Yep there's some serious "units" amongst their ranks and our pack stood up well.

One thing about catalans they have always been a very big and aggressive side but they look very well organised. Also there was a fair amount of French players which is great credit to them

They've got some big Frenchmen alright. And if their strike players (Dureau, Farrar & Greenshields) as well as Menzies with his experience are fit then they could cause some problems in the playoffs, even from 6th, which is where they're likely to finish. We only got past them in 2009 because Kevin Walters screwed up and substituted Greg Bird when he was murdering us.

Loz, listen to tad and some of the other posters on here. We were were superb in the 1st half. The patient pressure we built and the work we made their huge, hard forwards do in the 1st half is exactly the reason we "broke them down due to their tiredness" in the 2nd half.

Excellently applied game plan and an excellent display.

Exactly, and its what we should have been doing last month when it all looked so chaotic, therefore I am delighted to give credit to the coaching staff and players for changing things around and implimenting a much more sensible approach.

THe game plan may well have worked, but you could tell why our CEO is so concerned. That game would have been a typical example for the first 60 minutes of why fans are not returning and leaving it alone. At times it was like watching paint dry, really scrappy and unimaginative, punctuated by moments of brilliance like Sinnys kick, Hall's run, and Burrow final try. We werw far far too obsessed in going to our left continuously in first hald, and it was frustrating.

Other than that I echo what others have put. Dragons were strong oppossitio. Buderus and Sinfield were excellent. Hauraki and Senior were a waste of space.

Agree with all of that.

We played too flat in the 1st half and a bit which caused a few poor options and made Catalans D look better than it was. They were putting the big hits in though. Said at the time that I reckon we'd score a few near the end due to tiredness more than anything. Compare the 1st 60 minutes to the Bulldogs v Dragons game in the NRL yesterday (which finished 10-15) and theres's a massive gulf in class. It's another step in the right direction though and we are still within 2 wins of top. With 2 big games coming up we could be right up there again and who knows what will happen with a bit of confidence leading into the last 10 games.

No trophies yet, but I'll settle for steady improvement throughout the season peaking in October

Rather be where we are now than Cas, who seem to have shot their load already

Agree we are going IN the right direction and still within touching distance of the top, hope we can now pick up some wins against those above us.

I also enjoyed the dancing last night and the various different uniforms on display!!

i enjoyed them getting changed at the side of the stand

Yes that also was a enjoyable experience

Much better disciplined display. Offloading when its on and not suicidal!
Sinfield was class, Delaney, Buderus and JP were excellent. Ryan Hall is getting better and better. His strength to fend off defenders is unbelievable and together with speed = England's best winger.
Hardaker looks a cracking prospect too.

Good tests in Wire and Saints coming up. Cant wait!

Entertaining rugby is a great theoretical ethos....but think most would agree yesterday's apparent platform building first is the way to go.

Was bailer injured or "rested" again. Saw cross after the game
and he didn't look very happy. A little glum. He is quite a big bloke up close!

I agree that the first half was very frustrating, and we should have probably scored more than just the one try, but on the other hand aleast we built pressure with a good kicking game forcing 4 or 5 drop outs in the opening 10 mins or so. Catalans came to play and full credit to them we wore them down and had to work very hard to do so!

My view was fantastic tad



Sadly i got a nudge from my 11 year old daughter and was told to stop dribbling

On a side note Tad which was your favorite outfit?

Mine was definitely the nurses outfit

For me, We just didn't excute the chances (and potential ones) in the first half. Yes those four (Was it four?) sets of six where we made them drop out each time did a job on Catalans but looking at it the other way, why didnt we strike in the red zone?!

Our second half display was very impressive

The nurses were very nice yes. I have my latest knee op on Tuesday so hopefully some real stuff to look then

The 'firefighters' nearly had flames to put out all over the Male population of the ground

tie nurse and police both at top

It's certainly noticeable how the reigns have been pulled in isn't it regarding the Harlem Globe Trotters approach

There's definitely more emphasis put on gaining field position followed by a better kick chase, our defensive structure looks much better, especially in our own 10 meters, although Weller did look out of sorts in the D whilst he was on, although I'm not writing him off yet !
I thought JP's workload was fantastic whilst he was on the field, Sinny was absolutely brilliant, he came up with numerous plays of the highest order and spotted options that only special players can

IMO Buderus was class whilst on the field, although he was spelled you could certainly see a change of tempo/direction whilst he was on the field.He's as hard as nails in defense and i hope we can keep him for one more season

Couldn't agree more G1

Although we didn't put as many points on board as we would have liked in the 1st half, the damage was certainly done in those relentless defensive sets that the Dragons had to endure

I hope we can produce more of our first half performance this season, if we do then we wont be far off running the big boys close or actually beating them in the games that matter at the business end

Still not sure on huraki on his defence.

The try from dummy half was sloppy defence from
him and should have done better. But in general much better and agree we do seem
to have gone away from hot potato rugby constantly and concentrated
more on posession and being patient.

Peacock is emmense and you don't realise how much work he gets through until you are without him for a bit. Good go forward good defence does long spells and has a offload game. Also seems to have a lifting effect on players around him

JP is a winner he was with bradford and has been with us, it's all he knows but he sustains that hunger and will to win like no other player

When he pressured Tomkins into the mistake last season which gave us the field position to win the game in the CC quarter final sticks out in my mind, also the way he reacted to the catalans try he was fecked right off that we'd let them in. Thats good to see though, he knows a good d is as important as a good attack