Irrelevent.

I was talking specifically about his first involvement in the game, which was 18 minutes with half time for a breather, and that I was disappointed that he couldnt manage more than that.

For an interchange, I'd expect him to come on at around 25 mins, give 15 minutes of big hits, have a 15 minute half time breather and be effective for 10 mins in the 2nd half, then have a 20 minute breather before knocking hell out of the opposition for the last 10 minutes. 35 minutes of full-on hits. His "opposite" can do 25 mins, have 40 mins break (inc half time) and then another 20 or so. (45 mins total)

Is that unreasonable?

Without getting into an argument about it, as it really doesn't matter what you and I think, that's exactly what he has done in the previous two games where he's been excellent! Moreover, in the 1st preseason game, he did an hour straight; the whole of the first half and the first 20 of the 2nd. He was also excellent from minute 1 to minute 60 with no dropoff in intensity whatsoever.

If he didn't in the 3rd game, there was presumably a reason for it. However, that reason isn't because he can't. Your description of 100% of the money for 25% of the work is so far removed from what we've seen in his start to the season as to be insulting. He's made a major contribution to our excellent start and has provided more entertainment in the 3 games he has played so far than most props do in an entire season.

Spot on.

He clearly didn’t watch Wigan vs Hull or Leeds.

The player doesn't get to pick and choose when they get game time that is up to the coaching staff, maybe, just maybe, they wanted to see if the player who he was going to replace could hold their own for a longer spell, or the stats/gps tracker was telling a different story about the other players on the pitch and the coaching staff wanted to reserve Mago for a bit longer, or maybe they just forgot he wasn't on the pitch.
But all joking aside, the coaching staff do the interchanges so you can't blame the player for when her gets onto the pitch, he may have been sat there with gritted teeth cursing the coaches for not getting on

The key to success at Wigan will be balance and Whilst it is great for Saints to have a Walmsley there is a really good balanced hardworking pack to complement him, however when he doesn't play it is noticeable.

We saw last year that despite having one of the best players in the comp in Hastings we struggled to create opportunities as there was no balance to our play. Deal with Hastings deal with Wigan.

In signing Ellis and Mago we brought in a good grafter and a bit of Xfactor/impact. Mago will have a defined role and be used as part of an everchanging strategy within a match as it evolves. I think our philosophy is slightly different to a good few of our coaches who have gone before recently who used to sub by the clock. I used to hate seeing a player go off who was having a good game simply because we have hit the 18th-20th minute of a match.

Mago will be used tactically and his game time will revolve around how others are performing and potentially what the scoreboard is looking like. More importantly if he is out we should hopefully be able to cope without him as we have other options and whilst they may be of a different style to Mago won't detract from performance.

For me we are a prop and a strike running secondrow away from having a very well balanced pack and I would expect to see that addressed in the coming offseason. There was simply too big a rebuild required over 1 offseason.

1 thing is for sure though our pack is significantly improved this year with the inclusion of Ellis and Mago.

Good posts earlier - sums up how I feel at the moment;

We are no longer an easy target from opposition fans ridiculing how pedestrian we are in our attack and how lightweight we are in our forwards.

Not the finished article, but a hell of a lot more balanced in the forwards, we are working off the ball in attack, hell we even had a choice of support runners for a number of the tries we scored v Hudds.

I still think we need to work on our line speed in defence.

Interested to see how some of the players waiting to come into the side will fit in when we change the side up a little - especially how Smith goes in a much more balanced team.

Mago looks done in from the first minute he's on the pitch but he always makes it back to the defensive line and when he carries the ball he really carries it.
Maybe that's the thing with Mago, he just "looks" like he's unfit, doing a great job so far IMO

I noticed vs Hudds they were attempting to target him when they had ball in hand but without much success. There was on occasion where he was slow to get back as the result of a knock I think. This meant the line moved up and he was slightly behind them leaving a small gap however when the Giants went at it he sprinted into position to close the hole and put in a big hit.

Just to tidy this thread up a little, he was on for 32 mins in total. Down on the 40ish you might expect but certainly not massively so. Despite looking goosed, as he always does, he took the 2nd last hit up, taking 2 defenders with him which allowed us to make a break on the very next play.

There really is nothing to see here, so to speak. I expect him, like all the players, to improve as the season wears on. If he drops off rather than improves, that would be the time to offer criticism. Not 2 games in after being very impressive in the first 2 and solid if unspectacular in the 3rd.

Like you say, doing a great job so far.

I fell into the trap of “he’s knackered, Hudds are gonna target him” and they did and he pummelled them. They didn’t do it again and for the second week in a row I was left saying “you idiot” to myself

Castleford

Byrne 11 carries for 63m 27tackles

Havard 12 for 54m 24 tackles

Partington 11 for 65m 31 tackles

Smithies 9 for 66m 34 tackles

Bateman 15 for 81m 28 tackles

Farrell 17 for 126m 30 tackles

Isa 8 for 54m 25t

Mago 6 for 56m 9 tackles


Sam Powell didn’t register a single carry.

Wow, when the opposition know your 9 isn't going to run that's an issue

Unbelievable really. Haven't rewatched the game yet but surely a stats error?

In the last two weeks he’s run the ball once for a metre. That’s in 160 minutes of rugby.

I’ve backed him many times but that’s hurting us and it can’t go on for me. It puts zero doubt in the oppositions mind and I can’t dress it up, it’s not good enough. In awful conditions at Catalans last week for your hooker to take in one carry for a metre is mind blowing really. You have to be stealing metres in those conditions and keeping the risks to a minimum.

Is it Powell tho, or is it Peet?

Powell didn't run under Wane, he did under Lam and now he's back to not doing it.

There'll be people far more technically minded than me, who can explain the benefits of it - but to me it looks baffling. Like you said, the markers can push out as they know he won't run.

He ran the ball of a fashion under Lam, I.e near the opposition line but he still didn’t get out of dummy half much in our half our even the oppositions half, unless it was within their ten metres.

It’s tough to say if it’s Peet but I’m inclined to say maybe not because he did run the ball in the first couple of games a bit but these last two weeks it’s been absolutely non existent and at a time it’s been needed more than ever due to the weather.

By my arithmetic, 36 missed tackles in total. That's too many.

How many minutes did Mago play on Thursday - can't have been many.

Is he another Paleaaesina?

A really good effort from the forward pack last night against a good Hull set-

Singleton- 15 carries 90 metres 30 tackles
Byrne- 9 carries 58 metres 9 tackles
Havard- 18 carries 114 metres 44 tackles
Mago- 11 carries 91 metres 12 tackles
Smithies- 13 carries 89 metres 33 tackles
Partington- 11 carries 59 metres 30 tackles
Farrell-18 carries 177 metres 25 tackles

Some world class metres from Faz right there and against 13 men.

Superb numbers against a good pack.

Havard is going to be so good

They're both overseas signings and both props. Think that's where the similarities end.

Havards footwork is outstanding. It’s so subtle and he does it really close to the line, so he’s always making good ground. His engine is absolutely superb as well. There’s no doubt in my mind that he will go to the absolute top.

That's a fantastic stat for Havard last night.

Some fabulous numbers there NK. That was the game I watched. I was starting to think I'd watched a different game!



Harvard is the best young prop in the game. No question in my mind. He could be anything he wants.

Loving your work on the 'world class yards' too

Fantastic player Farrell.

Although your subtle dig at Walmsley fails a little considering Walmsley plays half the game time that Farrel does.