Excellent post and bang on the money.

My apologies, but no i didn't come on here to troll. My initial post was tongue in cheek, and i was only defending the response it got. There is no need to be one sided.

So you're back tracking on Wood already, if it were anyone else I'd say it was unbelievable but from you sadly it's not.

I said to my mate after about 10 minutes, that it looked like one team had come here for a good hard sold game of RL, while the other were taking the term friendly a bit too literally. We were just so lackadaisical in both defense and attack. Silly unforced errors, no aggression at all, plus the defense practically stood still letting Gale have time on the ball he could only have wished for before hand. Cas look pretty slick and dominated the half.

Anyway the positives, whether it was against some Cas players that won't make their Top 21 players or not, the way we gradually started to play some good RL was really encouraging to see. It would have been really easy in a friendly to go into their shells but the comeback showed excellent team spirit.
As has been mentioned before, Wood came on and just livened the whole team up. Plus Finn used his experience and that good rugby brain he has, to get the team playing the way we should have been from the start. Huby started to show touches of the player he was at Cas wit his offload game. Which is great because with Fifita we have a couple of good off loading Props, we just the players around to be always looking for them

From what I've seen of Williams so far, he looks like he's going to take a few proper SL games before he properly hits his straps. Like a long list of Aussies before him, he'll take time to get used to his team mates, plus also playing in a different Comp in vastly different conditions.

With the tremendous development of Batch and Crowther, we have this year a real competition for places in the back row, which will prove so important as the season goes on. We have Ashurst, Kirmond, Arona, Annakin, Batch, Crowther, Molloy, plus Sio if we play him at loose.
Same goes in the Prop department. We look as strong there has we have done during the whole SL era. Fifita and England have yet to play but Hirst looks like hes going to make that step up from what I've seen of him. Walker looks like he's worked hard in the off season as well and could easily step in for anyone. Allgood has been fairly impressive in the 2 games I've seen him. His defense down the middle is something that will do us no harm at all, especially compared to last season

In the halves, I really like the fact we have a few kicking options. Say if Finn's at Hooker and Miller and Williams in the halves it gives us 3 kicking options . Which is obviously a great position to be in & makes it harder for the opposition to know where the kicks, especially when we're attacking.

Hopefully we came out of the game with no more than a few bangs and bruises.

Thats fine then. Unfortunately especially lately we have to be a tad 'one sided' to keep this forum from decending into chaos.
It was only a friendly warning - and as I have a soft spot for Leythers you are ok, for now!

Someone said earlier that Cas this year will finish above us and in top four.

Personally, yes, I think they will finish above us. Top 4. No. I think they will pursue that level but miss out and get 5th spot.

One thing from yesterday I will say is that if they get a few injuries they may need to rely on some of those younger players at certaon points of the season. Are they ready for the step up yet?

Only time will tell.

Are our younger players ready to step up at ths moment?

This could be where we are at a higher level

Someone said earlier that Cas this year will finish above us and in top four.

Personally, yes, I think they will finish above us. Top 4. No. I think they will pursue that level but miss out and get 5th spot.

One thing from yesterday I will say is that if they get a few injuries they may need to rely on some of those younger players at certaon points of the season. Are they ready for the step up yet?

Only time will tell.

Are our younger players ready to step up at ths moment?

This could be where we are at a higher level

It was you in the previous post.

Thanks Wollo.

Seriously, I am sure I read it prior. It could have even been on Facebook.

Apologies for the duplicated posts. Most of the time I am on here through my phone, and think it is on its way out as it keeps sticking, and don't always think my post has gone.

Think Cas will probably look at the players who were sat in the stands watching the Wakey game before putting the under 19's on. These players include the following.

Zak Hardaker
Michael Shenton
Grant Millington
Oliver Holmes
Mike Mc Meekan
Adam Milner
Nathan Massey
Larne Patrick

Yes you played a Cas Team who spanked you in the first half without these players included. Well done for beating the Cas under 19's in the 2nd half though

Well done, you were leading at half time in a preseason friendly, have a banana.

I think he'd prefer to suck on a lemon!

Your post is quite good, when you get in your teens you'll be able to write more intelligently - possibly!

You can have a pop at blink studios but he's right

Not really, we played miles better with the ball in 2nd half. Would have been interesting to see that 2nd half performance against their 1st team, don't think it would have carried on the way the 1st half went.

Anyone know when the highlights of the game are out???

Exactly! There's no gloating to be had by anyone in a friendly (there's a clue in the term friendly).

.. and it suits your bizarre agenda!

Don't have an agenda, I hate Cas, but blinkstudios does have a point

We could point to players left out of the match and injuries sustained during the first half. Trying new combinations out.... etc... but that would gloss over the point that we were dire, particularly in defence down the right side.
If Cas wanted to play U19s in the second then they are free to do so. But they're deluding themselves if they think it was a full team of U19s. Monaghan and chase must have started playing rugby in their infancy!
At the end of the day Cas played well in the first half, taking advantage of some weak defence by us. Towards the end of the first half we came back into the game after a reshuffle. In the second half we played outstanding rugby, which even the Cas fans next to me applauded, and rightly deserved the win.
Let's stop detracting from ourselves and leave that to the rest of the RFL. It was a good win, we'd have tested any team with that second half display.

Not really. It wasn't a league game, the result was nice for us even if it was the weaker Cas' players we blitzed in the second half.
Friendly games are a notoriously poor guide to form in the coming season.
That said, Cas' are a team we have to emulate and I think we have the players to do it IF they play with the same heart as the Cas' players. IMO that's what it's all about.

Perhaps you can tell us which of your squad, from Sunday, you would leave out to accommodate the 8 players on your list.
There are some obvious ones, but you will struggle to get all of these into you first squad for round 1 of the new season.
I dont think 23 man squads are allowed for SL fixtures.

Hardaker for Monaghan (eden to wing)
Shenton for Egodo
Millington for Springer
Holmes for Cook (Cook to Bench)
Mcmeeken for Moors (Moors to LF or Bench)
Milner for Senae Lefao (JSL to Bench)
Massey for Maher
Patrick for Fitsimmons

Really wasnt difficult.

Our strongest line up will be along the lines of this:

1. Hardaker
2. Minikin
3. Shenton
4. Webster
5. Eden
6. Chase
7. Gale
8. Lynch
9. Mcshane
10. Millington
11. Holmes
12. Mcmeeken
13. Milner

14. Roberts
15. Moors
16. Springer
17. JSL

That bench is the definition of impact. Still leaves out established SL players such as Cook, Patrick, Massey, Hitchcox, Monaghan etc.

Absolutely no delusion at all.

Our left hand side consisted of luke million, Tom Holmes, Luis Johnson, Tuoyo Egodo and Declan Sheehan
Our right was Monaghan, Callum Turner, Connor fitzsimmons, chase
Our forwards - Moors Cook and Springer played 10 minutes. Then we had Brandon Douglas and Daniel Igbinedion and Will Maher.

The max number of first teamers was 5 and we finished the game with 2 (mongahan and chase).

Lynch, Roberts, Mcshane, Gale and Senae Lefao sat on their backsides watching.

I will bet 1000 English pounds that Cas tigers finish above the Wakefield widcats in the 2017 Superleague table. Any Wakey fans interested in that bet ?