People have called for his head after another insipid Super League performance. We do have a weak squad, and we really do miss our best players when they are unavailable, but there doesn't seem to be any changes in the squad after poor performances. Powell has acknowledged his mistakes for this after the Wigan game, but I do feel it may be the best thing for him to demand the club actively look for a scrum-half who can kick long, something they should have done in the summer, or look for a new head coach.

I am broadly supportive of Powell, and want success under Powell, I just see him as someone that obviously lacks the experience at any playing level, and he does seem to lack the ideas to move us away from the same issues we had under Brian Mac. I floated the idea of a director of rugby in another post and it got mixed replies. In football sacking a manager is an expensive change, and sacking Powell would be relatively inexpensive, but this is an avenue I am not really advocating. I do however support a sideways move for the former Lebanon coach, he seems pretty good in that position, and given a further chance to learn from a coach, be he English or Australian, Powell could return once he has done more to earn his chance, rather than being bungled into the role through circumstance.

The biggest change at the club was the promotion of Powell, as there were scant few additions to the permanent playing staff at the Stoop in the summer. Unfortunately he has not been able to change the mentality and attitude of the core players that seemed to be so mentally brittle under the latter months of BMD.

A Challenge Cup victory over Leeds may redeem Powell, but defeat really only leaves two options that the club should take; move back to be an assistant and bring in a new head coach, or bring in a Director of Rugby to give Powell some help.

As I have said several times, lets start having a go at the blokes on the park!!! They need to get there heads round the basic concept, white oval thing size 5 called a rugby ball, try to keep hold of the bloody thing, a coach should not be having to teach that!!
How many time did we drop it yesterday??

Making just a head coach "accountable" after a consistent decline the past 5 years in squad numbers, money spent on the squad, the quality of that squad, and big name signings is solving the wrong problem I think. 3 years ago at home to Wigan our scorers were Gafa, McLinden, Hill and Paul in losing by 20. Now you're talking Pryce, Gale, O'Callaghan and Kouparitis. Who in our squad would get a run for anyone but the bottom four? Who would get a run for Wigan? We have much much bigger problems as a club - and I don't mean crowds - than Powell or his coaching crew, surely.

Very true. This club has been in decline for a number of years - with no disrespect to David Hughes, or indeed anyone else, and it needs to be reversed somehow.

When we have all our players fit we can beat anyone. Results have shown this. Our problem is not the coach. The problem is a squad with no depth and no money to bolster it.

Sorry, but if DH is throwing between 1 million and 1.5 million at the club, with 450k from attendances, 1.2 million from SKY and 500k from residuals (beer/shirts etc) then there's nearly 4 million a year


What is this money being spent on? Seriously? 13 home games a year so I would suspect no more than 400k to the Union lot....a few back office staff and a threadbare squad are hardly worth 3 million?


I voted for a Director of Rugby.....Nobby should have been approached...if Fax can afford him even we could have.

But would Nobby want to come to London Town?

Under McDermott we went backwards, I don't think we've been quite as bad this year despite some poor recent form. Ultimately we have a very week squad, we're short of a top quality prop, a top quality centre and a top quality halfback (our regular halfback this season is a middle of the road hooker). With three top quality additions we might just be good enough to finish in 9th position, but as it is we'll be somewhere between 12th - 14th. To get into the playoffs we probably need 6 top quality players.

As a club we surely spend money in hiring Community Coaches and putting on festivals and training over the year. Also, money will be spent on marketing (admittedly so far it hasn't reaped many rewards). Transport to get us to each away game over the year - hotels if necessary. Pre season training camps - plus training location over the year....it adds up to some (probably not the remaining balance), but unfortunatley nothing is free in this world anymore....

Rob Powell doesn't have the top level experience, I think we should stick with him for atleast the remainder of the season - I mean, there was no way we'd finish in the top 8 anyway. Give him a chance to learn more and evaluate in the close season. I still think a thin squad with little decent depth and the fact we have such a small pack is causing us no end of problems at the moment.

I posted the initial post and pretty soon after decided that it was a step too far. Looking at our squad many fans expected us to finish second bottom, and we are currently exceeding that.

Rob Powell was given the job in the summer, and we are not in free-fall, we just need to show a little more than we are giving at the minute. The mental brittleness that seemed to affect the players under the latter months of Brian Macs tenure seems to have returned along with the tries being run in against us without a hand being laid on the attacker. I've got no major issues with our squad, I realise we have budgetary constraints, but I think that the minimum that they should do is fight tooth and nail to the bitter end.

I had the feeling at the start of the season that we were a little weak in the brains trust department, ie Brian Mac leaving and no additional coaches coming in can only weaken the collective rugby thinking. Hopefully Rob Powell has good contacts that he can give a telephone call or two because I do feel that he does need a little help, if only in the form of a few words of sage advice from someone experienced at the top level.

Mellowed out now and not demanding changes, but hopefully RP is not left to take the burden on his shoulders alone, and perhaps Latham Tawhai is doing something positive that goes unseen.

I think Powell is do an adequate job with the resources available to him.

The same as McDermott then.