Strange how people see the game differently. I thought Keating did nothing today.

Apart for a wonderful assist for Lovegrove's try our best field kicker and solid defence he did nowt. Different views eh.
He has surprised me with his skill set. He does need to be more assertive though. He doesn't take control of the game and seems to bow to others.
Brown calmed his team when they were under pressure. We couldn't.
Disappointing seeing Weyman Costigan Langley all on the bench last 10 mins. Their experience might have helped.

They scored that try to make it 29-28 and he took the best defender costigan off

On the subject of walker and langley,I thought walker was a liability and is not a patch on adam,and langley never offered anything in attack at bradford and nothings changed.

Burtons forearm are you seriously saying uluagia has done more today than Salter has done in two seasons are you on drugs everytime the ball went to his side his positioning was that bad they just walked in and at one point it took him that long to get back in the defensive line three tackles had gone but it seems you saw something in this world class centre performance that I missed

I thought our new centre was pretty poor, shocking decision to play him over Salter unless he was injured. His fitness level was an embarrassment, over 50m behind Cockayne when he should have been up his a** supporting him. Brough off 4mins into the second half after he has just had a 15 min breather! Shocking! As for his defence, well he missed a fair few and played a big part in the organisation of the defence on our right hand side, along with Larroyer they were ripped apart on numerous occasions!

Bit harsh. His first game since last season so he was bound to be unfit. He looked it second half.
Has anyone claimed this kid is world class?
I 're call Brown walking in under the posts and 3 of their scores being under the posts. Right hand didn't improve when Horne came on. Nobody got Brown in order.
As for everyone's obsession with Salter. In 2 seasons the kid has managed about 5 tries. Can't 're call a break of more than 10 metres. He's 20 but shockingly average when compared to other young backs of similar experience in the league. He hits above his weight in defence but it's not good enough to justify a place. His selection shows how thin a squad we've had. We don't often go right in attack but when we do he makes Kirk yeaman look like Jamie Lyon.
Ulugia in 50 mins showed more skill than Salter has in 2 seasons. His flick pass to put Gardner away was top class. He also ran great lines in support.
Personally I was amazed he was picked at centre. Wing for a debut would have made more sense. Especially with all the other changes.

They walked in under the posts 3 times and scored on the right and made the break on the right for their second last try when Horne was on.
I would have put him on the wing. As for Salter see my other post.
Really hope Salter kicks on. Brave and held his own but terribly terribly average. No attacking skills. Cuts inside with his head down and falls to the first tackler.

I'm not a massive Salter fan but give me a fit Salter over a player who can hardly manage 40 mins every day of the week!

I give you Salters attack isn't great but his defence is pretty good something that we needed yesterday to say he's been here a month uluagia fitness was shocking I know he's found the nightclubs already shame he hasn't found the gym

I thought we where fuxked when Joe Mellor was a longterm injury.Craven has played decent and I am looking forward to joe Mellor in a few weeks time.

Must be something in the Hull air.

For the last couple of seasons we on hear have moaned about the same thing but nothing gets done why, one minute we win 3 or 4 games then we go to pieces what is going on and when will it end

You are beginning to sound like a Hull fan.

BLOODY HELL I HOPE NOT

At home, in the main I've been impressed with our intensity starting games. Even though some of the performances haven't been great, our attitude and enthusiasm in the forwards has been much improved from previous CS years. However, for whatever reason we looked lethargic. I can't be d to stat this, but I seem to recall previous years where we had a week off and struggled the next match too. Green has some way to go, from impact interchange prop to starting prop. J. Walker, no surprise he’s been cited for something. Every tackle he looked like conceding a penalty. A bit of liability to me.

Ulugia, CS has to take the blame for me. Our right side looked weak all game, and that’s saying something when the opposite was Welham and Hall. It’s hard to critically evaluate his first half performance from the east stand, but his 10 minute 2nd half cameo was dreadful. I agree Salter has his attacking deficiencies, but the decision to start Ulugia with the apparent intention to change him with Horne doesn’t sit for me. You can say Ulugia needs game time, but imo it looked like he lacked general fitness not just lack of match practice. In a wider debate, I think Welham needs to seriously up his game.

I don’t think Keating / Burns partnership is fully there. Burns seems to dictate and receive more ball over Keating. For me Burns excels in scattered off the cuff plays and Keating picks up the scraps so to speak. May go some way to why some sets we look lost. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Hodgson having an off day, resulted in the team also off. He really is the heart beat of the team. Not won over by Langley. Costigan is showing promise. But we really did look like a team that would leak points. 34 pts isn’t good enough. After positive steps fwd recently, Sunday’s result felt like a back to square one moment. Even more so, when we got ourselves into two score lead and seemingly gaining control.

we went 2 scores up and thought it was job done, Widnes went 2 scores down and thought let's have a go at this. we turned off after the drop goal instead of turning the screw.

We need to totally start fresh and get a new quality 1-5 to take us to the next level IMO, totally not good enough!

Agree on all points made!

To be fair Ulugia looked like a player who hasn't played for a long time - but in my opinion you could see enough positives to see there is something there. He was out of position a number of times, which could be down to him playing centre when all his stats have been from playing on the wing or FB!

He did make a couple of cracking tackles and showed some good handling. Think he has shown enough to get another crack.

But if it is the intention to play him there, then it should be for the 80, not to swap with a 2nd row! But with the way both centres played, Salter must be wondering what he has to do to get another shot!

Just my opinion - but I would have Salter and Disco starting against Salford. At least they can BOTH defend, with Whelham and Hall getting the week off.

Craig Sandercock has had some plaudits of late and rightly so.
But on Sunday he got it so so wrong, he for some reason is trying get Ulugia in the team asap? Why not send him to Gateshead to get up to speed? We all know Caro is not the finished article but to ship him off to Gateshead is ludicrous, if he is intent on getting Ulugia in the team and Caro out of it just do the straight swap?
Poor Liam Salter is the one i feel for most unless he was injured?
Liam, Gardner Burns and Larroyer have defended really well down that side.
Salter is a proper grafter, give me him over a few untouchables any day of the week.

pretty sure hes not allowed re his visa, us or nothing i think, Sandercock got a few things wrong in a week where so many bodies were playing for the 1 st time in a while and may struggle for match fitness why put a back in who is gonna need subbing due to fitness? crackers that, Salter dropped Welham keeps his spot, cant fathom that, Craig Hall cant fathom him at all. On a side note watched town v country if someone can teach Caro to jump like the Town winger he would improve as an attacking threat overnite i dont mean leap like a salmon just jump off the floor. Did anyone confirm how long a contract Sandercock got by the way? not that im worried bout a bad run like last year

Langley is a total waste of a shirt for me. Offers absolutely nothing in attack. And by god, i'm so happy he's only on a years contract. If Mariano is to replace him, then that's an improvement.

Craig Hall is another but in the opposite mould, Greg Eden in disguise. Great going forward (with the more than occasional brainfart), and cr@p in defence. I think that the lack of a constant position in the side is effecting him, and this has got to be the poorest season that he's had with us. We've shipped Eden out for less. So how does keep getting in the side?

Keating missing the last few weeks for starters. In theory, I guess it's a possibility that he was included vs Widnes with the view that Keating wasn't quite 100%. CS seemingly didn't see Hall as part of his first choice wingers at the start of the season, so it's confusing that suddenly he was picked ahead of Caro or Hodgson now. His foot in touch incident in front of CS, and some poorly timed offloads/errors probably haven't gone down too well. Still, he kicked a decent drop goal I suppose to give him his dues.

I confess to being a bit of a Hall fan. I like having his 1-7 flexibility, but other than offering that cover - that's all he is. Not a bad bench option, but I think CS prefers having Horne and/or Carlile in that role.

I'd be a Hall fan if it wasn't for the Greg Eden style brain farts. Every time I see him with the ball I allways think that he's going to lose it. And it seems a lot worse this year. Another uncoachable player going backwards at a rate of knots to me.