Shaun McRae`s Spporting Life quotes after Castleford game


`Salford coach Shaun McRae said: "I think we are struggling to come to grips with the pace of Super League.

"We didn't have any ball and for the first 10 or 15 minutes we are finding ourselves defending all the time. Some of that is our fault and some of it is good play by the other team.

"We have just got to come to terms with the speed and intensity at this level and when we do we will be okay.

"With the football we did not look too bad - we just didn't have enough of it.

"Defensively we have some issues and problems. I think that is an understatement when you concede 52 points."`

OK as far as it goes for me but :-

Fitzpatrick - SL experience & Irish International
Wilshere - SL experience & Papua Int
Littler - SL experience & ex Irish Captain
Talau - SL experience & Samoa Int
Henry - NRL 1st Grade experience
Smith - NRL 1st Grade experience & Kiwi Int
Myler - No SL experience but England Int
Cashmere - NRL 1st Grade experience
Alker - SL experience & England Int
Stapleton - SL experience & NRL 1st Grade experience
Adamson - SL experience
Parker - SL experience
Swain - NRL 1st Grade experience
Paul - SL experience & Kiwi Int
Nash - SL experience
Sibbitt - SL experience
Leului - SL experience & Samoa Int

Now - if we had been talking about

Ratchford, Turner, Jewitt, Sidlow, Walton, Marlon Alker etc etc then I would have wholeheartedly agreed with Shaun. Personally I just feel he is wrapping the `stars` in cotton wool and in my humble opinion needs to make cartloads of changes now and bring the kids in to LEARN - we have 3 years to do it - and fans could forgive displays like that at Castleford with a younger set up under the coaching skills of Shaun, Allan & Scott. Remember the 3 year Franchise was designed to let clubs like ours blood English youth - not increase the pensions for Antipodean players.

If he can't keep the pace then he is competent enough for the job. Simple.

Sorry for me i find him just like paul cullen can talk a very good game when he was winning things over here did he not take over as coach of some very succesful teams

Since mcrae got the job i think we have gone backwards as a club we certainly aint fit and where is the increase of support that is part of super league franchise because no one is going to pay through the turnstiles to watch that. No effert there not as fit they cant tackle and players dont look to have a clue in creating anything. At least karl harrison had us fit and playing for 80 mins never wanted mcrae as coach he only won the league with saints and he had good players.

We my be going a bit overboard with all this talk of McRae not up 4 it only 3 rounds in. However, it seems to me he is unable to motivate the players, we are sadly lacking an attacking and defedning coach for that matter. Even when we get the ball down their end we dont know what to do, it seems to me that the coach has a mentality of do as I say dont dare stray from it. Must be the only reason as to why everyone in the ground could predict where wilsheres restarts where going.
Perhaps this is why Ratchford isnt getting a game, thoroughly deserves a chance smith has been e since celtic i know he wasnt right in walkabout wink wink , imo my need an off the cuff player tto do something different, lok at the way myler has changed the coach should let him have his head and pay how it comes natural to him, he is spoilinng myler sorry if this is a bit garbled just disgruntled

i think the performance was amateurish last night and i feel thats the way the club is run,i feel for john wilky,seems anice bloke but he sure is having the wool pulled over his eyes at the mo!

I agree, he talks a great game on sky sports. Time for him to start producing.

His comment about struggling to come to grips with the pace of Super League doesnt stick with me. I accept that perhaps we are not going to see the best of our NRL signings for a few months and we had six new players in our seventeen so we wont gel over night.

My issue is shipping in over 50 points. The team should be able to tackle and compete for 80 minutes. Castleford also made new signings and had new recruits from the NRL. Okay we are a promoted team, but McRae has had a full time squad for 18 months. Can we honestly say we have progressed? Under Karl Harrison he unfortunately had a poor last season but before that we had continous improvement.

We have only played 3 games BUT shipping in 50 points at Cas is a cause for concern and puts pressure on McRae to start producing far better performances.

Well you should. McRae won silverware with us. He knows what he is talking about. He's been here before and produced the goods. Your guys need time. No doubt your team will need tweeking. You're going to get tonked but hell, you aren't the only ones to get tonked already this season. You could be a Wire fan!

Cas was regularly tonked last season. It's part of getting back (in your case) up to speed all round with superleague which is a big jump up from Championship. There will be more tonkings, there will be some close losses and there will be some wins - but the wins are more likely to come next year when you've found your feet.

you talk of no respect for the coach?What has this bunch of players won apart form national league trophies?

NOWT ............so they must be deluded if they maybe think they can learn nothing from himl. ets face it ,we all have to work with people we may not particularly like but it dosent stop people from doing a good job.

As for the idiots at the game ,we need to realise that actions like this really do not help our club,some tolerate too much from these "fans" time to weed them out before .someone is injured and we end up thrown out,dont say it wont happen,it will

As this is a fans forum, all fans of course have the right to post their views.

My view is that all the people who have posted under this thread are in a world of their own!

It is a marathon not a sprint. This is a three year franchise. It may take us 1 year to find our feet - but so what?! We need to grow as a Superleague team in that time. Learn to play against these teams and learn from our mistakes. We'll blood the youngsters when we have more confidence in the side, not when we have very little. It could blow up in our faces.

What the hell is the point, 3 games in, questioning the coach's ability? Where does it get us? You're not on the planet if you think that he's going to be sacked in the first 3 games.

So what if the players heckled him at the players evening after a few beers? Maybe it's because they actually all respect him, but get on with him well as a coach that they can do that.

FFS say something constructive. You're starting to sound like statler and waldorf who stand in the middle of the shed on the half way line, moaning about the players every f*****g minute of every match. You make it painful for everyone else to watch.

Come to the games to try and enjoy it - not to have your daily bitch about the world.

I wasn't going to write a reply on this thread as it wasn't worth a reply.

Maybe I really shouldn't have. But you lot need a f*****g wake up call.

Rant over

Well said

As a team we need to be able to play for the full eighty minutes. As full time professionals who are fit despite what some people suggest we should be able to manage that. I know that tiredness sets in and people will make mistakes but the team's overall intensity must be improved.

I think this has been a major problem for us over the last few seasons. We got away with it more often than not in National League 1 (Batley away springs readily to mind) but sometimes we didn't (Sheffield in the League and Oldham in the Northern Rail Cup are examples of that.) We won't get away with it in Super League. The last two matches are proof of that.

In National League matches the tactics seemed to be to overpower or 'bully' the oppsition in the first half and then play a slightly more expansive game in the second half. Perhaps we brought in big forwards in an attempt to use the same tactics in Super League - but it isn't going to work. I hope that we've got a Plan B.

Shaun Macrae talks about the speed and intensity of Super League and the fact that we are off the pace and nobody can disagree with that. Starting on Friday we've got to increase the defensive intensity. We've got to make sure tackles are made and that we kill the ball. I'd love to see our defensive line moving up quickly after the ball has been played - but I've wanted to see that for years and still think that we are the only team that gives the opposition ten metres in which to play football. We have to be up and in the opposition's faces more quickly. We gave Castleford time to move the ball wide and they destroyed us.

On attack we have to show more variety too. Castleford played well and had dummy runners and various options every time they had the ball. Our safety-first approach didn't help much though we did look better (relatively speaking!) when we moved the ball wider. We all need to run on to the ball at pace as Phil Leuluai did and try not to have a play the ball followed by a flat pass and a drive into the nearest opposition player.

I also think we need to make some changes. I'd like to see Sidlow and Jewitt in the seventeen and perhaps we need to think about bringing Paul White back and moving Henry to full back. I think that Jordan Turner is worth a place ahead of Stuart Littler after Saturday as well. Young Ratchford must come into the reckoning too as I thought that Jeremy Smith was off the pace of the game.

Friday's match now becomes a very big game for this season. A win would be very nice as we try to establish 'Fortress Willows' - but the quality of the performance is of major importance too.

Think Paul White is still injured.If you'd seen the reserves at Cas on Saturday I don't think you'd be pushing the case for Jewitt and Turner.Jewitt played his usual game,bags of enthusiasm,but then got sin-binned for back-chat.That's the last thing we need at the moment.I was a big fan of Turner last season But on his performance on Saturday he should not be in the 1st team,his tackling really needs to improve.Shame because I think he has bags of potential.
I agree about the intensity of the tackling,but on the few occasions we did move up,we got pulled for offside.It really is a fine line and something to be worked on in training

Wasn't there Saturday, but if it was anything like Wakefield then it can't have been good. Have to say I agree with a lot of your comments though. We need to get some genuine pace on the wings, but if Wilshire played as badly as he did at Wakefield then I'd be questioning his place before Henry's, as he looked good against Celtic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can't fault Stuart Littler for effort and commitment, but he's just never been good enough and the club need to find someone who can take his place. If we are going to progress then Turner needs to be in the team. I'm not saying he was amzing in every game last year but there were signs of sheer class out of him last year.

The lack of pushing up by the defensive line needs addressing quickly. It has been the same for too long now and it can't be the fault of two good coaches. I hate to ask the question, mainly because I think that I know the answer, but who is the leading the line????????????? A possibly a more common factor!!!!!

As for the Nash issue, never been impressed by him but if the coaches think he has the ability then he needs game time. Personally I think Jewitt and Sidlow deserve a place ahead of him.

To wrap it up I remember back to 2004 when we got humped by Hull FC. Karl Harrison didn't make excuses he just told them to buck their ideas.

Take your rose tinted fooking specs off, if people want to moan they pay there money so why shouldn't they?????? Why should we accept it when we travel to west Yorkshire just to be humiliated like a bunch of fools? If we concede 50+ against cas ( no disrespect) what will it be at saints in two weeks?? If the players don't perform why should we stick up & make excuses for them?? we have done that for too many years now and i for one want to see a bit of pride & passion back in the jersey.

I for one dint expect a win on Saturday but its the manor in which we lost im annoyed about.

Its not us that need the wake up call mate its they players

Its not just 3 games though is it?? Yeah maybe 3 this season, but what about last year?? 4 away wins in the National leagues is just unaccatable. I'm sorry, but the style of rugby we play is boring and predictable, I know because I go and watch it every fookin week!!!

Fair comments ...but let's be a little analytical:
Wakefield - we were still on the coach for 20 minutes. Once we woke up, it wasn't too bad ... not good but better than Warri could find.

Cas really impressed me - tey're stepping back to set up plays that constantly pulled defensive positions out of place and then quck passing to utilise the gaps reminded me of the classy Cas of the late 60's - and 70's.

They played differently to a lot of teams - most (in both SL and NL) still drive up two/three times close to the play-the-ball before any passing moves are put in. Our defense were in place for this but not for what happened. The attacks came 30/40 metres apart tagettting different players and slanting in to cause overlaps.. Moving Alker to second row seemed to compensate but we were well behind by then. Fitz constantly has 2/3 players to tackle.

There have been comments about the experience in our team. Like it or not NRL is different from SL - SL expects quicker off-the-mark moves and more passing.


Cas impressed. We need to be patient.

so the attidude seems to be ,Well we`ve got 3 years to get things right...........ok so what would happen if us fans didnt buy a season ticket until the third year then ?

Then there'd be f*ck all money coming into the club and there'd be no chance at all of us improving over the next three years.

Simply not good enough. As for this three years nonsense- then why not play the youngsters rather than the tried and trusted flops.

I hate to say it but McRae has not and is not doing a good job.

Something needs to change fast.

At a guess, because a team full of youngsters would be battered even more comprehensively.

After a few months of being battered repeatedly these youngsters would then start looking elsewhere, for a team with better chances of winning some games.

Did anyone ever think tat perhaps the reason we've managed to keep hold of promising youngsters is that they want to rub shoulders, and compete for places, against experienced SL players (eg. Paul, Talau) and ex-NRL players (eg. Cashmere, Smith, Swain).

Why would Myler, Turner, Ratchford et al want to stay at a club where they're the best players??

Thats not necessarily true. Cas have fielded a lot youngsters over the past 3 years, we've been battered repeatedly and we've still got all of them at the club. If they want to play and they're from the area they won't want to jump ship. And besides, they've got a better chance of getting a game because of situations like this one.

It is not simply a case of just youngsters but a spine supported by dedicated professionals. Not a selection of jaded, battered never beens who would sooner p!ss away what remains of their careers.

It is inexcusable not to play Turner, Sidlow, and Ratchford.

I really enjoyed last night, as did the other 3300 I am sure.

Who cares that we were rubbish. As you say, he needs time to develop a team. Twenty two months and counting...........................