it's always funny seeing our fake frenchman shot down in flames.

Widnes/Catalans result is not surprising.

It is a long season. Though crucial Catalans are expected to lose to a sensational St. Helens next weekend, they will surely improve as the season evolves, and especially with the return of Gregory Bird and Louis Anderson from injury.

Pretty much everyone on rlfans wrote Widnes off, but not I. That said, I didn’t think they would make such shirt work of Catalans.

Regards

King James

Catalans collapsed in the second half. It was 12-12 at half time.

Talking to yourself Jean?

4/2......the leeds result was always a 50/50 guess but I didn't expect Catalans to continue where they left off last season.......going to be an interesting Middle 8's this year.......

Three of those 'wins' were gimme's, it's predicting the difficult games that sorts the chaff from the wheat

Well, either the Cats players are not fit, or they just fancied a hot shower in the changing rooms, but they were terrible in the second half, especially the last 15 minutes.

And their discipline needs sorting also....

Looks like they collared Catalans on a bad day and tore them to bits with some off the cuff Rugby League. Amazing what you can achieve when you roll your sleeves up eh?



I'll still stick to my (not overly controversial!) prediction that the bottom 3 will consist of Salford, Hull KR & Widnes. We (Salford) were utter gash against the Pies and any team with pace in their backline will destroy us. Good job Wakey haven't got a left-side threat!

Mcnamara once again showing what a complete inept coach he is, every club he has coaches has gone downhill fast, cannot see any club employing him again unless he majorly improves Catalans, which is not looking good.

some blow out scores in round 1 so early in the season as well. average score in round 1 35-10

We weren't terrible, Wakey were just too good, especially on their left wing. There were a couple of odd decisions, but the sin binning meant it was an uphill battle (during which 3 tries were scored). Can't say wether the sin binning was harsh or not as I was too far away, but either way Marsh should be benched. Our best spell was in the 2nd half and there are things to build on.

I reckon Wakey will do well until someone learns how to shut down their left side attack.

We are going to finish in the bottom four unless we can prove otherwise, but its a long season ahead of us so who knows?

Having watched the incident of the sin binning it is anything but harsh, a player was about to receive a pass that would send him over the try line was tackled without the ball - A very clear professional foul.

People keep saying that but last year we didn't have this left side attack for most of it. It was our right hand with BJB and Lyne that got the bulk of the points (25 tries in BJB's) case.

You shut the left hand side down then inevitably you create space for the right hand side and both BJB and Lyne can go the length of the field.

Just my opinion.

Went along to Widnes v Catalans on Sunday (toss up between that the Leigh v Toronto, from the sound of it I didn't miss much).

Widnes - Houston had the best game I've seen since his Newcastle days, really strong carriage of the ball, particularly coming away from their own line. Mellor and Gilmore are good players and it showed when they punished Catalans defensive errors 2nd half. I think they suffer from receiving a lot of slow ball when they are trying to go wide, happened a lot last year and in the first half here. A year too far for Heremaia, too slow around the ruck and Catalans spotted him heavy in defence and he didn't stand up to it.

Catalans - Rusty more than anything in attack, if Langi, Walsh and Mead can start to click then they're dangerous. Still plenty of firepower in the pack, they will be hoping McIllorum becomes more of an influence on them he was pretty quiet and Albert looked better than him when he came on. Defensively shocking, it's a sign of a poor coach when the team you have had a full pre-season with do not seem to be communicating in defence. Most of them didn't seem to have a clue whether the man next to them was shooting or holding and they were picked off with ease.

Most people said it about our left side attack last year aswell. It's one thing knowing about it, it's another thing stopping it. I don't think ours will be as difficult to stop this year somehow though!

Yea I recon any team hoping to win anything has to have genuine threats on both edges and willing options in the middle. That way you can move about even a strong defence from side to side until gaps appear.

You could argue that last year Cas were too reliant on the left hand side and that is why they struggled to score tries in the big games. Same goes for England's right edge in the WC tbh.

Agreed - was as clear as Grix punching Jewitt twice in the head.

Yep, that was also quite clear as well.

Although if he was to send Grix off he also had to send Jewitt for for a very late shoulder charge, which also led to an elbow in the face of there kicker.

Only going of the highlights, but Chris Dean seemed to have a stormer of a game for Widnes. Did he get MOM? Catalans defense looked to be even more easily exploited than last season which is a big worry for them.

Yes Dean got the Mom.

Yes he doesn't look that big but he's strong in contact. Hard to say whether it was a lack of enthusiasm or a lack of practice from Catalans. Heard a few stories which indicate that the drink culture has remained intact over there.

I was gutted when Saints got rid. But what do I know, I’m not a coach

Regards

King James

I'd have never had guessed