I see your signature is in line with your recent promotion to site manager

Phoenix night classic

Quality!

So is Garry Lo playing?

"I'm getting the word"

well played sir

No Fifita in the 17.

Annakin starts at loose forward.

Pauli Pauli starts in the second row.

Hampshire starts at scrum half.

Batchelor on the bench.

Simply too many basic mistakes I’m afraid.

Without doubt, poor completion. Our attack is a disjointed disgrace.

The MOM vote is a joke on sky.

Too many penalties and errors.

When will this team learn.

For me, our MOM was Rendell.

Pauli seemed to get the vote purely based on the fact he managed 80 minutes. The fact that most of them were unproductive was immaterial.

True, but over all was Watts for me, far too many yards in collisions.

Yep that’s what we’re missing from our forwards the hard yards

Got to win the collisions both in attack and defence.

Again totally agree and we aren’t winning either most of the time

Jarod Hickey and Charlie Laeano had more impact than Pauli Pauli.

I've seen tackle bags have more impact that Pauli is having on the pitch. His big but doesn't drive the ball in attack or stop the attacker in defence

I've heard one of the tackle bags is in the 19 for next week. lol

This is quite simply a load of carp.

What has happened to our offensive play (compared to last season).
I know it's difficult when any team makes changes to the spine of the team but, our offensive play is truly awful.

We made it difficult for ourselves by only completing 2 sets in the firs 35 minutes, which means that the players are going to be knackered as the game progresses.
However, given that we seem low on confidence, why dont we go back to basics.
Bang the ball up the middle and get a half decent kick away.
We just look lazy, players not working hard enough to do the basics well and our attacking line is so flat that we're making no impact with the ball.
Just far too many errors and penalties, again and what was a mis firing Cas side, without its main playmaker in the second half rolled over us again.
We need Big Dave back just to lift the team as we look utterly lost without him.

I can't decide what to think about our run of 1 win in 8 games Wrencat. Mixed feelings describes it best. We have lost but, barring Salford, not heavily or with too much capitulation. We have, with that exception, been competitive. But last night, as on a few occasions, there was a lot of huff and puff. We creaked in attack like an old bike begging for oiling. A few thoughts on where we go wrong:
1. Errors, pens and dumb plays. Just not getting the little things right and never seeming willing to try something to break the stranglehold. A particularly annoying example was getting a 40/20 with seconds on the clock at the end of the first half. Why did we not try that at any other point? And when we got it then, why did we not try a cross kick with literally 1 play to go at? Cas actually looked light on numbers out left and a decent kick was a pretty low risk option that looked more likely to get a score than a ball in hand play. Just a silly thing but emblematic of poor decisions, of which there were a fair few last night.
2. Last tackle plays. FGS when are we going to improve this aspect of our play? The number of times we end up getting tackled on the 6th or having to put a rushed kick in delivered by someone like Danny Kirmond, is ridiculous. We never try to build pressure. Why on earth our halves cannot learn this skill beats me. We hardly ever force a repeat set.
3. We BADLY miss Dean Hadley and I feel this is one of the biggest factors why we look tame in the forwards by comparison to last season, as is , of course, the loss of Fifita. Do we know when David is coming back?
4. As others have said, we need to start playing players consistently in key positions. I am not sure which of these changes have been forced and which are some sort of rotation system but I think we are changing too much. I still think that Finn, although what he does goes unnoticed by many, marshals us around the pitch better than Hampshire and we look a more organised team with him on the pitch. Miller seems to play better too, alongside him.
5. Kicking game remains average at best
6. Our forwards are big but largely lack punch. Is this tiredness as a result of all the defending we find ourselves doing due to errors and daft pens? Maybe.

But, I have to say, that maybe we need to take a reality check and not panic here. I can't see us failing to make the top 8. We have got most of the hardest fixtures out of the way now. When looking at those 8 gamed beforehand, I thought, I would be happy with 3 wins. We got 1 (probably the least likely!). We are entirely capable of picking up 8 wins from the fixtures we have left which will see us in the 8's by a margin. If we get a Cup run to go with it, I will take that as a good season. I like our players. We do not have top quality across all positions (though we do in quite a few) so I feel we have to be realistic and respect the effort this group always show. Without bigger attendances, new ground and more revenue, we are always going to be limited and I very much admire and respect what we are achieving on the pitch against huge odds

Just on this point. This was one of a few instances where Tupou kills the move. He's had some great games but I wish he'd stop thinking he can bust through solo every time especially when he's got TJ outside.
The disallowed try came when Tupou was missed and the ball went direct to TJ. Probably TJ's only receipt on the wing all night.

Do you think that may be the problem? Some of the players going out with the attitude that they can't win if Big Dave isn't playing. He is a massive miss though.