MZH

We were saying that earlier. You would think Toronto would have been pretty competitive this year had they won the MPG. Things would have got very interesting down the bottom, but as it stands I think London will end up relegated with several weeks of the season remaining. They haven't disgraced themselves, but they just don't have the quality. Can't see where the next win is coming from. And thus the stage was set for London to give Huddersfield a fearful beating on Monday.

Well who saw that coming? Cracking result by Salford that gets their top 5 push back on track. These last two games just a blip for Wire, or are the wheels off?

Goes without saying that I am very pleased with that. Can't knock the efforts of anyone in a Hull shirt, they all played their part. I thought even when it was tight in the first half we looked much the better side. Just a few errors were inviting Hull KR onto our line. Once we started to take control and express ourselves a bit there were some excellent tries. Pleased with Wynne. He made a couple of mistakes early and nearly cost us again with that daft offload. He could have gone to pieces in that environment but he settled down and made some really good contributions. That said we looked incredibly dangerous when our 3 key playmakers were on together. Interesting that despite being at FB, Connor was playing at first reciever most of the time and Kelly was roaming around playing the usual FB role. It worked really well. Really happy for Jack Logan aswell. At the end of last year I thought we had probably seen the last of him in a Hull shirt, but he has got this chance and has taken it with both hands. Even without the tries I thought he played very well.

Well, who would ever try to predict anything in this league?

We aren't a million miles away tbf. We should get two 20k+ figures today. I reckon we will break 65k for those 4 games.

Haven't seen the Moa tackle but neck brace doesn't necessarily equal high shot. If Abdul isn't expecting the hit it could be whiplash or similar, rather than contact with the head. Fingers crossed he is ok though. It's a worrying result for London. I think they really a win last night. To get beaten so comfortably is a problem. Their odds of staying up just got a lot longer imo.

Pretty poor all round from him. First he overran the play, and then went for glory when he didn't have a hope of scoring. Hope this isn't anything too serious though.

Wow. This had rout written all over it after 20 minutes. Incredible fightback.

Whatever happens at the end of this game this has been a really good display of character from Wakefield. They just weren't at the races at all in the first half. They looked all set to roll over and have their tummies tickled. But somehow they have given themselves a shake and have fought manfully in this second half.

Literally just finished typing that and Cas scored. Probably is game over now.

I have only just noticed the results of the poll. Did that many of you really think Wakefield would win, or do we just have a lot of Wakefield fans on the forum? They looked like they were feeling a bit sorry for themselves in that first half. I know they have injuries but they have just looked like they don't really want to be there. The game isn't lost if they can put a spell together, but they need to find a bit of energy.

I'll have a whale of a time if we win. Trying not to think about if we lose.

I went to get tickets this morning. Ended up with 2 unreserved ones for the west upper. There literally aren't two seats next to each other anywhere in the bottom bowl of the stadium. I don't really know why this one has sold so well when derby attendances have been slowing falling in recent years, but we seem to be looking at comfortably over 20k. Maybe even upwards of 22k.

Squads named. For Hull there is still no Shaul, so Wynne keeps his spot. Taylor, Matongo and Paea are in and Westerman is named aswell. Thompson, Nzoungou and Washbrook are omitted from last week's 19 but Brown keeps his place. Not certain he will play, but I hope so. If not I expect we will see him on Monday. For Rovers, Garbutt, Lunt and Jewitt are in. All things being equal we should win this by at least a couple of scores, but strange things have a habit of happening in these games.

Remember that Talanoa has already left aswell. Tuimavave has another year after this one, as does Kelly, although I have a feeling Kelly might go home at the end of this season with Connor getting the 6 shirt. Paea, Minichiello and Manu will be on their way. Faraimo is OOC aswell, although I expect us to try to extend. I saw the article where Pearson was talking about marquee players said about bringing players over from Australia. Either he is getting carried away (wouldn't be the first time let's face it), or he has misspoke/being misquoted and we are looking at 6/7 new signing, but not necessarily all from Australia. Either that or we are bringing an Englishman back home? A Burgess brother would be nice.

As you say the only saving grace is that he didn't come in from the side. However, even going with the natural movement of the joint you can easily cause an injury launching yourself in like that. The tackle itself wasn't the worst I have ever seen, but the worrying thing about it was the intent. I would like to think that no professional player ever goes out to intentionally injure someone, but this looked deliberate to me. He had a lot of time to think and size up what he was going to do. He could have easily just wrapped up the legs or grabbed an ankle, but instead he chose to launch himself at a planted leg. Very poor from him, and a terrible message sent out from the disciplinary.

I am happy to accept the argument that he was committed. The problem is the tackle he was committed to was a dangerous one. Late or not it's a red card. I was reminded of the hit that Sam Moa got sent off for on, iirc, Julien Rinaldi. That one was even before the shoulder charge had been banned, and wasn't off the ball. Williame's was far worse.

Warrington by lots.

Why should all 3 be from the winning team? You can play out of your skin but if your team mates don't perform you won't win. I actually think great performances in losing causes too often get overlooked and instead the 1 or 2 points go to someone who was fairly mediocre but happened to be on the winning team.

His kicking is obviously his biggest asset, but he really doesn't get credit for the rest of his game. Look at Faraimo's try against Catalans for example. Sneyd's pass is overshadowed by Connor's, but it is an absolute peach of a ball. It's fairly basic stuff, but done to perfection. A player of Connor's ability can't fail when he is getting service like that. Sneyd's job in the team isn't to throw a dummy behind his back before beating three men and scoring in the corner. It is to plot our way around the park and get that quality service out to the likes of Connor and Kelly who provide the X factor. He does that job very well. When he wants to attack the line or throw the killer pass he is more than capable of doing so, as his highlight reels on YouTube will attest to. If people think he is overrated or one dimensional then that's up to them, but they are wrong.

Tbf, whilst a couple of them were just straight up poor, we had our fair share of bad luck. I have often said that Matty Head was the most talented 7 we have had in the SL era, but to say his legs were made of biscuit would be an insult to gingerbread men everywhere. Dykes was useful too, but not much better on the injury front. Holdsworth was going ok until his concussion problems. Miller was probably asked too much too early in his career. The likes of Long and Pryce did decent jobs but had their best years behind them.

Huddersfield have steadily improved and look pretty tough to beat currently. As Man of Kent says, it's physical and direct with not alot of craft, but it is effective. You pretty much know what they are going to do, but that doesn't necessarily mean you can stop it. I'm not sure Leeds will be able to stop those big men dominating, so I am going for Hudds by 6.

On form this should be, to borrow a term from John Kear, a shellacking. But I just have a feeling Wigan will rise to the occasion. I'm not feeling quite bold enough to predict a Wigan win, but I think they will make it a difficult afternoon for Saints. Saints by 2

Cas seem slightly better equipped to cope with their injuries than Wakefield do imo, so based on that and home advantage I will go for Cas by 10. Looking forward to the forward battle though. Watts v Fifita should be tasty.

This feels like a must win for London and I'm going to back them to do it. London by 4