Quite! Doing the simple things right win games. Looking at the Wakefield reports, that is far from a easy game for us. They "sound" a pretty tidy setup. Should be a good game. Shame works getting in the way. Inconvenient or what or maybe

All in all, and taking the average of everyone's comments on board, it seems it is fair to say that Carvell cost us that game. If we had had one more top prop to compete with the Cas pack, punch some holes and take out some steam, it might have been enough. Carvell sing off a week before the first game was therefore probably the key. I don't think Sammut's absence was key, as once your pack is beaten and you are overtired from defending then what could he have added?

Agree with Gale's balls-up on the last, which indeed I mentioned in my original post. I am worried about him. I have always supported Gale as he clearly had something, he can control a game, his positional kicking can be very good, etc. But I'd hoped he would come out this season having worked all off season on his playmaking and getting used to last tackle decisions and plays. Yet now I fear that whereas everyone we played last year seemed to be able to put us under decent pressure with most of their last plays, we are again looking deficient in that respect. Is it just that he can't consistently do it?

And yes I know we scored from one of his crossfield kicks (Purtell) but I can't overlook his shiite punt into touch when we had an overlap on the right - if you choose to do the flash punt to the winger that's fine by me as long as you nail it. And also that ridiculous pen he gave away (they somehow missed the kick) was not what I'm looking for in him in pressure situations.

We were home to Cas. Did Gale force a single dropout? Maybe he did, but I can't remember one.

I don't think Cas are that big but Addy, O'Brien & Donaldson must be 3 of the smallest pack men in the league.

It does not sound great for you guys. Interested to hear how our old boys of Foster and Gaskell went for you, but it's a pretty depressive time for a fan when relegation looks so certain.

In 2013 it would have taken 20 points to stay up.
2012 14 points
2011 13 points

And that's the lowest it has ever been.

It's going to take a normal team 7 wins to stay up. If you get a points deduction that's more like 9 wins.

[code
Club M C TK OF AT DG TB MT CB FT E MI P DR
Bulls 1076 169 328 8 9 0 16 53 3 0 13 38 8 31
Tigers 1489 211 237 7 15 0 38 48 10 0 9 16 7 23[/code

To me those stats show we are missing match sharpness not fitness. As sharpness increases the squad numbers drop due to niggles etc. We need numbers to counter this, but due to our lack of numbers on the bank balance (assuming that incoming transfer money has gone towards our future) thats a pipe dream. I'm just hoping that the more games we play the more likely we are to score points, hopefully enough to suprise enough teams!

To me those stats show we missed just over 10% of our tackle attempts.

Nowt changes.

Oh, and Danny Addy is already joint 2nd in Super League for missed tackles with 7! (or 15% of his attempted tackles)

Donna and O'brien are fine. Great tacklers

Olbisons on the other hand is pointless. Sorry but he doesn't bust tackles, I've never seen him do an offload ever, and he misses tackles! I know we're skint but surely we can find a back rower in the championship who can do one of the above!

I'm dreading Thursday as I can see Kirkmond and lauatiti (spelling) running throug Olbison and Addy on Thursday.

Metres, Missed tackles and clean breaks tell the tale there...

400 more metres, 10 clean breaks... but 38 missed tackles!? good grief

Absolutely spot on assessment of yesterdays game

I got the feeling sometimes it was the first time they had played with each other, Nas trying to offload to Kearney was comical and resulted directly in their try also goes for the knock on which resulted in another try, if you didn't laugh you would cry.

Gaskell was a positive his kicked was much better than Sammut especially for fosters try, gale really needs to stand up he didn't have a terrible game but he is the vice captain and the player FC wants to build a team around he has to show much more for me.

That game was so depressing, looked like half the stadium was collapsing and the amount of crap and rubbish outside the turnstiles and exits was shameful, so goes for the low number of fans, cas where close to outnumbering us at home.

Anyone else slightly worried Cummins doesn't seem to be noticing this constant trend of high missed tackle percentage. Last year I remember us having 3 of the top 5 players in missed tackles. It just doesn't seem to concern him as Addy will play the full 80 the next game while our only decent tackler gets substituted.

Just find it incredibly frustrating seeing Donno tackling everything that moves, getting taken off and see Olbison and Addy making pathetic attempts at tackles for 80 minutes. Addy seems to be another one Cummins seems to like and can see no wrong.

Only just realised why Ferguson wasn't playing, he's still serving his ban from the world cup.

if I remember correctly, he got a 3 game ban, one was counted in a friendly, so he will not be available on Thursday. Shame

He was injured. He received a 2 match ban and missed the Scotland game versus NZ. The other match was taken up using a friendly.

your right, 2 match ban. saw that he was out with all the players today, which is a good sign. I was worried he might have been tempted to do a Carvell.
anyone know how long he's out for?

He has a chance of being fit for Thursday according to FC. Would be a big boost for our pack to have his aggression there. FC also said that he had held positive discussions with new recruits but was unsure if they'd be completed or eligible to play by Thursday. He was unsure of the rules regarding registration.

I was a bit alarmed when they read Addy out in second row and said he was number 12. Thought Ferguson had gone. But it was a mistake.
Is he injured then?

When is Luke George going to get a game? We need his hair. We have gone downhill since losing first Vainikolos hair and then Langleys.

I suspect George will have to wait a little longer for his opportunity. I think he is like Purtell who can play centre but is better out on the wing.

Kear had a good game on Sunday and Foster did pretty well too plus his kicking probably makes him more valuable given it could be a tight match on Thursday.

I think Purtell would serve us better in the 2nd row. He really doesn't have the pace to play out wide but did show some strong defence on Sunday.

I think that'd kill him tbh. He did 8 tackles at the weekend. In a game like that it'd be close to 40 in the second row.

This. If he can defend when he needs to every week, in the centres, like he did then that will be outstanding. For a centre.

Honestly thought there were 2 major turning points in the game. At 6-0 up Purtell made that break and Gale kicked it out on the full. If it had gone down the line through hands we would have scored and probably kicked on from there.

The second major turning point was when Castleford decided to introduce Lynch to the pitch. He made 10 plus metres everytime (as did one or two others) but a fit Lynch showed our tired forwards how it should be done. And his offloads were dangerous.

Other than being annoyed at missed tackles I suppose we all expected something like this given the calibre of players that have left and the week building up to the game.

Generally thought we missed Langley today. And also please tell me why the current set of players insist on tackling Justin Carney high instead of low? He's probably the biggest winger in SL in terms of build :/

If you go low on Carney he palms you off, and if you go high you bounce of him. He's a tank.

Is that the fat one?

Tackle his legs? Or is that too obvious?