What we thinking team wise?

It's going to be that starting front row that will be the biggest talking point. I'd probably look to split Mago and Byrne and start with one. I'm confident Mago has more minutes in him. My post from last season that mentioned how tired he'd looked in a game for Souths has been talked about quite a bit but we've covered plenty of times now that it just looks to be 'his look' and I think we should now put that to the test. In that Souths game I believe he payed an hour plus, so we may need him to do that tomorrow.

As for the rest, I think I would O'Neill a shot and you'd expect Partington and Havard to come in (although Peet seems to be hinting it may be another week with Havard). I'd swap Hardaker and Bibby around for this one as well. We need more from Hardaker wherever he plays but he is a bit wasted on the wing.

I'd go-

Field
Bibby Pearce-Paul Hardaker Marshall
Cust Leuluai
Mago Powell Partington
Bateman Farrell Smithies

Subs
Byrne Havard Isa O'Neill

I'd move K P-P back into the pack, great off-load on him and defensively sound but he's never going to make a break out wide, seen enough of him now to see he hasn't got the pace to play out there.
Field
Miski
Hardaker
Bibby
Marshall
Cust
Leuluai
Partington
O'Neil
Byrne
Farrell
Bateman
Smithies

Mago
K P-P
Havard
Shorrocks

Out of the 3 there, only 1 will get their winger away and its the one you've moved to the pack

The trouble is that the man outside of him is Hardaker and he ain't a winger. Don't see any changes myself, apart from the enforced ones.

Not Cas game related but does anyone know what the prognosis is on Havard? He's been a big miss in my opinion and that will be compounded now Ellis is out too for his enforced period.

In the squad isn't he?

In the squad and the fan forum talk from Rads and Peet seemed to suggest he’ll play a part tonight. I look forward to watching him more than anyone under this new coaching set up. He should be aiming for the absolute top but like with everyone under Lam, he’s been up and down.

OT & slightly negative, so sorry about it but...

It became really clear last night, how much of a disaster Lam's time with us really was. Peet talked about how, 5 years ago, we were at Saints current level and IL is talking about us being at year 1 of a 3 year journey. That's an 8 year span to get back to being competitive. Guys have forgotten how to be consistent week in week out. Standards have slipped and players haven't progressed. I put all of that at the feet of Lam.

I don’t disagree although I’d put some blame at the door of the people who thought having an interim coach until Shaun Edwards turned up was a good idea and who then didn’t pull the plug on the caretaker when it came out that Edwards wasn’t coming after all.

That’s old news though and everyone makes mistakes. It’s hopefully upwards now for us.

I look forward to seeing what he can do this year also. He is a great talent, his numbers are great every game and he has immense potential imo.

I do have some slight worries though:
1 - He seems to get injured a lot (Ankle Ligaments, Back Injury, anything else?)
2 - He hasn't really improved since making his debut (He did hit the ground running. Could the injuries be taking a toll? Could it be due to the way things were under Lam)

There are questions there, so we’ll see how he goes. His talent is huge. I’d be worried more by a possible lack of mongrel in him than I would injuries tbh. I just worry he’s a bit nice but that might change with time, age, confidence, the right coach etc.

I look at Byrne this season and he looks much improved and I think if they can get that out of Havard, he could kick on multiple levels.

Well we are carry on where we left off errors wise, fantastic!!

Just not very good is it?

I'm afraid it's a carbon copy of last season. Apparent good start and then dross followed by the odd game to paper over the cracks. That will be theme of the season. It's just garbage. Powell, Isa, Singleton, and Tommy are glaring weaknesses though Tommy has a bit to offer. Bateman has been woeful since he re-signed. Halsall, McDonnell, Smith, Partington and Smithies just won't ever make it to a good enough level to play in a team challenging for trophies. If O'Neill can't get in front of Powell then he must be bang average too, that or the coaches pick favourites over form (where have i seen that before?) The season is young but looks like it will soon ebb away. I had us for finishing 6th but i was expecting some improvement and not to just rely on Field to do it all himself.

Overplaying and errors are what are knocking us here. Last year we wouldn’t have been 10-0 down still driving up the middle making 3-4m a carry. We may have got in to the cas half but would have had no way of scoring

Its not great but its nothing like last season.

Errors so frustrating.

Our defence is p*ss poor is worrying we seemed to have gone backwards in defensive terms

Just not good enough!!!!

Seriously disappointing stuff. Not just because we struggled to beat a team with all kinds of disadvantages, but because it feels like amateur night all over again.

We make so many pathetic mistakes. We are chock full of players who just can't seem to keep their minds on what they are doing. Plus, we have quite a few players who are plain bang-average.

We truly are worlds away from St Helens, or even the standards we ourselves were setting only a few years ago.

There's doing it tough and then there's not having Mago on for the whole of the 1st half (I think) and then did he do 18 or so mins in the 2nd? I might have missed him, but I'm sure I didn't.

Tonight kinda reinforces my argument from another thread. We need another prop or big body in the pack. Partington and Smithies did well (Partington was excellent in parts), but are they really back up options? The squad, imo, isn't well balanced in between the different positions.

I had us down as a solid 6 out of 10 at half time. The odd glimpse of good stuff with the odd defensive blunder.

When we went 28-6 up after our purple patch of 10-15 mins I was prepared to increase to 6 out of 10. But after switching off completely, allowing Cas to rip us apart down the middle I'm afraid its 5/10 at best overall. And I think I'm being generous.

That was awful, a decent team would put forty on us at this moment in time and it needs sorting, I may be being unkind due to us losing two forwards but it's been showing for four weeks now.

We are better with the ball than last year, and worse without it. Overall are we improved? Probably, but only just.

There's a long way to go, and lot of improvement needed. Luckily you only need a decent 3 weeks at the end of the season to have a chance.

I can't believe we took the knee for Ukraine. Damn politics infiltrating sporting events

As daft as it sounds we are not far away from being a very good side in my opinion.

Holding us back, I feel, is our lack of ability to consistently maintain the intensity of our play. I still believe there is an attitude issue where arrogance overtakes performance and we switch off.

Saints are the marker and they are ruthless they don’t switch off.

This year is our last transitional year in my opinion. I do believe we have poorly managed contracts, Isa and Smith for example.

Isa has been a wonderful servant to the club, but he’s a declining force and any attacking play is stunted when he gets his hands on the ball. He’s also very similar to the edge forwards we have we desperately in my opinion need size in the secondrow.

Tommy/Smith.

Not even close to a debate. We must sign a half when Tommy retires. Smith to be fair put in 2 good kicks, but once again was anonymous and also came up with the now standard pass to the floor and pass into touch.

Well sorry to be negative but that was awful.

Jai Field and some terrible Cas errors and discipline won us the game.

Passing accuracy was poor, our defensive line was like a sieve and we looked a confused team playing without confidence.

Marshall and Halsall simply couldn't deal with the high kicks that came their way. KPP with a couple of really poor defensive reads on the other side. Did Bateman play? Farrell scored a couple but uncharacteristically poor with his defence. Mago is disgracefully unfit - 18 minutes in total and he was exhausted for 16 of them. Harry Smith looks very low in confidence.

Aside from Jai Field, the only other positives were the hard work from Smithies, Byrne and Partington - despite their limitations they never hide.