Which mistake? The missed tackle or the needless foot in touch?

Sorry but i just don't agree with the missed tackle one Sykes, Sheriffe and Menzies who parted like the red sea were more to blame.

I thought Platt played well, looked solid in defence and good going forward. Everyone goes on about how nervous he looks, well all the crowd going 'ooooohhhhhhhh' when he is about to catch a ball doesn't help, most of the nerves seem to stem from the crowds attitude.



He made a mistake or two, so did a lot of the players. What about Jeffries not passing the ball in first half when a try was clearly on? What about Scruton loosing the ball in two tackles and twice knocking on in good positions? What about us knocking on and not being able to see out the last set of 6 and take the win? It always seems to come back to Platt yet Platt is not the problem.

A FB trying to go around the outside of the winger is usually a sign of supreme confidence in his own ability

Platt is not fit to lace the boots of Sprogger or Withers in my opinion. Although I wouldn't have given Sykes much chance taking down Fox one-on-one. His defence is even more shakey.



Dave Halley had his best games last season at full back for me. What the hell he's doing out at Wakefield is beyond me.



Was it just me or was the line standing incredibly flat yesterday? Apart from Hull KR's defence (which they deserve a lot of credit for) the reason we couldn't penetrate was that we weren't running from deep. Getting some momentum on the charge is what breaks tackles. I can't understand the flat passes. It makes it so easy to defend against.



Don't get me started on the lack of back up play. And having no one to take the ball at dummy half at one stage. Would never have happened with Lowes on the field.

Sykes was a very limited FB for Broncos, defensive weaknesses and didn't add that much to the attack with limited vision - was kept well away from that role for his last few seasons IIRC, even when we had injuries there

TBH the team looked rusty and disorganised. And that was pretty much the problem last year as well. The pack looks good, but players in positions 1-7 just don't seem to have what it takes to capitalise on the forward's work

Tbh I was quite encouraged by platts performance. He got slated for the missed tackle leading to the first try yet he was one of about four players who were actually onside and able to attempt the tackle and morrison? missed it too. He had a slightly worrying tendency to run sideways a bit early on rather than taking the line on but started taking the ball forward beter as the game wore on. Can only remember one of his trademark passes to the winger which is an improvement on last year. All in all think he showed some encouraging signs and deserves to retain his spot against hudds. If theres still cause for concern after the hudds match then halley will be back off loan and could slot in against wigan. But I think platts biggest problem is confidence and he's only going to get this playing regularly.

I agree that we were a shambles defending that quick tap but Platt was our last line of defence, appeared to have his man lined up perfectly and got bumped off. Whichever way you cut it he missed a tackle.



Two reasons I think Platt gets flak from fans:



1) As a fullback any errors he makes are likely to lead to more disastrous results. Fullbacks are like goalkeepers in this respect. Platt's more error prone than any regular fullback we've had in recent memory so he's not looking good in comparison with Withers, Spruce or Dave Watson.



2) He doesn't contribute enough in attack. If he was finishing off his share of tries or making some breaks through good suport play fans would be more likely to forgive the odd blooper. Unfortunately his attacking play has gone backwards since halfway through 2007.



While I agree there are other underperformers such as Jeffries this thread was about Platt so that's why I mentioned him.

He played regularly last year but I didn't spot any major improvements in his game.



Maybe he needs to build up his confidence in the U21s?

Or sheer stupidity.. maybe you'd try it if we were leading or losing by a few scores but we were well in the game at that point. It was an unnecessary gamble in my opinion.