I guess you didn't actually see the game then? Or you watched a different one to the rest of the world? Or you are clinically insane?

we play everyone except wire,wakey,leeds and saints again.



after last two games, which despite us losing have seen us put in good performances where the scoreline has flattered the opposition and not really reflected the game, I'd say that all our remaining games are winnable. If we can carry on and play to the same level as the last few weeks then I'm pretty confident of us having a much better 2nd half of season and reaching playoffs. how high we gets anyones guess.

Our weak spots continue to be exploited each week. Teams know that if they run down our right towards Sykes/Sheriffe or at Deacon then there will be opportunities to score. It will be interesting to see what the Bulls do regarding Sykes, my feeling is that he'll probably get a new deal. But we look weak defensively with him there and I'm not sure if he offers enough in attack to balance things up.



If we're serious about being contenders again, I still feel we need a strike centre. Who is our Matt Gidley/Keith Senior etc?



I thought Deacon improved again last night but was still in and out of the game. He did some good stuff but also some pretty rubbish stuff too. His missed tackle on JJB? in the 1st half was costly and not kicking the penalty dead put us under pressure that we couldn't deal with.



These are two area's that surely need strengthening for next year, if we don't then I struggle to see how we will improve much for 2010.

I rather feel we need a new Scott Naylor.

I think we have a strong defender in Nero. I've been fairly impressed with his partnership with Semi this year despite being in a poor team for most of the year. I think Sykes is a decent SL player who is fine for a team who are happy to be in the lower half of the 8. But if we're serious about challenging, we perhaps need to set our sights a little higher.



Given the homegrown ruling etc, I expect he'll probably sign a new deal though.

One win and one defeat against all of these (2 wins against Wakey) so no reason why we can't go on and beat the teams we have already lost against this season. No logic or reasoning behind that statement but hey...

Didn't know Big Les was there.

I swear as well Sykes can't take any pass at full pace. In second half he fronted up a lot more to be fair to him. Centre has been a problem since Hape for sure.

Indeed we do. together with Ben Harris he was berated for lack of pace but their defence was something that we can only now dream about.

Now there's a thought... who's been the best mid field defender at the Bulls?

Probably Mike Forshaw or Daniel Gartner, although Henry Paul was a tough cookie to beat, due to his strength and movement.

Definitely Gartner for mine. The bloke was a tackling machine.

Overall the game showed that we continue to improve, and our present level is about 4th/5th standard. That of course is with our long term injuries to key figures like Solomona and Morrison, the latter especially would have made a difference especially at the end.



Of course we have no chance of 4th as we have let too many games slip away for one or more of a catalogue of well-discussed reasons, but we should give every team we play a hard time from now to the end of the season and hopefully hit something like out best possible form for the playoffs.



First team to win from 8th, anyone?

I'm a reasonably optimistic guy but we don't have much of a chance of winning a trophy this year. It would take a near miracle I'm afraid. We simply don't have enough players of the right quality right now. Add 3-4 of the right players of varying ability then perhaps we will be back up there.



I'm hoping for some good Rugby between now and the end of the year. If we make the play offs and win a couple of games then that would be a nice bonus.

To me that was an atypical Deacon performance. He ran over unopposed from 5m out & got a great ball out of the tackle which led to Menzies? try. Apart from that absolutely zilch apart from occasional posturing & usual handful of mistakes.