Well I enjoyed that. A tough hard game of RL. Best win at the DW so far this season because Cas are a tough team you are not going to stick 40 on.

Sam T was my MoM by a mile. No idea who was announced as such because the Tannoy was bust all game - but clearly no one told the announcer as it kept making its distorted racket. Alan Hunt on Radio Manc post-match said he thought it was Gildart. Great support play for the tries but Sam looked a class apart.

Negatives? Half back is a problem. Neither of them look comfortable, some wayward and forced passes even if every now and again something comes off. And penalties. Both first half tries came after penalties gave Cas field position. We were fortunate in the second half after doing the same again at least twice Cas came up with errors in good positions.

I also thought the pack did well. Flower was very good after his rest! Joel and Bateman also went well and TL was up for it.

Big win psychologically after the hammering's we've had at the hands of Cas over the last couple of seasons, after last weeks grind against Leeds as well it should put us in a good place mentally for the back end of the season.

Agreed, and as I was saying earlier, a win against Saints at home would really put us on the front foot for the playoffs.

I wouldn’t argue against Sam, but I’d say Lockers ran him close for MoM. Pretty sure both their tries came when he was off the field?

The “old” Burgess would have finished off both those breaks himself though, seems he’s lost a lot of pace.

But yeah, well pleased overall, a convincing win against one of our main competition, and still lots of room for improvement as the season goes on.

I had Budgie as MOM as both those breaks were all his own work and he showed great awareness and a cool head to create both tries. Along with some solid yardage and defensive plays, just swayed it for me. Wouldn't argue against Sam or Bateman though with honorable mentions for Tommy and Isa again. To be fair, I thought everyone had a strong game and made contributions. TT had his best game this season so far.

Budgies cool head and awareness has always been something I have thought makes him a cut above many players. He had this before he went to the NRL. He has done things like have the presence of mind to kick inside and tries have resulted when many wingers with more experience than him would have taken the tackle.

I think saying he has lost some pace is ignoring Cas have some speedy players of their own. We don't have a monopoly on pace.

This Sam Tomkins lad. Get him signed . Can play rugby and entertain as well . Will put bums on seats that one.

Regards EW

The biggest positive for me is that we’re winning games and playing some good rugby yet we’ve clearly got plenty of improvement in us. We’ve currently got a stand off out of form (yet he’s still contributing assists and try’s) and a scrum half who’s a hooker and is struggling even with the basics of shipping the ball along the line. If we solve our seven issue (although I don’t sense Wane will see it as an issue) then we’re a shot at winning any trophy this year.

On the real plus side last night was the continued improved form of Burgess, the improving defence of Marshall again being evident, Gildart bar a silly knock on coming back in to form, our back rowers continuing to bang out machine like performances, our props again running with vigour and then Sam Tomkins tying it all together which is helping paper over the halfback cracks.

All in all we can be pretty pleased.

Sam was also brilliant under the high ball. He's improved out of recognition in taking a bomb.


Although I like Escare last night showed why Sam is a different level at FB. He'll be very difficult to replace if he does go. I hope Wigan are still working on an offer

Sadly his form gets better week on week and his importance to the team grows but it looks as though everything is done and dusted with Catalans.

As much as Hardaker is a tool and a player I wanted us to avoid when I thought he was coming to play with Sam, I think we better hope he can somehow get a short ban and he will be available next year because he’s the only player in this country capable of coming close to replacing Tomkins. He’s a different type of fullback but a very good one.

Get your money on Clubb for season's leading try scorer.

Budgie & Gildart should swap positions Budgie looks the more likely to bust a tackle and provide a decent offload.

Budgie was class last night and I’ve said it before on other threads, he has the makings of a top class centre. Both those breaks reminded me of Gary Connolly or Keith Senior style of centre play. Fabulous performance.

My only concern is Powell at 7. He has created absolutely nothing all season and whilst he’s always solid defensively, we need more from our scrum half. Tomkins again showed why he should stay at FB and not come into the halves, he was flawless. Williams may not be firing on all cylinders but he’s contributing to our left edge attack every week and a loads of our tries have come from his early involvement in the play. I’m sure he’ll keep improving as the season goes on whereas Powell probably hasn’t got any improvement in him as a 7.

For the love of god can we leave players in the positions they play well in? Moving SP (back) to 7 and Bateman at Centre should be enough of a warning to leave Budgie playing well on the wing.

Sign a specialist Centre and sign a specialist 7.

Completely agree with your first paragraph, though regarding his pace Gildart has never struck me as being particularly speedy, but looked to be cruising in support of both tries, even had time to switch lines from left to right of Budgie for the second.

Just because Budgie came up with a great inside play for Gildart's try doesn't make him a centre overnight. Let's not forget he didn't look happy at at all when he was forced to play at centre because of injuries last year. Let's leave him in his natural position on the wing.

Absolutely. And, come to think of it, Marshall has done similar things as well. A case of learning in training, no doubt?

Gutted for Marshall last night, one more stride and he was under the sticks at the end there.
Fair play to McShane for reading the play and getting across to make the tackle, great effort.

Great attitude from the lads last night and good performance overall despite some annoying unforced errors.

Good atmosphere as well for once, shame about the disappointing crowd figure - hope some of the stay aways start coming back soon.

I actually applauded that McShane tackle. To put that effort in when you know you're already beaten is a sign of a superb professional attitude, but as you say another stride and Marshall was away and under the posts.
And as the poster above has said, the crowd was really disappointing, what do they want? That game should have had an attendance somewhere between 14 - 15K

Yes, the crowd, although perceptibly bigger than the previous home game, was still disappointing, especially considering the weather

I can only assume people have been reading all these online comments about the ever-declining standards of SL...

Crowd was poor indeed and it does make you wonder why. I’d been looking forward to this game for weeks and booked a day off work for it which was totally worth it. I can’t get to them all because of my shifts so a ST isn’t value for money for me. We’ve played significantly better rugby this season though and some of those staying away for whatever reason are missing out. We have a lot to be excited about in my view.

The crowd was disappointing as has been said, for me it has to be a combination of reasons rather than just one in isolation, the Latics doing well, did the Oz trip anger people to the point they're staying away?,a throwback to the dire fare served up last season? I'm sure others can come up with more reasons perhaps but off the top of my head I can only reason those answers as the rugby has been so much better than last season.

Either way the club must be hurting financially if the gates keep on a fairly static number its going to lead to trouble down the line.

That said, the atmosphere was terrific on Friday. Not sure what this was down to (other than the better performances we're seeing this season) but, considering it was a relatively low crowd, it was very noticeable.