We'll finish in the top 4 but that won't be any great achievement with the level of quality and consistency in SL atm. Agreed on French and our slow tempo - the biggest contributor to that is our forwards hardly ever winning the ruck. I remember one rare occasion in the 2nd half when one of our forwards won the collision, Powell went on a dummy half scoot and we finally had some momentum. The problem is that happens for us once in a blue moon whereas for Saints and Catalans it happens every other ruck.

I’m not overly surprised with our last 2 or even 3 performances but what has disappointed me has been how slow defensively we are plus we are too slow at ptb. I think the lack of tempo puts us on the back foot which in turn leads to errors which then leads to indiscipline.

Not sure if a short turnaround will be good or bad for us this week. I just hope our heads don’t drop because we are very much improved on last season and I think most fans want improvement in standards and attack,which I think although the last 2 games we have been poor, is being delivered.

As you say we will be a lot better come spring and summer when we can play to our strengths. We’ve got some tough games coming up against teams with better packs and I can feel it in my water that we will get a tough draw in the CC so the coaching staff need to get back to some basics over the next few training sessions.
I’ve got a feeling we will draw Leyth away or even worse Saints.

I'm really not sure our pack is a big problem. It's not great but it seems a lot better than the last few years. Off the top of my head Mago, Byrne and Ellis all had good carries where we got on the front foot.

For me it was all about the errors and Catalans playing the conditions better. They took advantage of position we gifted them and we built no pressure.

People criticised the starting front row against Leeds but that was a similar story. Knock ons and forward passes in our own half put them on the front foot, I don't think it was like last year when we couldn't make yards no matter what we did.

We've started this year with a much more entertaining attacking style but it seems like it's come with the downside of being more risky and prone to errors.

Hopefully they can iron this out. I don't think we need to overreact with big changes but it does seem like we have a long way to go to be a threat to Saints.

If we can put in more performances like the Leeds one, with errors but great tries, I'll take that for now.

I don't think discipline in the main has been a problem until Saturday, certainly not in terms of penalty counts, sin binning's, bans etc but there were signs on Saturday that the frustrations shown last year by somebody like Isa could rear up again when we're put in a poor spot. It's something to keep an eye on for sure but my bigger worry is the absolute basic and lazy errors we're making. There have been far too many cold drops of the ball, lazy play the balls, forward passes and poor attempts at defending kicks. I don't know if we lack skill as a team or concentration but whichever one it is, there needs to be a lot of work put in to improve. A team that wants to move the ball and play open rugby needs to be able to do the basics to a really high level. I can live with the odd offload going wrong, the odd lost ball in contact here and there but I can't live with the amount of errors being made under no pressure or people not concentrating playing the ball.

Saints are obviously the standout team followed by Catalan with rest very much in their wake.
Wire and Leeds are like us. A few decent players but not enough quality.
Not sure on the depth of the Huddersfield squad but won’t surprise me if they make the top 3 or 4.
Hull could be anything and KR will keep plugging away.

Our front row isn’t fixed and a lightweight backrow just compound’s the issue for me. Will be interesting to see what the 17 are on Thursday. Hopefully a few dry days will help preparation and on match day.

Sorry NK, I probably didn't make myself clear there. By discipline I meant both with and without the ball. Not just penalties but, as you say, cold drops and errors, particularly early in the tackle count. We've been awful, even in victory, in relieving pressure on the opposition. It's actually testament to our improved attack that it hasn't hurt us more.

It came to a head over in France where most of our problems in Toulouse were caused by our inability to retain possession and build pressure and the same faults were punished by Catalans as they probably should have been by Toulouse too. The senior team leaders need to step up here and start to lead by example.

I'm not one for throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We are significantly improved on last year and this will only improve (injuries notwithstanding) as the weather improves and we can play to our strengths. I don't think many will live with our pace on the firmer grounds providing we can get on the front foot. High completion rate and low error/penalty counts are an absolute prerequisite for this.

Absolutely correct. We really need to up our concentration levels. I look at Catalans nowadays as a great sense of hope of where you can get to over time with a good coach and by bringing in the right characters who drive standards. As bad as we were on Saturday, the way they held the ball and played so professionally was a credit to them and totally against everything you used to think of a Catalans team.

I think some people were shocked with our display, as though a new coach comes in and can just rid a side of all its previous faults but that takes time and Saturday highlights that. You get the odd coach, like a Maguire or Holbrook who come in and turn things almost instantly but in the main there will be bumps in the road and it will take time. It’s taken time and investment for McNamara to get Catalans in this position and it will take the same here if Matt Peet is to bring back success. I think Saturday can help us in many ways as long as the players don’t let their heads drop.

That last sentence is the crux of the matter. Thursday will tell us far more about were we are than Saturday did. It's a shame we'll be missing Ellis as he's been very solid in the early games. However, the squad as a whole have to respond, particularly the leaders and senior players. Put in a good performance on Thursday and I'll still feel we're on the right track and will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season. A bad one and it'll suggest we still have some of the same mental frailties that plagued us last season.

Thursday is a potential banana skin. Cas are now desperate and Radford won’t be giving the game plan talk to his players this week - it will be all about pride, the badge, honour and doing the basics right. He won’t confuse them with tactical stuff. I expect them to come out with his message ringing in their ears. We will need to be steady, patient, fault free and disciplined. We cannot allow them to build momentum.

What I've seen of Cas this season, they've been pretty ordinary, but Jake Truman is a bloody good player. As Wigan have found out in the past.

Hope it's not raining.

IL and KR must wish the fans forum had been scheduled a week or two earlier. Il be going to this one - be interesting to hear their thoughts.

It will indeed. I still think they can sit reasonably comfortable given the overall positive start but I’d love the tone to be one of them being fully aware we still need to improve the squad over the next 12 months if we want to bridge the gap.

Traditionally, 'Cas' have been one of our bogey teams.

judging by some of the posters response to defeat on the warrirors fans forum, i dont think they'll be getting an easy ride

this thread is exactly what is needed on the other forum. A reasoned conversation between fans with different views that are respected (and input from other clubs too), not just doom and gloom as some constantly post.

i'm very much with the majority on this thread, disappointing defeat, but not unexpected given that Catalan are one of the 2 best teams in the league at the minute, but also that it is now for Matty Peet to demonstrate his coaching credentials and to show that he can get a reaction / performance out of the team. He cant just change the culture that has been in place for the last couple of years overnight, but we are seeing signs both on and off the pitch that things are moving in the right direction

as you've said, i think the tone should be, we are making progress, things have changed but we still have a way to go to where we want to be and highlight where they see the changes and improvements. The feel of the club is completely different to 6 months ago, so it still needs to be a positive evening and leave fans feeling really good about where the club is going

The thread title question of ‘what now’ is simple to answer.

Stop dropping the bloody ball.

It is a completely different game against Cats if we didn’t give them 6 or 7 free sets near out line in the first half. The first couple we repelled, it was only a matter of time before they scored. Repeater that several times and that’s where the game went.

I wonder sometimes if the other board has one person posting negative stuff under multiple usernames because there can’t be that many people all in one place who genuinely seem to dislike the club, the players and thrive on any negative results. A couple of yesterday’s beauties were one person saying Byrne should no more than a kicking tee carrier (I’m sure he’s had a good start to the season) and criticism for Farrell and Bateman (literally the least of our worries and possibly our two best players).

It’s been a positive start overall but we’ve still got plenty of work to do and that’s in areas on and off the field. I just hope there’s a real sense of that being the case because whilst I’m comfortable with where we are right now, we’ve got huge strides we need to make to get back challenging Saints for trophies and to get the whole club feeling and looking strong.

There’s some off the field things that also need a lot of attention that have been allowed to fall away-coverage of the academy, reserves, women’s teams, marketing to get people back through the gates rather than just going down the lazy route of charging die hards more (Cas fans rightfully fuming at having to pay £30 to watch a TV game on a Thursday night live) and so on. There’s been some positive strides forward in off the field areas but there’s work to be done there as well.

Some fans perhaps need to realise that 'we played terrible' and 'we are terrible' are two different things. We dropped the ball too much. Deal with it and move onto the next one.

Definitely. I’m really excited about what is to come this season. A team with French and Field in it won’t be boring and I think Havard could be our biggest improver under this new coaching set up, so I’m pretty positive. The weather looks good on Thursday as well, so that won’t hurt

I don't want to get into arguments about t'other site; like NK and others, I post on both. But I am heartened by the pragmatic response here generally. We've had a couple of poor games in France, we need to learn from it and move on. I do think comments like "they shouldn't have stayed in France for a jolly" are pretty ridiculous. do people really imagine that's how it was? I would have thought the reverse was more likely, that the players wanted to get back home.

As for criticism of Faz and JB, to be fair, Faz in particular has been well below par the last few weeks, missing tackles, dropping the ball. We all love him, but truth to tell he's not been good lately.

But hey. it's not like we don't have second-rowers aplenty!

I don't think the stay over in France was particularly a 'jolly' but if you look at the pictures on the training gallery over there, there is a lot of smiling and laughing faces on the pics, now it could just be unfortunate that the pics just happened to be taken at a particular instant and it may have been really intense, but that coupled with the reports of sight seeing trips and downtime (which I appreciate they have when at home) I wonder if they became complacement in their preperation to the game, when at home most players I suspect would be focussing their attention on the upcoming game and not out on a tour bus.

I think most players had an 'off day' that and the weather conditions turned into us never being able to get a foot hold on the game and once you feel like everything is against you it is hard to get back to a game plan.

Would you rather the club uploads images where they look unhappy, not gelling as a team, on phone to wives/girlfriends missing them, on facetime to new born babies etc?

Sight seeing trips and down-time? Do they have down-time at home? Yes. What is the big deal.

The club have travelled to Catalans enough to make an assessment that to stay out there for the duration was probably better than all of the travelling and disruption.

Like I said it could be just poor timing of the camera shutter but what I want to see in a training session is focus and intent in a players face when running plays etc. not somebody taking a ball in and laughing with his mate in the background laughing with him.

I did says players have down time when at home, but there is a difference, downtime at home will be time spent with family, also preparing themselves mentally for the game at the weekend, time to focus on what they have to do as an individaul to influence the outcome of a game, if they are off on sight seeing trips around France they are not having that time to prepare themselves mentally for what is going to be a really tough game.

I fully understand the reasonings behind staying out there, the travel disruption etc. but I question the itinerary whilst there, too much focus maybe on team bonding etc. and not enough on the task ahead, which in my opinion led to us being to complacent about how tough it was going to be, the players and coaches will know Catalans are a real force, especially at home, but I personally don't think they got the balance right and it showed on the day

How do you know this?

If for example the players are getting downtime on a Friday afternoon ahead of a Saturday game, how do you know X player isn't going sight seeing in the UK?

Can you also share this itinerary that you seem to have please?

Look you know I don't know this for sure, nor do I know their schedule other than what was reported by Wigan themsleves that they had been 'seeing the sights' whilst in France, but do you think the players looked focused and 'up for it' on the day in comparison to all the other games, they have been shaky at times in other games but never have they looked as out of touch with a game as they have against Catalans and I did say 'in my opinion'