Cunningham has a real problem now. Whether Walsh's difficulties are down to a lack of confidence or a loss of mobility we can't afford to keep playing him and watch opponents sail past him.

We have two decent attacking centres. What we haven't developed is a way of giving them quality ball in space.



On the plus side, Roby seems to have decided that now we have a fullback who can back up again, it might be worth his while running from dummy half again.

True. But it's the halves who dictate the attacking pattern. So far we've shown none. We look like a side desperately short of confidence.







Yeah. We'd be lost without Roby.

I'm baffled why Sky are concentrating on Turner over the first try. Had Walsh stayed with his man that break doesn't happen.

I think there's a decent argument that we should play Walsh at FB in defence. He'd only have to slow down any breaks till the cover got there, but more importantly, there'd be far fewer breaks without him in the line!

I've just replayed a few incidents in the game and it's very noticeable that Walsh leg (I assume it's the injured one) often splays out maybe twenty degrees. It's not perpendicular to the pitch.



It could just be an idiosyncrasy of his game. But I don't recall it last season. Is he protecting that leg? Is he in pain shifting weight across?

Gee whizz. That left edge defence is dreadful.

Six missed tackles.



To be fair to Walshy, he looks a class act with ball in hands. It's that [ishift in direction[/i which concerns me. He looks like someone who's either protecting his leg or in pain.

The thing that mystifies me is what happened to that solid, brick-wall defence which moved up rapidly and in a straight line at the start of the year? We've gone from hitting the opposition at or behind the advantage line to letting them come onto us.



Kyle Amor looks a shadow of the player he was.

Never mind the left edge. It's been a surrender-fest every time Hudds have got a bit of territory. A lot of work to be done with this defence.

We're in trouble here. Huddersfield look more likely to score.



Nearly all their tries have resulted from Walsh's defence. But we're also giving Huddersfield the territory through stupi, stupid penalties.

We look completely knackered. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'd give very serious consideration to taking several of the senior players out of one of the upcoming games. If it means throwing a game - so be it.

The irony. The irony ...

The left edge defence of Swift - Walsh - Tuner - Greenwood screams missed tackles to me. The only change that could happen here is having Burns defend on that side, but will he make such a significant difference? I don't want Greenwood on the right as he's more effective going forward on the left. I don't want Percival on the left as he looks better on the right. We won't swap our wingers round.

I guess we shouldn't forget that - regardless of what anyone says about this defence - there's only one team with a better record. Which means every other side bar Huddersfield is making more mistakes than we are.

What on earth is Phil Clarke talking about? [i"Huddersfield should go home feeling great about themselves"[/i



If I were Huddersfield I'd be disconsolate. If you can't beat a side which is at sixes-and-sevens you've got no chance in the playoffs.

As for Turner & Swift. None of these guys were a problem toward the final quarter of last season when the forwards were meeting the opposition on the advantage line as a unit. The reason they are getting caught short is because we are giving the opposition playmakers far too much space to maneuver centre field.



I do think tiredness is a significant factor. And BOY do we need Vea back. It's been a long season. And we were pretty flaky at this point last season, too. The important factor is whether Cunningham has reserved enough fuel in the tank for the run-in. That was Nathan Brown's masterstroke.



Championship-winning sides invariably hit top form with five or six games remaining.

A one point game to put us one point off top and that's us in the top 4 for the split as Cas can't catch us with the points difference.

Been like that all season. The left edge is awful in defence. We have walsh, Turner and swift and its very vulnerable.



Turner can read play, he makes awful decisions which puts pressure on either side of him. I play 6 and Id dread to play next to someone like him in defence.



On the subject of walsh, I thiught it was 100% improvment in terms of effort, attitude and getting involved. Sure he wasn't back to his best but it's a improvment.

Spot on! Exactly what ive said all season even when was unbeaten and I got shot down with "we have best defence in the league".



Every week I could see with my own eyes that Greenwood (even tho was playing well) was missing to many tackles. Same goes for Turner and the stats of missed tackles proved that. They both miss 4/5 a game but then you add walsh to that edge and that's another 4/5 missed tackles on that edge.



You'll struggle with 12 + missed tackles on that edge each week and needs sorting fast!

The left edge is no less manageable than it was last season. If the forwards cut down the space aggressively and in unison it's very difficult for opponents to work a man advantage without taking a risk. They didn't do it tonight. They didn't do it last week. We know they CAN do it because they were very successful in making life hell for opposition forwards at the start of the season.



Let's see if the pack gains a second wind down the stretch. There's a long, long way to go. And plenty of time for other sides to suffer some of the injury nightmares we have.

He looked a bit more organised tonight than the previous 2 games, seems as though Walsh is working the pass and kick to Percival, whilst Burns works the pass over to Turner. Think Walsh had to do 3 tackles in the Giants set of 6 as they targeted him he missed one, put in half a tackle and completed one tackle.

The main thing his involvement is getting better, hopefully he can get a good run of games with Burns to settle things down tactically.

I think he knows he let himself down badly last week. The effort and atiitude was there tonight which showed he was hurting.



A massive improvment and one step foward and needs to build on this each week heading into the super 8s

I agree that it's been a weakness all season, but I don't think it's been quite as weak as it has over the last couple of games. I think the reintroduction of Walsh, who clearly doesn't want to get near contact, has brought the worst out in Turner and Swift. It's panic stations every time the ball goes out that way.

The thing that slightly concerns me is Keiron playing Flash on the bench. Given that he offers us very little I can only think it's a contingency in case Walsh breaks down. Which suggests that even Keiron is having second thoughts.



Walsh was often criticised in the NRL for playing when he felt like it. But he wasn't a bad defender. Certainly nowhere near as bad as he was tonight.



That leg really does worry me. I kind of expected that he'd be short of zip coming back. But it's very noticeable that he's struggling when forced to change direction. Either he's frightened that the leg will go under load. Or it's hurting. Or he's lost some degree of joint flexibility. Whatever the case - it needs to improve soon.