departments sooner rather than later.

Ellis had a great game (still can't understand the penalty for a forearm when he clearly handed the guy off with his, well, hand). For someone who hadn't played properly for a while, I thought Colbon looked ok too. Not sure on Crooks. I think [uwe're[/u suffering from second season syndrome as much as he is. We expect him to be as good as he was last year, but oppo teams will be watching him closely because he was so good. BTW, could any physicists on here explain how you can knock a ball on when hit in a heavy tackle, when the ball flies out backwards at high speed (almost as if punched out)? The decision against Crooks on that occasion was baffling. not that it will make any difference, but I'd like to see the replay of the tackle that laid Crooks out too.

I thought Shenton looked good, but tbf Crooks and Colbon kept Carney very quiet.

Disappointing, but it wasn't a "we played crap so the oppo didn't need to bother too much to win" game. I thought Cas looked solid and will do well this year.

I'd like to see Rankin FB, Arundel CE and Miller SH getting starting spots next week.

disagree on this point slightly - I think your kicking kept Carney FAIRLY quiet. He is nullified when having to return the ball from our in-goal, which wasn't uncommon yesterday.

He still made nearly 200m though on the SL website so he wasn't particularly stifled by Crooks and Colbon - and his three catches at the end were unbelievable (especially against taller guys) and won us the game IMO

Crooks should be dropped and locked in a gym for a month. His lack of physicality caused us all sorts of problems yesterday, as well as some poor positioning defensively. He reminded me at times of Craig Hall :/

In attack he doesn't seem to run the ball in with any aggression, and his stance is way too upright instead of leaning his weight into the tackle. Defenders can easily absorb the impact and get underneath him. This happened twice just yesterday and caused knock-ons at key times.

Defensively, Shenton managed to get on his outside way too often and in the tackle he loses the impact through going way too high on the attacker. Those stats someone put on earlier say it all really.

That channel has become a weak point in our line and sides will exploit it for fun.

Quite a scathing assessment, but he needs a kick up the .

Fair assessment. Needs to be a lot stronger physically.

He's never ran with mad aggression. Don't know why when players hit bad form people tear down everything they do and suddenly make them out to be things they are not. He's had a bad one although I thought between himself and colbon they did okay. It's very obvious to me the going high after showing Shenton the outside was a deliberate tactic. Forced Shenton to take him on and stopped any potential one on one with Carney. Didn't concede many clean outright breaks if any. It was his errors that where the problem.
Personally I'd play him next week. Week out back in week out won't do him any good. He's probably the most natural player in the team. Personally just cos he's having a rough time I wont forget some of the stuff I've seen him do
My only criticism of radford so far is to much pratting about with the team
Rankin trying to settle into a key role needed a run of games. Had some tough away games then when we had an easier game when he could of had some time and space to build on his game gets benched and a hooker played halfback.
Millers use in the pre season games was utterly rubbish, makes him a massive gamble to draft in now
Centre and wing combo is important too and that's having no time to settle.
We had to many new faces and potential combos to hit the ground running but with all the messing about he's compounding the problem now for me
He's now thrown rankin into the mix for fullback which means more messing with the creative spine.
Shaul rankin crooks and Miller all playing add threat try scoring ability and pace. When full pack available I'd like to see them having a run of games!

Those two doing 'okay' probably contributed the most to us losing yesterday.

I don't think he was showing Shenton the outside at all, I think he found himself out of positition at times and had to scramble to make up for it losing vital yards. The result of this was a fairly quick play the ball for Cas, our defensive line on the back foot, not set and resulting in a break or a penalty elsewhere.

Completely agree.

One thing I will say though, is there was no way Carney was in control of the tackle which made Crooks drop the ball. It could have gone horribly wrong and was basically a throw.

That surprises me, but fair play. I must admit I did applaud one of the catches though. Disappointed he didn't blow a fuse though

Like I said, it doesn't matter, but I'd like to see that one again.

There's been quite a few changes and the new coach needs to have a look at his options. The only place he can do that unfortunately is in matches. He also has to cover the loss of Tickle's goal kicking - for me Westy should be encouraged to do this whether he wants it or not as he plays big minutes like Tickle did.

I have no problem with Radford looking for his best combinations and particularly picking on form. Crooks hasn't played well since (and including) Wembley (when he was probably brought back too early). He's class with ball in hand but his defence is substandard and the best thing for him would be to take some time out and work on the aspects needed to improve it. Opposition teams are exploiting the weakness so a spell out of the firing line would constitute good coaching in my view.

2 years after pearson promised us an half back pairing that would finally guide us around the pitch,we have an hooker at 6 and horne,who though still a decent enough player,will never be a 7.

Spot pal I'd leave out Whiting too, two penaltys yesterday and not playing better than Thompson but some wouldn't drop Superman but I would.

That'd be my team.

Not sure whats wrong with Whiting, he's not getting much game time but when he's on he hasnt made any impact at all and looks suspect in D.

Been really impressed with Holidays, i wasnt impressed when we signed him but has stood up and runs some great lines.

Lots of calls for Miller but he hasn't been playing for Doncaster has he? Is there a reason? He'll be very rusty if / when he gets to play.

Aussies can't play dual reg I think to do with visas

Because he's Australian.

Don't think overseas players can play for Doncaster can they?

Ah, didn't know nationality came into the dual reg thing. He needs game time somewhere though.

me too - but I think an average game from him and he'll make meters. A good game and what he can do to defences is just ridiculous.

The bomb he caught on our own line was incredible, and he caught both short K/O's.

I think people underestimate our team of relative unknowns, but the collective capabilities are very good. We are so much more balanced without Chase.

As a final note though, I'll reitterate my defence of Radders. The side nullified our attack with very disciplined defence, the errors returning the ball were low, and the kicking was deecnt, albeit not brilliant.

The team looked rushed and panicked in our 20 and I think thatc omes down to the 1-6-7 not being comfortable....yet. For me that's a Hull side that has a lot of improvement. But I said on Saturday, you must be a frustrating team to watch, casue IMO you're the most inconsistent in the league

Can't agree with that first bit at all. We restricted Cas to 3 trys and had enough ball in good areas to have scored a lot more points than we did. Blaming the defeat on Crooks having an "ok game" is scapegoating in the extreme.