The best game I've seen at Wembley in years....just that we lost.

Good post Saddo.
I think the "shoot from the hip" to some degree is what we need. We are still a bit pedestrian in attack invariably ending a set with a kick and hope. Hopefully Austin will add a bit of "surprise and danger" to our attacking play.

Let down by key players yesterday.
Ratchford, Brown and Roberts all taking the wrong options when in good positions........ these are experienced players who we rely on.

Also looked as though Clarke had an injury.

Another concern is our centres. We have 2 really good wingers who could score tries for fun but we don't have the centres that do them justice. Atkins, King and Goodwin just don't look like putting a decent pass in between them.

I think we have got to give catalans credit for most of our players being quiet. They made it very, hard for us. Their pack beat our pack, although our pack went OK, our halves really didn't control field position at all.

Watched this on TV this morning and actually it came across that we played better than I saw live.

Well done Cats. You deserved to win.

We had more than enough chances to win but simply didn't deserve to.

We made far too many basic errors.
Halves both had poor games.
Patton not finding touch.
Goodwin tackling the jumper mid air.
Ratch throwing a miss out pass to Lineham when Livett was the right option. (I dont fully blamehim for not taking the first bomb - he had no support around him and 3 Cats players).
Lineham positioning for the 1st try and going out on tackle one.
Roberts clean break and then panicking with a stupid pass.
BMM stupid offload.
3 good kicks all game.
Panic footy all match.
Not taking our chances.
Even with this lot it was still far better than watching live.

Well done Toby / George King and - apart from the obstruction - Joe Philbin.

My brother said after the game "We should have won but didn't deserve to". We all were like 'er that doesn't make any sense', but on reflection, I see what he meant, and your post reinforces this.

I think Goodwin is a bit of class. He can pass OK but any centre would have found it hard yesterday.

Lack of quality at fullback and in the halves cost us, coupled with lack of composure at times.

Ratchford in the first half drops a mediocre kick, this leads to a try. He then makes a pathetic attempt at a tackle for their scoot from dummy half, another try. Chooses the wrong option in attack costing us potentially another try. And the only reason people are calling BMM a bad offload is because Ratchford wasn't alert to it whatsoever, should be taking that pass every day of the week.

All these mistakes set the trend for the game. Roberts lacks the class needed in the final third for the wage he will be recieving, I think Austin will be a big improvement next year.

I actually though our forwards did ok against a decent and motivated catalans pack, we were certainly in positions to score tries, just stupid mistakes e.g Lineham going into touch, drop balls and wrong options near there line is what cost us.

The players let's themselves down to a degree. They know it, and I think so much that it just has won us the GF.

Livett has a particularily poor game. Hand responsibility in two of their tries. Then again all were below par.

Well from my point of view it was first of all a very exciting game. Did the better team win? It is a close call ,but our first half of 19 consecutive sets of six and our total determination to keep you out at the end when frankly you should have scored makes me think we deserved it-but only just

The best team won, no arguments there. We were not cheated by the ref, hampered by injury, or unlucky.

We are a team that just cannot break down a defence without kicking. Nullify that and we have nothing.

2 debatable forward pass decisions could have led to at least i try for us if not 2. I have seen Hicks disregard blatantly forward passes & our 2 looked anything but forward to me. Add to this not penalising players for moving off the mark ,& the game could have been very different
As fez said we looked so much better on tv after the event & things will only get better. Our lighter forwards were fighting a losing battle all the way against their massive & mobile pack but did a great job . Sort the half backs out & we should see a different team.

Goodwin has quite a few caps for NZ and is still class act. Atkins has had a good season to date, King I believe is on his way to becoming a top centre.

For next season we need a half back who reads the game and doesn’t panic. I think the signing of Austin was a sign that K Brown was likely to leave, Saturday underlines that.
There was a Wigan fan next to me who kept saying we were going to win even up to 5 minutes to go. I felt it was going to be “one of those games”. Certainly destroyed my theory about scoring too early!
Well done Catalans!

Yes you're right. no player starts a game without the desire to win, nobody wants to lose. But desire means more than just having that mindset, it also needs to be translated into their actions on the pitch. Putting their bodies on the line, challenging for all 50-50 balls, bending their backs to knock their opponents down, driving the ball in and making the hard yards, getting into the opponents faces and disrupting their game. These actions were largely missing on Saturday with many players simply going through the motions, hence my comment that they lacked desire. But what do I know, I only played and coached the game for over 40 years.

Atkins has been a good player for us in all fairness....... but a decent winger outside him is a waste...... we really miss Ben Currie playing on that side.

Don't really see much in Toby King. Wouldn't surprise me to see him at a Leigh or Widnes within 2-3 years.

Goodwin looks dangerous but just doesn't seem to beat his opposite number too often....... would be curious to see his scoring and assist stats over the last few years.

From the reactions of here you could be forgiven for thinking Wire lost by 30. If Ben Westwood had taken that pass you’re level and Catalans may have cracked. It was a very evenly matched final. In my opinion you lost it in the first 10mins of each half when you didn’t match the Cats intensity, that and the lack of composure at times leading to errors and forcing it in attack.

Unfortunately, the story of several seasons ,Bullseye.

Getting a decent halfback, Currie back from injury and maybe a couple of forwards and I think you're as good as anyone.

Hang in there. It's not that bad. You could be in League 1 and about to completely bottle it at the crucial part of the season

I don't think we should be pinning hopes on Currie. When he returned he was only a shadow of his former self.

Even duckie supports a second referendum on TS now.

I give credit where due and no one is free from the ducky quack when I think they have blame.

I lay the blame off our GF losses with TS, unwise bench selection...dropping Hodgson and stuff. However he could motivate the team right.

What i see as our biggest undoing in many games is being slow starters ,whether first or second half. The try in the second minute was ,i believe ,our biggest undoing at Wembley , just as we took our eye off the ball against Saints at the start of the 2nd half a few weeks ago. That was our downfall in a game that we should have won. Many times, just after half time, our heads look anywhere but on the pitch in a game of rugby. 80 minute rugby would help our results no end ,just like the top teams do.
And we still had this problem when TS was in charge.

I said the day or two before our game....in more than 70% of the time, the team that scores first wins.