Yup. It was a strange one. Fresh, young, trying, legs would have been helpful.

Agree.



For me Pitts shouldnt be in the 17 but if he is then the amount of game time he was given was ridiculous. A waste of a shirt if he's only given 5-10 mins as he never got to grips with the pace of the game.

all fair points regarding kirke but crosses stats are near identical. Have we signed a duffer?

Look at his defensive stats compared to Kylie - who is the duffer?

my apologies. Looking at the phone in sunlight i thought it was 9 tackles!

Mmmmmm yes. Don't forget to stretch those creamy hamstrings...

Low work rate with the Ball from Cross for sure. he hits the line harder than Kirke but not much more effective.



I'll give him more than 2 games before passing Judgment, unlike Kirke who has been playing this way for a year.

A word that sadly you may find yourself using more and more as the season unfolds, and certainly a verb to describe most Quins supporters understanding of his tactics over the past 2 seasons.

Bit early to write off Cross. I will be happier when he steps up the number of carries per game but he is the best for marker tackles per game and has put in 60 tackles in 2 games against the poor 40 in 3 for Leuluai who is also the top forward for missed tackles.



Neither Cross or Buderus can be blamed for our current defensive problems. We need to look to Ali & Kylie to be doing more work. Baileys return will tighten the defence around the ruck.



It would be interesting to see the number of points conceded by the forwards compared with the backs to see where we need to improve the most. I have the feeling that we have given away too many points by mistakes from the backs.



So far Sinfield at 6 is making more tackles than McGuire had to do last year which could be that our 13 this year is not covering enough.

In defence of Kirke if we are going to factor in 2 drives from the kick off accounting for 35 metres it should be pointed out that the other props must have taken 5 drives from the restarts aswell. So knock that off their average yardage aswell.

Kylie ripped his left pec about 5 minutes into the game - I'm surprised he has any stats at all.

I have already blasted our poor forwards overall. That point has been made.



I am highlighting Ian Kirke because after the Hull game a few people were raving about him once they saw his stats. In the Hull game he surprised everyone because he did a forwards job. A job he should be doing week-in-week-out. A job he can't sustain week-in-week-out. He got sympathy pats on the back which is cringe-worthy. So a bit of reality was needed to be brought to light about the Gentle Giant, Ian Kirke.