positives! Its a win! we got two points

Negatives! dont care we won!

Ok Serious positives! I was pretty worried about the defence after the Skolars game, yesterday we stood up and defended the line despite Menzies causing us problems
Some sensible play, that 1 point was worth its weight in gold
Dorn pretty solid
Burnett worked hard and looked enthusiastic every time he got the ball
Gale good most of the game
We kept up nil for most of the game
we did not lose our head and throw the game away

negatives

Too many free mtrs with penalties
Koops hmmm not sure yet
we tend to panic a bit on the last tackle
we let them in at the end (silly penalty from inexperience)

thought the ref was pretty poor

The main thing was it's 2 points in the bag and a realistic chance of getting another 2 next Sunday. Tony Clubb continues to worry me greatly. The more weight he puts on, the worse he seems to play. Good defence, but plenty to work on.

Menzies was on one leg, but what a great player. The game was poor the injury early on killed the game. both sets of players got cold

but the game was still worth the trip from dublin

Our kicking game was a postive as I was expecting it to be a negative.

Firstly I don't think it was a terrible game, I think RL fans have lost some of their appreciation for solid defence so low scoring games are judged worse than they really are. I'm not saying it was a classic, but as first competitive game of the season with some significant line up changes it worked pretty well. I just think if it had been 31 - 24 with softer defence on both sides people would be happier.

I think the prolonged stoppage for injury in the first half hurt us as we were running hot at that point, and we lost that momentum.

I was impressed by Burnett, particularly in the first half, we defended well, and held it together for some prolonged periods of pressure. I also thought Ellis played well considering he didn't play much last season and isn't a hugely experienced player at this level. We also didn't make too many unforced errors. I thought our backs were pretty tight despite the lack of strike, I thought Clubby had a solid game with just the one rush of blood pass to touch, but that would have been hailed as inspired had it come off. JO'C worked hard, and Howell was perhaps the quietest of the backs, although I don't think Melling is going to give us much from the wing and expect to see Pryce there soon.

Weaknesses, I don't think Randall is a credible option at scrum half for the rest of the season, although he did okay we need something more in the halves if we're going to create. We do lack size up front, we really need Temata back, but Ambler had a decent debut and Krasniqi doesn't look fazed. Wilkes had a good game and we'll need him to lead till Temata comes back. Maybe our loan signings from W***n will give us a bit of strike and creativity that we're missing?

Looks like we can add Salford to our little band at the wrong end of the table! I think SL16 may be closer than some think. Crusaders have started where they left off and that makes next Sunday even more interesting. If we really have sorted out our defence, when the firmer pitches appear we may be able to compete. We lack some grunt and a bit of nous but nothing that can't be fixed.

i do have to agree with KF the stoppage for the injury stopped out momentum and gave the cats a bit of time to compose themselves, they were not at the races until that point, what was the injury anybody know?
I hate knocking refs but i dont think mr Hicks had the best start to his season! What was goign on at the scrums? first time tell the players, second time warn em, third time sorry its a pro game blow the whistle and penalise, altho I do have to say at least he was doing summat, Leeds Bradfurt scrums a joke loose fwd from both side making no attempt to pack down and just leaning hamnds on
I really do wish they would watch the Off side at the scrum as well, Cats 14 stole 5 mtrs every single scrum

Cant agree with you Kelvin on the standard of the game, after the first 10 mins, it was a very dour affair and only real flair shown was one legged menzies

Ah the one thing I did forget was the chase after the Cats break, last year we would have given up but nope we had pace and will to keep chasing
Not seen the widne oops crusaders game yet so

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm enjoy it while we can!

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm enjoy it while we can!

Wilkes was excellent. He seemed to start hitting his straps towards the back end of last season, and I thought he was the best player out there yesterday on either side. Great to see players who I don't (or rather didn't) rate prove me wrong.

Wasn't a classic but the big positive for me was the fact that we defended our line for 75mins without conceding. Granted Cats were missing Thomas Bosc and weren't at their best but nevertheless if we can defend better than we did last year it won't all be doom and gloom this season.

After seeing us concede five tries at Leigh a couple of weeks back I'm encouraged by the low score and the fact we almost nilled a side that seems to be fancied by many to be much stronger than last year.

The Crusaders v Salford result today was a bit startling as Salford looked likely to be the most improved side on paper whereas I thought Crusaders would be weaker than last year. Should be interesting next Sunday and I'm looking forward to it.

On reflection the 9 minute break for the injury seemed to take the momentum away from us. They seemed to take an awful long time to get a stretcher out there and it was too long after he was off the feild that Sa was walking around. I'm all for player safety but the Cat's medical staff was being very "professional".

Disagree. Yes, it undoubtedly took momentum away from us and gave the Dragons (The Cat's are wakefield

) time to regroup but when it comes to player safety, it takes as long as it takes. No exceptions.

Agree with almost all of the above.

I do think the injury and the subsequent delay took the momentum out of the game and helped them more than us. My positives and negatives below, but 2 points the major bonus:

Positives

Wilkes
Burnett (who i thought was excellent)
Bailey and Ambler (less impressive but solid)
fewer stupid errors
better kicking game
defence, was exceptional at times and agree about the chase down, we would not have done that last season
Gale - was brilliant for 10 minutes, then the dealy and he seemed to lose focus)


Negatives:

Koulpartis - didnt look great but prepared to wait
Still too many penalties
not enough imagination
lack ideas on 6th
Melling O'Callaghan - i like them both and thing Melling is vital as he covers virtually every position and is a great team man. O'C has come on a lot. BUT they dont offer a lot on the wings in terms of finishing. Claderwood, Lucas, Pryce - wouldnt they offer more?

Overall i am feeling better with game under belt. Crusaders now look a tough test so lets see outcome of next week - it may be that we can then judge where we will end up?

Curt

Shocking comment mate, an injury is an injury, what ever time it takes to get the bloke sorted then take the time. Agree it took a while to get the stretcher out there but if it was needed then it was needed!
Comments like ("I'm all for player safety but the Cat's medical staff was being very "professional"icon_wink.gif do not do us a set of supporters any favours
As for Cats being the cats Ar*£ Cats! Catalan. The Wakefield Trinty! nickname is Wildcats not Cats you could say same about cas, are not tigers a form of cat

It may be a better indicator, yes I agree. Hopefully we'll look fitter and be a bit more comfortable on home turf. Crusaders looked decent from what I saw yesterday, helped by a pretty shambolic Salford effort.

I really hope we can get a good crowd for this game, 4,000+

Apologies on the Cats. I know I should have said Dragons.

With what I know that goes on in professional sport I was just surprised it took so long to get the stretcher on to the field.

I thought we looked a well-coached outfit against uninspired opposition.

Was especially impressed with the wider defence. I think Clubb defending at right centre resolves most of his frailties at 3rd and 4th man in where he can mis-read the play horribly. Burnett-Howell-Randall-Melling were asked more questions down the left and looked great on their side of the defence. Having watched the Leigh and Catalans games, I think the big worry for our defence is down the middle channel: Wilkes, Ward and especially Kouparitsas have poor footwork/lateral movement. That said, Ellis and Bailey looked strong for smallish forwards in the middle third.

With ball in hand, I thought we looked pretty smart, if conservative. Contrary to everyone else it seems, I thought our last tackle options were fantastic - the kicking game was great, both for field position and attacking wise. We really didn't have many tackles in the oppo's half and so I can accept that people were frustrated not to see Gale and Dorn get the ball in their hands very much after the first 15 minutes. But that's not their fault.

I don't think our performance will have scared anyone but I'd go with the same starting 13 next week. Like Kelvin's Ferret said, I think that if Randall is a 7 he needs to direct play more - he tends to start games demanding the ball at first receiver and then he drifts out of the action. For this reason, I'd go for Mellor on the bench and, to start with, give the youngster 10-15 mins at either side of half-time, allowing Ellis and Randall to share 9 before finishing the game with Randall at 7 and Ellis at 9. For me, this would have the added bonus of keeping Kouparitsas well away from the DH role.

I think Purdham and Burnett gave us 160 minutes - which is a great sign because both these fellas will create space for others. Bailey looked like he had great hands and he looks like he reads the game quickly too - was impressed. Kouparitsas is getting hammered - and, true enough, he was poor at Leigh and Cardiff - but I'd like to see him come on for Bailey at 13. He's not a DH, and his defence in the middle is a concern, but he might go better as a backrower.

Our options at prop remain limited. Plenty of effort but a lack of size re. Ward, Ambler, Bryan. I'm hoping Krasniqi or Thomas will have a breakthrough year.

Finally, do we need all of Pryce, Calderwood and Latus? Two of these can go now in my (heartless) IMO.

Just on this.

I thought Melling was excellent. He had one and a quarter chances and he finished well with the first and hit the corner flag for the other.

I was quietly impressed by both wingers. I think if the alternatives are two players who are bigger names but clearly unfit the choice is an obvious one.

I was a bit sceptical about O'Callaghan last season but I really hope he pushes on this year, he's still only 20.

Top Post!!!!

Melling's a solid player, and I've no doubt [uif[/u he gets service he will finish off chances from 10 metres out, but how many of those chances will he get on the wing? What I don't see is him making a break and going 50m+, nor do I see him busting tackles and sweeping us down field, Pryce if he's fit and can show some effort might just give us that type of strike.

colly 2

you're posts are spot on....you certainly understand the game
unlike a few others on here!!!!

I thought for the first game of the season, when everybody is a little ring rusty it was a fairly decent stab of things. Rob Powell has definately lifted the air of insipid performance we were getting under the previous regime and the players seemed to want to play for a) each other b) the new coach and c) Quins RL.

Wilkes (including flattening Sa) and Burnett's performances and 2 smart tries from Gale stood out for me.

The old cliche "One swallow doesn't make a summer" ( especially in February) does spring to mind but I'm quietly confident that whilst many pundits (including Sky's "3 Amigos"icon_wink.gif have written us off before a ball had been kicked in anger, I reckon we could be giving a few teams rather more than what they bargained for this summer.

That put's us 6 - 8 points beyond Wakefield and we still maintain a 4 point advantage over Crusaders which come Sunday 5pm will I believe be 6.

At this early stage I'd say that's a good start and nothing more.