I don't buy that - we were pretty tame with the ball first half and made a few handling errors, all of which were punished pretty much. I thought the scoreline was harsh at HT.

Second half, we were passing better, offloading more, running better lines - that's not something that them having a younger side out would influence too much.

I don'y buy that either IHC.

I mean Crowther, Batchelor and Johnstone are really seasoned pro's arent they.

Wasn't their second have half back pairing Chase and Roberts.

Roberts Gale Lynch and McShane all off at HT .

That second half was against a side that had loads of 19's in it. I dont care who cas had at Halfback, their pack was full of kids or second string players. Wally Lewis didnt make us a good team and he was better than Chase and Roberts put together. The best Halfbacks cant do anything unless they are on the front foot, simple as that.
I also think that Cas will finish in the top 4, they could even win the league leaders this Year.

I've learned over the years that anyone who reads anything into a pre-season friendly wants their bumps feeling, and 2015 taught me to ignore all omens until after Easter. We were world beaters after the first two games, and we know how the rest of that season panned out.

Hey you wanna believe that you go right ahead. For me it changed when Wood came on then when Finn started to organise it became a cricket score in the other direction THEN THE DIFFERENCE WAS MASSIVE or don't it work like that?

So for fear of being edited for being mildly confrontational I reckon you need a reality check, but then I always have.

Indeed.

So this was the ONLY bearing of the match and how it changed? Those two player's coming on for you ....that's it?
What makes you look funny is that you accused cas fans of living in a bubble in another thread!

In the last twelve months you've told us Finn is a hooker, Howarth a stand off and Annakin a centre. No offence, but I think I'll go with my own judgement thanks.

Vastman ask Chester and Kear what they thought, your nonsensical, rose tinted ramblings are cringe worthy and embarrassing. We were miles of the pace in the first half against an excellent Cas side, they stuffed us in all departments. we turned round our performance in the second half against a much weakened Cas side. As Chester said men against boys in the first half and men against boys in the second half. Its not a big deal to accept these facts, it does not make you a turncoat or a closet Cas lover. As said by many better get that performance and attitude out of the way now rather than when points are at stake.

I agree that Finn stepped up in the second half and your boys threw it around a lot - that's what you wanna see from a side in a friendly. Some of the tries you scored were great. But you'd need to be very biased and/or a little naive to think that the floodgates didn't open when we threw all our U19's on - by the end of the match the only recognised 1st team players we had on were Chase and Monaghan, both who you guys thought were a bit crap anyway.

But like you said in another post, friendlies mean jack all. We'll see what happens in the season.

How can you not buy that? We took our main 1st team off at half time and put our 2nd team on. That doesn't change the fact that you played some great rugby.

Have you come on here to just snipe? or would you like to [iactually[/i contribute to the forum?

Bit OTT Philip, sent you a PM - regards

How can you not buy that? Yes we had some kids on the field but they had more.

1st half - our first team getting pummelled by their first team

2nd half - our first pummelled their reserves/u19s.

Finn can play hooker end of why is that such a shock to you.

Howarth has played stand off if you'd red the post properly you'd have realised it was a lament that at the time he was all we had though personally I thought he was okish.

The Anakin one was similar to the Howarth comment were struggling for centres and we were all slinging names forward as potential cover. However if you want to twist things to push your weak agenda so be it.

You and belly can start a little club of your own for OTT drama queens you'll have a wail of a time.

Perhaps he enjoys being positive like most of us do or would you like the forum to be pure negativity as per Belly and his mates?

Maybe we could add Chris Chester to our club because he clearly felt the same? But what does he know?

It's always nice to beat Cas, even in a friendly, but let's not kid ourselves, Cas were head and shoulders above us. I'd hope even you saw that.

You really do like to moan don't you?

Oh for the halcyon days when wilzay would start new thread after thread, stuffed with boundless optimism and gay abandon. They were happier times...

Can't wait for you to change your username to victiman

There's more to it than that.

First half: We were poor in a lot of areas, defence being the main one - Cas made plenty of metres and finished clinically.

With the ball, we handled poorly and didn't control the ruck well enough.

2nd half - much more expansive, less handling errors and Williams/Finn/Wood ran the show.

Even though it was vs a lot of younguns, our 2nd half was miles ahead of the 1st in areas that we control, rather than opponent

Put it this way, if we had played 1st half, like we did 2nd half, we would have given starting Cas side a good game.

I don't think cas are that much better than us. We were dire in the first half. All they had to do was pass it out to their left edge and they scored. Good execution and planning from them to pick out and exploit weak defence from our right fringe.
We changed it up brought on Finn, Wood, BJB and walker. Then the last 10 of the first half we were back in the game. Yes they made changes, for the second half. But they still had plenty of first teamers on the field, I believe it was Rangi that batch blitzed to score his try, and he's no U18.
Take what you want from the game, but for me; Wood proved me wrong about his hooking ability, Finn showed his value to the team, and we showed that we can play some brilliant entertaining rugby. Seeing Huby get stuck in and Kirmond with some fire in his belly was brilliant too. Put England and Fifita in that side and I think weve cause to be optimistic!

I disagree. I know they are rivals and I want us to be better than them but in all honesty, they are a top 4 side.

Do you really think they are better than Saints, Wigan, Warrington or Hull - seriously?