Well 40% is an optimistic estimate, it's probably more like 25-35%. Granted there are two trophies to play for but, in either the Challenge Cup or the later rounds of the playoffs its one slip and you're out so you have to factor in a risk factor for having 'a bad day' or maybe having a run of injuries at the wrong time. Look at say Bradford in 2000 and Leeds in 2005 early season you'd have thought they'd steamroller it but by the end of the year they were not the same team, hit by injuries and so on. But still 25-35% chance of winning a trophy is good enough for me.

I'd be happy if we averaged 2-3 trophies every ten years, taking into account good times and bad times.

yea... fair point... you're always one defeat away from winning nothing....

makes you appreciative of back to back challenge cup wins really.

To win 3 would be one hell of an achievement.

Firstly, I knew things were bad when 15 mins in the bloke behind me had "seen 'em out in Stockton Heath, 'ont lash." so, welcome to 2005.

Anyhow, I know we're a bit up & down on here, I know I am. I thought we were unbeatable when I woke up, now - they'll be lucky to make the eight. I guess that's called setting yourself up for a fall, but hey ho.

I did find it disappointing today to be honest, I thought too many people didn't compose themselves at key times and at the same time, I thought a few people when push came to shove went back to the old versions of themselves instead of the calmer, almost more structured versions that has brough success. Silly things like Solomona not getting up & playing the ball properly 5m out when he'd won the floor, Briers just launching a kick in the air, Myler just not doing enough, Blythe not running with venom like he has done, Paul Wood not securing the ball in collision, just daft things - I think we just found a day when perhaps 7/8 players underperformed, 5/6 and we'd have got away with it, or if Monas has played the 80 it could have been 9/10 having a mere and he'd have Jean-Phillipe Baile'd us out.

Anyhow, lick our wounds - hope today hasn't come at too much of a cost. Carvell will have an anxious wait, Monas, Bridge & Briers all must have have knocks of sorts, but we'll move on.

It's probably just given Smith some food for thought really, if he had a plan of how to get through the season and who he can rest & where, it's probably made him think that one to a degree.

Some of the players were very lacklustre yesterday we deserved nothing and got nothing...
I'll leave it at that i think.

Sorry Chester, you are wrong, the season is over. We were lucky to beat Saints, Leeds and Wigan. The mauling of Harlequins was pure luck. Not a chance we will make the play-offs, our season will be truly over when Keighley turn up.

Not seen anybody say Briers was cack.

I did, I probably didn't take the time to articulate it well enough, I was referring to his decision to punt the ball when we lad with 8 mins left, I'll stand by that - it was cack.

His overall performance, just below par - like most others.

Don't think any of our fans on here have gone OTT.

Same can't be said for the giddy pie trolls though.

We played poor and dumb rugby yesterday and we paid the price simple.

We were fine when we last lost to Catalan and will be okay this time, 8 games gone we sit top of the league with class players to come back and having beaten Saints away for the first time in donkeys years plus beaten Wigan away again.

Think we didn't respect Catalans enough yesterday and boy did they show up! So credit where it's due.

The result is done with now and we will move on. Wigan lost to Quins at home completely unexpectedly at around this time last year if I remember and it did them the world of good. Perhaps all the hype surrounding us got into the team's head a little?

My only mini gripe with yesterday was the resting and rotating of the squad. We'd had a nine day turn around and I honestly don't think it was necessary. I'd have been looking at the Crusaders game to potentially give a few players a break going into the Easter weekend.

But onwards and upwards, unlike the Cullen days, I have complete faith that this was just a blip, and well done to Catalans for getting the job done.....

I think he was right to rest Harrison because he has been carring knocks in the last few games, Westwood has been running his blood to water for this team game after game he deserved a rest no point burning one of our best players out in April.

Smith put out a team that was good enough to beat them if the players turned up.

They didn't

Oh they didn't turn up I know. And yes, they may have been carrying knocks, I wouldn't know whether that was the case or not. But I do think it bit us on the backside a little yesterday.

Catalans' are reknowned for their forward fire power and size, yet two of our biggest enforcers were sat in the stand.

Therefore I do think, knocks and injuries aside, that TS got it wrong this time.

Wigan away last week, Huddersfield away next. No team can be expected to 'peak' every week. As a result, even the best have off days and come up with a surprise defeat to a supposedly 'lesser' team.

2010
Round 5, Bradford (finished 10th) 22 Wigan 20
Round 12, Wigan 26 Harlequins (finished 13th) 38

2009
Round 8, Bradford (finished 9th) 10 Leeds 6
Round 9, Leeds 20 Salford (finished 13th) 30
Round 11, Leeds 4 Harlequins (finished 11th) 21
Round 15, Catalan (finished 8th) 32 Leeds 20

2008
Round 5, Castleford (finished 12th) 38 Leeds 20
Round 17, Harlequins (finished 9th) 28 Leeds 24
Round 23, Warrington (finished 6th) 22 Leeds 12

It is very hard to keep the same level of intensity week in, week out. However, when we rest a player who has been the very heart of the team this season I wonder what message that sends out to the rest of the team, subtle or not. It only takes a small lack of focus to lose a game.

We have a long season. Given our better recent 'form', I think it's fair to say we can view the Catalans result as a bit of a 'blip'. No side can perform at such levels for every game, we will have down days, but these results won't be consistent and, hopefully by resting players now, we'll feel the benefit in the long term when we're hopefully competing for all of the trophies available.

We can complain, we can identify weaknesses and criticize whoever (constructively/fairly), but, at the same time, we should try and look at the bigger picture, and the bigger picture tells me we shouldn't lose the momentum we've built so far, put this aside as a blip and get rolling again.

Funnily enough I thought our blip would be next week. After losing yesterday I now expect a win on Friday.

However, I also thought we were now not the type of team to drop points in such a manner. Some habits are hard to break.

Catalan totally dominated our forward pack and deserved the win. Briers trying to play off the back of a beaten pack on one leg can't be blamed for much of it. We were poor from 1-17 and every side will have a day or days like that this season.

I don't think they did. I thought our pack went okay, Morley & Carvell were very good, Solomona made a fair few yards too.

Problem came with ball retention, too many times when we were on the front foot we came up with loose carries, poor play options early in the tackle count etc. We had a fair bit of field poisiton.

Coaches sometimes say we played dumb, I think we did yesterday - which played into their hands.

Fully agree. It seemed that on each play we wanted to score on the first tackle.

Woody's knock on at the first tackle near the end just summed the game up for me. We hunt the mistake, force it, then we knock on first tackle and all the hard work has gone. Seems to happen a lot over the course of the season, but yesterday we were just awful for it.

No composure.

It's something that typified Culls reign, and for me something Smith has worked on and maybe it shows just how much Monas has do with it.

Yesterday, we played with the ball like you had sat on the remote and you were watching the game in x6 on your SKY+ remote.

You sound like a very loyal supporter! So after your team have played so well so far this season so far they have 1 off day and you don't clap them off because you think they don't deserve it? Its obvious you're a glory supporte because real ones are proud of their team when they have an off day where things haven't quite gone to plan.

Im glad someone else see's my point off view i stayed and clapped they have played very well this season upto now and i expect we will have more games like the previous games, so i intend to carry on showing my support even at an off game im sure the team will learn from there mistakes yday and build on them.

I have supported Wire for 15 years, i will clap the team off if they have played well and deserve it, they didn't there was no effort at all shown against Catalan, i don't mind losing but when you lose and show hardly any effort then i will not clap, i show my support by turning up too every game they play.

So it's not obvious that I'm a glory supporter

Your wrong and as much as I dont rate clarke I'll defend him on this one. Clarke was the only one who bothered to chase Brough and when Brough stepped him NO ONE had bothered to push up with the same effort.

So as much as Clarke was at fault for chasing Brough down, everyone else was at fault for not making the same effort or at least filling the gap.

Do we think Clarke is going to get his contract extension? Smith is certainly making him work for it (unless I have missed something).

I don't think we were beaten in the forwards. That is an easy thing to say because of the forwards we had sat in the stand and the stereotypical idea that the dragons have a big, tough pack. The dragons defended very well out wide. They had number sliding across who made the right decisions. That combined with some passes that were off the Mark ( Hodgson catching the ball on his toes and myler catching passes that were going behind his shoulder) were the reason we were not as potent as we have been. We came across a team that had a plan of how to attempt to defend against us and we struggled with plan B. Our right edge became blunt with Bridge going off and in the second half we were going more to riley's wing but by the time the ball got there the defence had had enough time to have a quick Camembert sarnie. We did try the short ball from Carvell to myler down the middle but even that failed to come off. The wrapped up Solo in the main and I think they deserved a lot of credit.
It does concern me that a few weapons remain in the locker. Remember the kicks from Briers to the sticks for Myler to chase ( a la Wigan away last year) where have they gone. We must have scored 90% of our tries within 10m of the touchline this season so it does not take a miracle worker to work out what we are going to do.