Powell was better than all three.

Dreadful game, but got the win. If it was a pre season friendly, you’d accept it as a decent hit out, so maybe that’s where we are in our readiness.

We need to find some consistency on the right side. Wrench is the only constant, after only 2 games, and he is struggling in defence, both this week and last. Hopefully we can settle with Thewlis and Williams and patch that side up.

The officiating is dreadful though. That’s absolutely not a red card. Genuine question, if he would have accidentally clashed heads with his own man, would he still have been sent off? The facts remain the same, direct and forceful contract to the head. We could be sleepwalking into players seeing reds for friendly fire.

Lots to work on, including turning that cabbage patch back into a pitch for next week!

It was interesting seeing the Gulf in levels of experience between our left edge (Fitzgibbon, Drink water, King and Ashton) compared with our right edge (Holroyd, Hayes, Wrench and Thewlis)
It looked to me like Wrench kept drifting inside to protect Hayes from being trampled all over and then was often leaving his outside exposed leaving Thewlis with a 2 on 1 situation.
Luckily Wrench is rapid so was able to cover but this is all about trust in the fella next to you to make the tackle.
That trust will come and I think last night will be a valuable lesson for all of them and they will all be better for it. It might have been a smart move from Burgess and Co to expose them all together for a bit rather than mixing in experienced players.

On the whole at times it looked like we were playing to a very prescriptive script. We work to position X and do Y and at times it was a bit clunky but I appreciate that we have to work on that in order to control games so that we can open up and play and we sort of saw some evidence of that.

I know Currie takes some stick but I thought he was very good last night and if I am right he started at 13 and moved to second row and played all game apart from his time off the pitch to get a few stitches.

I am not too sure having 2 hookers on the pitch works. Maybe that is just temporary whilst we are without Crowther and Nicholson.
Good to be able to give decent minutes to Wood and Holroyd and Hayes and come up with the 2 points.

Even allowing for the 'red card bingo' and heavy conditions, that was a pretty awful match. I felt I had paid £20 to watch a reserves game at Vicky Park - except I didn't get a seat. Were there any positives ? Well Dudson was rested, and there were no diversions / roadworks on the drive back home. That's about it.

I still can’t see how we got a penalty try. My reading of it was if the tackle was a bit lower it wasn’t a certainty that a try would be scored (I’m fairly sure that’s the test).

Just reading Currie is stunned the lad got a red card, he didn’t even know it was head contact.

Guardian says 11-9 in our favour on penalties, can’t see how that’s right it felt like every set we conceded a penalty.

Especially when Sutcliffe got held up over the line in the first half in a very similar tackle and we didn't even get a penalty. There were some strange decisions all around. Both teams got away with tackles that arguably could have brought about cards, but they chose to make an example of an accidental head clash.

Hard to judge on last night but a few thoughts.

Musgrove could do with not sprinting and then slowing down just before hitting the line.

For all he got wrong, got to thank Powell for james harrison, he's a pearler.

Wrench is gonna need to sort his defence out and quick, he's been pin pointed in all 3 games and you can see why.

Wood looked very solid during his stint.


Holroyd did OK, but got pulled after that knock on, didn't return other than curries hia. EDIT, JUST WATCHING THE GAME BACK IT WAS WOOD THAT CAME ON, TOO MANT MULLETS

Dufty is a frustrating player, he really is.

9 is still too many but possibly indicative of where the game is at the minute in terms of clearing up head contact and the ruck.

More frustrating to me than the penalties was where they were conceded, we seemed to constantly give away penalties in their 20m area, that coupled with a sub 70% completion rate meant we couldn’t build any pressure. Wigan & Saints are the standout teams, they build pressure well and points come off the back of that.

A couple of notes from me for last night.

Powell is better than Walker.

Dufty is still a lazy defender when sweeping

Musgrove needs to get fit or get out.

Wrench is a winger.

We need to see an attacking improvement when in the opponents 20m.

I’m still waiting for any tactical differences from last season.

Not sure you can say Powell was better than walker from last night, Powell played about 5 minutes at hooker

I thought Walker was pretty good overall. Wasn't it Walker's kicks that resulted in the drop outs? I was in the southeast corner and couldn't tell if it was him or Drinkwater.

The sending off was due to Currie's play acting. Never a Red in a million years.

The two wing incidents were far worse, with defenders trying to remove the head from the shoulders.

Really put a dampener on this game which was shaping up at the time.

What play acting? He's got blood pouring into his eye, what would you do?

I think they are suggesting an RU style “blood gate” ie Currie had a bag of fake blood stashed in his shorts and at an opportune moment pulled it out and broke it above his eye to make it look like blood was gushing form a non existent wound…
given that the username suggests they are a child of Jacob Rees-Mogg anything is possible

Indeed, but also thank the Leeds brains trust who would have been in pole position to sign him after he had a spell on loan there in 2020 but clearly didn't rate him as highly as Powell/Warrington did - as I'm sure you're aware, Powell tried to sign him in late 2020 when he was Cas coach, but Cas couldn't afford the transfer fee Fev wanted.

It's great that he's proving a success in SL as every fan at both Batley and Fev will tell you he's always looked a player who could do well at any level, and by common consent he's a top bloke too.

3 things that stood out in last nights game :

- Vaughan's metres gained in the tackle, especially in the 2nd half.
- Powell's cameo.
- The bloke at the back of the East Stand that headed Thewlis's conversion back to the pitch. Impressive.

How low can this game of ours sink ? It is now hamstrung with the ridiculous situation of losing players every week with dubious red cards for head contact. Players from already threadbare squads are being lost so how long will it be till fixtures have to be cancelled because clubs can't field teams ? How long will it be before defenders shirk tackles in case they give a penalty or get sent off?
The referees & players can tell when head contact is malicious & ,in the modern game ,incidents like that are few & far between ,but maybe headguards would help on all players to avoid the accidental contact that is being pinged so far this season. They won't need the ridiculous NFL crash helmets but more like the type amateur boxers wear with plenty of padding. Modification to tackling techniques & headgear should mean the game getting back to normal & the RL & clubs avoiding litigation.

"NFL crash helmets" were introduced because of the number of fatalities each year sometimes as many as 39 in a season.

Not saying there wasn't a gash to his face. He clutched his face as soon as it happened, and before he was tackled.
The tackle looked innocuous at the time, but he made sure the referee spotted it.

Rugby players have been known to play on with ruptured testicles. Currie would fall over if he stubbed his toe.

Anyway, for Cas next week the only thing I’d change would be Crowther in for Holroyd. As others have said, Wrench needs to up his game in defence but that edge needs time to gel

I agree about Wrench, but unfortunately he's the only creative centre we have. I hope he can sort his defence out, because his attack will be invaluable with only King or Ratchford available as centres.

I don't think this is the case at all. Watching the replay he doesn't seem at all bothered by Brown's tackle, he looks at the referee for guidance because he's got quite a lot of blood, and is unsure whether he'll be allowed to play on without getting patched up.

Our big guys are taking the ball on the 1st n 2nd a lot more.

Support play looks better from the little we have seem, the Harrison try doesn't happen under Powell or price because there were very few support runners, they were too busy getting in position for the next ptb

Not the best conditions to be playing the rugby that ppl seem to be expecting on game 2 !! If this is the start and there's progression and consistency then it will be an improvement on last year