It was a much better performance and hopefully showed that the team is now in a place to compete. I thought there were two key team selection decisions in there - one that made us much stronger and one that was a poor decision.
Leuluai moving to halfback was apparently down to Shorrocks picking up an injury but is there anyone who would have wanted Shorrocks in that position? Tommy's defence was outstanding and what he does in attack is take the line on, command the ball and take it to the line before passing. Yes he has his drawbacks but it was such an improvement on what we get from Shorrocks that is made a significant difference.
The one that I couldn't understand was Hankinson on the bench. He's not shown anything that suggests he's a Super League standard player, but if he was there because Sarginson was a risk then it's a poor call - just play Hankinson at centre and cope as best we can. To then have him brought on at second row when he's got nothing to offer there ended up costing us. Morgan Smithies would have been a better bench option. Greenwood going off robbed our left edge of strike power when chasing the game but Smithies would have offered more.
All in all though I thought Wire still had the better team but we edged it in terms of enthusiasm. O'Loughlin was outstanding. Clubb justified his selection by being pretty solid defensively. Tautai still isn't good enough though. Powell had one of his better games but that just highlights one of our big problems, because he was nowhere near as good as Clark.
I think if we can keep this squad fit for when Sammut and Farrell return we'll have good competition for places and two players who could add something to the side.
