Wakefield: Post-Match

I said it would be a thumping win or a very narrow loss, so glad it for the former.

Wonderful performance, MOM by a big margin for me was Jones, showed why it is crazy to be playing him in the back row when he is unstoppable in the centres, when you throw in how well Lannon plays when he gets his chance shows that cover for the back row is abundant.

Vidot looks a monster and when he gets match fit him and Junior are going to be a nightmare for anyone they play, Junior for me is the most improved player, looks fit and that he is really enjoying his time at Salford.


GOB provides the link of that extra half but you can see he isn't a natural, every time he fields the ball he loses valuable yards by taking to long to make the decision on what he's doing. We have to keep Evalds in the 17, scored 11 trys when he's a bit part player, don't care if he takes up a bench spot he has to be included and above all else retained.

Hauraki for me is on borrowed time, we have better options on a lot less money and I'd rather see an import in an area we don't have so much cover, don't know if it's a confidence thing or the injury that has side lined him but he just looks a shadow of last year.

Another shocking Ref display, but again seemed to be poor for both teams.

It was a good win. Lots of positives to take out of it - Dobson and Lui ran the game really well. I thought Dobson was especially good again, seemed to be everywhere and varied his game well with running, passing and kicking. GOB was very impressive in defence - don't think he dropped one ball or missed a tackle. He saved us a couple of tries. And he linked well in attack. The outside backs were all impressive making metres and tackling well mostly. Kopczak and Griffn were immense again. Not been Tomkins biggest fan but he's been getting better as the season has gone on and he was very good last night. Joseph did a decent job too. Lannon was great and his try was the highlight of the match. BMM and Hauraki were good without being great. BMM not as good as last week, Weller probably a bit better. Walne did well when he came on. Bibby took a good catch and had a run, that will do his confidence good. But it felt an odd decision to have him on the bench rather than a forward. Flanagan was as solid as ever.

Our lack of pace let us down a few times. With Carney, Johnson or MCB on the field we might have had another try or two in the first half. Either that or we needed more in support when we made the breaks. Our defence was solid mostly - esp in that 10 to 20 minute mark when Wakey had s lot of pressure on our line. Neither teams handling was great at times esp. I reckon they bombed 4 or 5 really good chances and we did 2 or 3. That spell around 70 mins when both teams seemed determined to give the ball away was a bit surreal. We miss Kopczak and Griffin when they go off and our defence is less organised when they are subbed. We missed a couple of chances from Sau passing to Vidot too early so the defence got across

I thought the ref had a good game. Thought Evads might have had his legs twisted in one tackle when he gave a knock on and would like to see the tackle on GOB again that went on report. Wakeys discipline wasn't great and their fans seemed to have accepted that rather than blame the ref which is refreshing. Their chairman also tweeted how good a game the ref had which was really good to see

All in all a very pleasing night. Will need to up our game for next week but another win is doable

Just sooo Good!

I didn't think we played like a team that scored 38 points. Average for the majority, scintillating for the minority. If we could get some consistency in our performances rather than playing for bit parts (Widnes week before was another good example) then we will give some teams a good hiding. We should have put 60 on Wakefield on Friday.

Dobson's lack of pass is a concern, I dread to think how many tries we've bombed this season after he's been run down. Fortunately his unbelievable RL brain more than makes up for it. If we can keep him and Lui fit we've got a great chance at the 8's.

Jones was clear MOM for me, Wakefield could not get to grips with him. Bouncing players off left right and centre and putting some huge hits in. Special mention to George Griffin was outstanding yet again, how good is he going to be?