I said the same, we needed to be dominating down the middle at the moment not wide, especially as you say we would have been looking for the Drop goal, or getting a repeat set or at least them starting close to their line.

There were signs last week that the right edge was frail. That’s where we got targeted.

Griffin is not a centre anymore, Franco didn’t dare run it in on a few occasions which was poor. Personally I’d be bringing Thornley and Croft straight in next week.

The halfbacks were dissapointing today in the first half the way we ended sets was poor. Lawford would be back in for me.

Pitts was looking great at 13 but then hasn’t played there in 2 weeks.

Booth on bench was strange from the start.

Thought we were finishing the stronger of the two teams but for a misplaced pass and wrong option to take the game away.

Been saying that most of pre season. The right edge too loses a lot with Thornley and Mcgilvray out. I’m

On the plus side if we had to lose one this was the one. As mentioned game management was appalling as was team selection. Booth was a waste of a bench spot, was Cozza injured? We really could have done with that extra forward. As for the winning try, what the hell was Lino doing trying to throw that pass 30 meters out (on the 4th) in the face of an approaching defence? Too many poor performances from him in the last 2 years I've lost my patience with him I would go with Lawford next week.

I said from the start that with the terrible conditions and a shocking pitch today, that the team that made the errors at crucial times would loose, sadly it was Wakefield, poor passing decisions by our half’s today, especially Lino cost us. This was a gentle kick up the jackzy to remind us that we are not going to have it all our way this season. Well done Fev today, thaw out and move on to next Friday

Feedback from the players seems to suggest...their skin is revived and glowing, feels fresh and incredibly exfoliated.

Apparently, they all look great.

Some players also report they collected enough potatoes for a week's worth of chips.

Stayed up to watch… and now have to get up for work in half an hour!!! Given that was probably one of the few times I’ll get to see the team live I was obviously disappointed!!!

The right edge defence were at fault for both Featherstone tries… the defensive line speed and intensity overall was slow… only Vangana looked anything like with go forward…Doyle at loose was a weird and ineffective decision.. the spine looked tentative and soft… for the most part Lino was awful.. but was still better than Gale…

The conditions spelled out why we moved the game to the summer season… moreover because we have a couple of generations who have no idea how to play in mud!…

Congratulations to Featherstone who .. on balance probably deserved the win!

agree with that. The only thing is Thornley would have been playing if he was fit, is he scheduled for a return next week? would be a big plus.

The only thing I can think of with the bench and forwards, because Powell's not thick and coached at Featherstone for years so knows about the slope and pitch is that Cozza and Bain weren't fit.

Would you do Lawford for Lino or Gale? I thought Gale kicked alright in the second half, with his bombs and a few decent kicks for repeat sets but that's about it. The best kick Lino did was that one in our 20, over the top for Walmsley that so nearly came off, apart from that all I can say his defence is decent.

I think Mr Powell will have the right words to say to the right players on what are the right and wrong options when playing in those conditions.

Bowes played well today. Its a shame him and Dagger are not still on board. We do seem like an old team.

That's a fair assessment - exactly what happened.
It was the golden point lottery and we failed again.
I'm not knocking individual players because every wakefield player gave his all.
Luck and a pigsty of a pitch won the game for rovers.
Their ground is barely championship standard.

Fortunately was not able to make this game but but what I have seen are attrocious conditions and a highly motivated opposition on their home patch who are one of the better teams in the competition. The result will always be a lottery in this instance and it was a bounce of a ball that decided it.

There's not really anything that tells us how this season is going to pan out, but from the off I have always though our weakness is the halves. A past it former MOS, a headless chicken and a young, albeit promising, kid.

You would have also thought that our experienced team would have dealt better with the conditions too.

Really?!! Why don't you go tell Atoni that!
He ran his blood to water today - did you actually see the game??

Agree…
What I’m hoping for now is that on Monday morning when doing the game review…
The players listen and learn from the mistakes made during the game.. so that should it should come to pass that were involved in another mud bath game .. they are able make the right decisions..

We need two quick half backs and a fast 9 ,the ones we got are all way past there sell by date Think questions have got to be asked about how come our two so called big signings in the back are no were to be seen .Griffin is way to slow to be in the (We are going down the same road as last year of playing a back 7 of mostly slow injury prone players .Know the pitch was shocking but still no excuse for a disgraceful performance like that

That game could have gone either way today but we bombed it and Fev took their chances well, so all credit to them for that.
The season proper starts on Friday. We scrape the mud off, analyse the video of where we went wrong today and work our little booty's off to try and ensure that doesn't happen again. Today could have been a blessing in disguise but time will tell

Yes, I saw the game.

My comment was more of a collective, and wasn't singling anyone out.

In that first half we were totally outmuscled by their pack, of which Atoni spent time in the bin, along with one of theirs.

Amyway, its done, forget it, and move on to the league and 1895 cup.

Looking at the forecast for the week ahead, looks a bit drier

I have to shake my head in disbelief any anyone questioning the pace of any player today.

Usain Bolt couldn't run on that potato field.

It's a good one for experience, but dust it off and move on.

So far this year we have performed similarly dire against some very weak opposition and the writing was on the wall that we were going to get beaten by the 1st decent team we came up against. Ball spill, offside, six again, head high and repeat.
Nothing we did today suggests that we will be any different v Bradford on Friday.

Agree with the last posting, playing like that we will loose more than we win, every team that we play will see the game as their cup final, prepared to spend extra energy to prove a single game of proof they can beat the best whilst knowing their next weeks game they will be short on energy & their body needs a rest, this will not help us of course.
Our half backs are not good enough to win the championship, gale goes quiet, Link has wild passes in his game & poor decisions !

Hardly any of our new signings will have played in conditions like that before. Hopefully they won’t ever again!

Fev were more motivated than us and more enthusiastic.

We clearly have issues in the halves.

Lino is neither an organiser nor is he a runner, he’s just very very average.

I’m not in the doom and gloom club to be honest.

We need to focus on comps we can win, I think the players had that in the back of their minds too.

Having Thornley and Jerry out reduces the quality of our exit sets and that is something we need to look at.

Should we struggle against Fev in the league on a better pitch in better conditions I will be concerned but at the moment I’m comfortable with where we are despite the loss today, which in real terms counts for nothing but bragging rights for a couple of weeks.

It was a bad day for us today but plenty of good signs despite that.
Some of the tactics weren't right but ultimately its about quality of what we are trying to do.....and that will improve with time and better weather.

If anything was to seriously concern me about today’s performance it was the unwillingness of some to roll their sleeves up and embrace the hard slog, physically relentless, tough war of attrition. Championship teams may not have full time athletes, they may not have a squad full of talent and potential but they will bring that dogged, hard nosed, grind and front on challenge for 80 minutes.

If we can’t or won’t meet that challenge then we will get turned over and as I’ve said before, we’ll find ourselves on the team bus asking how did we lose that game?

However we chalk that up we just lost our first real challenge against one of our contenders for top spot. That’s something that needs rectifying in the season.

Season starts on Friday and Bulls will be loving the fact we had a tough slog that went into extra time.

Luckily we will have a few players available (hopefully) in Thornley, Croft, Cozza, Bain, Lawford who can step in.

I’d like to see a few players move back into the positions they were performing well in early pre season like Griffin > second row and Pitts > 13.

With Taufua on the wing too I think I’d go for Croft on the edge for a bit more size.

Something like :

Jowitt
Walmsley
Pratt
Thornley
Croft
Lawford
Lino
Bowden
Hood
Atoni
Ashurst
Griffin
Pitts

Doyle
Uele
Vagana
Bain