Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 5:37 pm  

The main thing for me was that the 2022 Bulls would have folded today. Much better attitude and desire

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 5:44 pm  

Highlander wrote:

The main thing for me was that the 2022 Bulls would have folded today. Much better attitude and desire

Agreed. I can't remember the last time we won in the last minute. Last year in particular, if we were losing with 15 to go you knew that was it.

As Bullseye said, lots to work on though.

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 6:58 pm  

Lilley looked his best when going from dummy half. He looked sharp.
England was great. Appo looked strong.
Holmes very good.
Rogers and Roby impressive again

Defensivley very strong

Matongo in a bad way which is just frigging typical

Always great to nick a game lile that!

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:07 pm  

bowlinboy wrote:

100% when was the last time you saw him scoot & catch markers off side or even make a half break?

Don't think he is the most professional of characters to have around the place.

Your first point for me is a weird one in todays day and age. With the play the ball as it is (with the six again) the hookers job is not necessarily to break the line. But jump out well enough to ensure the prop/runner makes 15-20m. Roby (James) one of the best english hookers never broke the line really against Penrith. He won the game by making the right pass when he needed to.

Agree on your point being the most professional around. When he was on the bench he was giving Lawton (who was about to come on) some stick. Lawton scored next set pretty much. Problem with Flanagan is he should only give it IF him AND THE TEAM can back it up.


Still thought it was a poor performance. Dunning should still go. How England starts I don’t know. But a win is a win.

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:22 pm  

Bulls Boy 2011 wrote:

Your first point for me is a weird one in todays day and age. With the play the ball as it is (with the six again) the hookers job is not necessarily to break the line. But jump out well enough to ensure the prop/runner makes 15-20m. Roby (James) one of the best english hookers never broke the line really against Penrith. He won the game by making the right pass when he needed to.

Agree on your point being the most professional around. When he was on the bench he was giving Lawton (who was about to come on) some stick. Lawton scored next set pretty much. Problem with Flanagan is he should only give it IF him AND THE TEAM can back it up.


Still thought it was a poor performance. Dunning should still go. How England starts I don’t know. But a win is a win.

Poor performance??
2 teams that both got stuck in, gave it to each other and a game could have gone either way. Wed have rolled over last year and lost by 20. Showed some balls and stuck in till the last min. Pride, effort and knackers that all you can ask for.

England was great. Had a real game.

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:34 pm  

MOM for me was England

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:47 pm  

A good game. Real blood and thunder with two teams going toe to toe. Easily could have gone either way but I would say we marginally deserved it based on scoring 3 trys to their 2.

Again though way too much dropped ball (from both sides actually) so not a quality affair but a gutsy performance and pleasing to see us keep going and pinch it.

Appo and Matongo look promising and give us some size but we need to learn quickly that we are not going to go over anyone this year. We look better when moving the ball. Hopefully that means we are in for some entertainment come the dry warm months.

A much needed win. Now two free hit outs to come before attentions turns to Sheffield

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:49 pm  

Bulls Boy 2011 wrote:

Still thought it was a poor performance. Dunning should still go. How England starts I don’t know. But a win is a win.

You must have been watching a different game to me. England was incredible during that second half and made some good metres when our forwards were out on their feet. Appo gave us a bit of impact from the bench then quietened down as the game went on. A good first hit out for the PNG forward. Patton came up with some moments of class and cut a hole in the Widnes defence to send Holmes through to win the game.

A better performance than the York game but still miles off the pace in some areas. We got caught out twice on the last tackle where we didn't appear to know we were on the final play. Discipline again was poor in places and must improve if we are to even compete with sides like Toulouse and Fev.

Re: Widnes (H) : Sun Feb 19, 2023 8:05 pm  

I thought it was low in quality from both sides but couldn’t fault the commitment to grind out the result. We are still very predictable in attack and I lost count of the amount of times we just tried to barge ourselves over the line,

But some decent try saving defence and a result that came from pure hard work which should take a bit of pressure off heading into some fixtures that we have very little chance of winning.

Re: Widnes (H) : Mon Feb 20, 2023 2:13 am  

Mixed bag on here. Some saying great performance. Some saying low quality. For me, with that team, we should be playing miles better than what we are. I’m happy to concede that it’s still early doors and there’s room for improvement. But for me it was poor. Yes, I’m happy the lads ground out a win. But we shouldn’t have been in a position to have to win in the last two mins.

You can have really good effort and still be poor and that’s what I thought of the game in general.

Reason why I said England was poor was the two dropped balls near their line in the first half. A few times he hit the defender and dropped off, resulting in two good chances for Widnes. Plus a poor defensive read for Grady’s try (regardless of going down to 12 with Holmes sin-binning). No excuse for that. I’ll watch the highlights when they come out but I’m sure it was England.

For me Wallace and Butler should be the starting SR’s anyway.