I've not really been bothered about it for a while now because for all the talk about raising the profile of the game over here, its own fans would then make excuses for the NRL team when a SL team won and do their best to downplay the win.

With the SC getting wider and wider between the 2 competitions it's become less and less relevant to play this game.

We have no chance to pull out of league games, we had a choice not to do this game.

The league is our bread and butter. If we end up outside the top 4 I wonder how many of the same posters who were pro-WCC will be pointing the finger at the squad saying players X, Y and Z need to be let go.

And it is largely the timing that I really disliked. You can say it's a chance to test themselves, but flying over to Aus the day after a league game and landing less than a week before the game, only taking 19 players, then letting the Aussies take the mick with the late ref change. That's not a proper test that's just dumb. I'm not really fussed about it but if you want to go over there for games do it right. I'd also argue the usual line "they'll have learnt loads".....I don't think you do in one single game and whatever they do learn will be offset by not playing that level of opposition again for a quite a long time.

So you want to grow the relevance/profile of SL but are happy if the top teams throw several games.

No Hall and Briscoe now

Golding
Newman
Watkins
Keinhorst
Handley
Sutcliffe
Myler
JJB
Parcell
Singleton
Walters
Delaney
Ormondroyd

Dwyer
Oledzki
Garbutt
Smith

Would love to get a win today.

I think their team selection suggested they very much did care for the concept - they fielded virtually their strongset side including the best player in world.

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Short term losses for long term gains. The strength of the teams playing our competition certainly arent going to improve by not taking these opportunities.

Any evidence that they'll be long term gain or is that just a buzz phrase people use to defend this game?

How long have we been playing WCC's now and we've increased it to more games/teams in the last few years but is the standard of SL improved from 10/15 years ago? No because the issues with SL aren't and won't be fixed by one game against an NRL team.

I'd love to win the EuroMillions, unlikely to happen though.

No they wont, but then i didnt claim that to be the case. Keeping these games on the calendar (for me) are part of where the game should be heading.

Of course they were going to play their strongest team, if they had played the virtual reserves when playing at home and Leeds had gone to so much trouble to travel during our season it would have been the complete death knell to the WCC.

JJB early in his career missed a lot of games through injury , but he's making up for it now bless his heart. Would love a win today , but its not just today its going to be awhile before we are near full strength

It's trying to run before you can walk. If you can't sort out your week in week out competition then 1 game a year vs the NRL is pointless.

It was always going to be tough today, hopefully we get some back for next week and move on

Our annual loss to Widnes away. Does the owner have some dodgy pictures of Gary or summit.

You guys looked goosed. Good luck for the rest of the season tho!

Positives - Thought there was plenty of effort, just not much class. Golding, Garbutt, Singleton and Ormanroyd (going forward only) were decent - And for all the stick he gets, I thought Walters really put himself about.

Negatives - Zero creativity (We had enough good ball in the first half to put them to bed). The halves were very poor, and we looked like a team who'd not played together before - We certainly looked like a team who'd missed some field work in training this week. Poor/no line running, poor options taken, awful kicking game and just general poor handling. Also thought Parcell had a rare poor game - stifled the attack and got caught with the ball in their 20 numerous times. And we made Inu look like a superstar.

Not the reason we lost, but Hicks appears to have a problem with our wrestle (and no problem with Widnes), pinged us plenty of times when I thought it'd actually been a quick PTB.

A game to write off and start a fresh again this week, hopefully with some troops back.

Exactly my thoughts too Charlie after all It was always going to be a damage limitation exercise today especially after our jaunt to OZ

We've lost there with far better sides than we fielded today so IMO we move on to next week and hope we get some bodies back

Was there last try definately a knock on? The highlights on the club website look inconclusive. Certainly looked it from behind the sticks.

I actually like the sound of what BM is saying this year - I thought he was right after the WCC, and it was good to hear him disappointed even with a weakened team.

Non-use of a sub although not material in that game is still poor. If you can't trust any player in your 17 to do a few minutes then you should get rid of them from your squad altogether.

Actually the debate comes up a lot about his use of subs, and sometimes, sometimes, although it might not seem right to us, his reasoning works.

This time however, his use of subs had a big reasoning on the defeat. There were certain players out there playing far too many minutes, and those very same players were missing tackles left right and centre when the game opened. Those missed tackles, were the experienced ones, but like I said they were completely shot.

For me Dwyer didn’t’t get enough minutes, Oledski didn’t get enough minutes, and not playing your final sub in this game, was crazy.

Sutcliffe again highlighted that he is farther away from been a good enough stand off, than I am to been a top international model.

The effort all round though, despite the missed tackles, was exactly what you want to see from your team. Without the errors, this was there for the taking, and on that basis it is wrong to just accept it as a write off, especially when not taking into account the poor standard of the opposition.

If the coach had no intention of playing Smith he should have named Hall on the bench and given him a pack of strepsils (other throat lozenges are available) and a warm blanket.
No worse than the visit to Widnes last year or the year before....
Think we have mind issues about the quality of their "turf".
Catalans will be hungry for a win (some will say desperate) so will be looking to kill off the weakened rhino.
Tough game ahead.

Spot on. Dwyer looked like our best attacking threat, but wasn't on anywhere near enough.

Delaney and JJB got caught out being too slow on the inside numerous times - maybe with longer rests on the bench they'd have got there on some of those occasions.

Oledski was responsible for the most frustrating play of the game - their 5th tackle, 30 meters out from our line and does the most blatant strip right in front of the ref. Dumb dumb dumb....

I was sat on the front row behind the sticks just to the left of the posts, and it looked clear as day to me, he lost it forward trying to squeeze a pass out. As for the “drop goal”, that never went between the sticks. That was a defining moment, putting them 2 scores in front late in the game. Hicks obviously doubted it had gone through, and his subsequent delay in awarding it confirmed that. He either guessed, or awarded it just to appease the home fans and team, but either way it was the wrong call and weak refereeing. All 5 officials were poor, and that certainly did help us.

Listening to the game on the radio there was also a doubt about Garbutt playing at the ball when it was kicked through giving Widnes head and feed which then resulted in a try.
All in all we appeared to have stuck to the task for the most part of the game.
Shame Delaney and JJB were not given a break that might have helped us even more.
From what has been said it is hoped Sutcliffe stays at centre for the Cats game and we bring Lilley in to partner Myler.
Also pleased to hear on radio that Golding made 2 or 3 try saving tackles to keep Widnes out.
If he continues playing well will Walker come straight back in to the team or will Golding retain his place?