Those 3 players have been replaced with Farimo,, Paea and Westerman, I'm not saying they're good enough replacements, but the 3 players you mentioned, were very good for us and they were always going to be difficult to replace. But they have been replaced with capable players.

Sports a funny thing, it just takes a bit of luck and a win, and confidence can return.

I think if us fans start to relax and be a bit more positive and smile a bit more, then that will help. Desperation will get us nowhere.

Not good enough today certainly, But there's always another day.

Says a lot when Houghton actually looks better at 13 than he does at 9. Less pressure on his pass accuracy which can be hit and miss at 9, plus his speed off the mark is way less than Litten

To be the first coach to win a CC in a generation despite being hopeless was incredibly lucky. For him to win it again was a miracle.

No can do as he’s already played a game this season.

I agree, Mcshane was very good. That offload he did in the first half was class, and that little kick into the in-goal from dummy half, which is when you had 3 sets in our half, in the second half, was a player playing with confidence.

But there isn't many more consistant, competitive players than Houghton in the league.

Thought Connor and Westerman did well tonight though as expected Westy tired but showed up well in first game back. Taylor again our only real forward, Masi was ok but Paea really is done as another disappointing performance.
Thought Houghtons distribution was poor in general and is symptomatic of the slow play in general as we still look laboured.
Thought Miloudi was shocking tonight and showed why he hasn’t been getting selected cost us defensively.
Jez Litten again came in and injected much need pace in around the ruck and was unlucky with the kick to Shaul, who again played well.
We are far to light in the forwards and re signing Paea for a second time looks like it isn’t paying off.
Still too predictable at times especially the play where Shaul joins the line the puts the breaks in before either a drop off the Griffin or going back along the line.
Defensely I thought we were also too static and seem to just wait for the opposition so giving up easy metres and losing the collision and being in the back foot. Other teams tend to get off the mark quickly and close down the opposition.
Overall I just don’t think we looked up for it tonight and disappointing.

It's gonna be interesting to see what we go with when Kelly returns.

I want Conner involved heavily, so he has to be in the halves. But he'd also be our best centre.

As it goes now, I predict Conner will go to centre and Griffin to the wing.

For an old codger like me the miracle in a CC final will always be the tackle by Houghton on Currie.

I would say currently we have the weakest pack in Super league.
Radford has to take responsibility for that.
he took criticism for extending the contracts of Manu,Minichello,Paea,and Washbrook when most fans saw this as a year too long and its coming home to roost.
Washbrook didnt play tonight but the other three once again just like at HKR were anonymous.
We now have only four first team players out injured Kelly,Bowden, Green and Hadley so we cant keep using the injury excuse.
The next excuse i can see coming from Pearson as he continues to support an under fire coach who is 0/13 and will problably be 0/14 in two weeks, is this is a transition year so dont expect too much.
Kelly back and moving Connor into the centre may help but the major problem is our forwards are being dominated and the bench is so weak.

The try CAS scored just before half time was appalling
Tells you just about all you need to know about the teams mental state right now
Watch it again from tackle 1 to the try
It’s a shocker

Here we go

“We’ll get better when we have a full side on the field. Some boys are still getting back to full fitness.”

Dreaming of a full strength side is a non starter. Look who was in the stands for Cas and they still scored 5 tries.

We need a ' Next man up attitude '

The stats from our front rowers:

Taylor: 13 carries, 127 metres
Matongo: 5 carries, 32 metres
Paea: 4 carries, 38 metres
Thompson 5 carries, 19 metres
_______________________________

Watts: 14 carries, 140 metres

Great effort from Taylor. Beyond pathetic from the other 3. Surely its worth giving Nzoungou or even Brown a go if that's the sort of performances you are getting. At least Paea made decent yards per carry, but 4 carries from one of your senior props? Is that Radford getting his interchanges wrong or is he incapable of the minutes or not pulling his weight? Not really sure. Matongo even worse given how long he was on field. As for Thompson, the less said the better really. I would genuinely back myself to make 20 metres from 5 carries even against a really aggressive defence. That is outrageously bad.

First of all, I thought it was a good game, was impressed with Cas and the speed they played the game, I thought they were two quick for us and we were kept in the game by individuals mainly Shaul and Connor.

As I said last week we are we are at, I still think we will finish 6th-8th. We aren't far off and with a bit of luck and more brains we would have 4 points, the try before half-time killed us, silly penalty (again) and too easy metres( like they did most of the game.)

Big positives for me was the Connor, Westy and Shaul. Thought Litten did well again.

Two negatives for me are the forwards, just not good enough except Taylor, Cas forwards main so much more ground and offloaded at will.

Last tackle plays, Sneyd needs to step up here, he has given a lesson on how to force a repeat set my make shift halfs and a hooker.

Two top class forwards needed to make us compete again.

Connor needs to play in a pivotal position.

Minichiello gets dominated in every tackle, he just offers nothing anymore, same with Paea & Manu.
Hopefully Hadley is back soon.

Biggest frustration is how we wasted tackles trying to catch the offside marker, when it was clear Kendall was letting them get away with it. We don’t play the ref at all and it costs us.

Yeah Hadley is a 2nd rower not a loose man, Westerman showed how a loose forward plays tonight, get Dean, Lane and another big name 2nd rower in for next season and two good props to help Taylor, Masi and Bowden out. Let Green AND Paea leave and Manu, Mini and Washy will retire.

I thought we were better than last week but some poor individual efforts let us down. connor is the best player at the club by some distance and with hindsight we should have let kelly go and used his salary to sign a quality prop and play connor at 6. He'll make mistakes whilst he's learning the role but he is a very skilled player.

Forwards are abysmal. Only westerman and taylor good enough for a challenging club. The rest need to go

We will lose most games this year due to our weak pack and I don't see many teams who are likely to finish below us. Now it's just a case of whether pearson will stick with radford and trust we'll get our recruitment right for next year but this season is over

At the risk of sounding patronising, I thought you were better than many on here suggest and that elusive win is not a million miles away.

Thought Connor and Shaul were outstanding and did not deserve to be on the losing side.

Better bounce of the ball and a couple of decisions go the other way and its a different result.

Cas did look better in the forwards but your backs shaded it.

The thing is, it's not long ago that we were talking about trebles and could make a realistic claim to being the best team in the league. Yes there were good things about our performance last night and I am sure that a win isn't far away. The way we played last night would probably be too good for half the teams in the division. But to even be talking like that shows just how far we have gone backwards in a very short space of time.

Our pack absolutely ran riot not so long ago, teams just couldn't live with them. Now we have Taylor who is international quality, and Westerman who I rate very highly, and then what?

Green is imo our second best prop, but his injury record is terrible, when he returns can we keep him there for more than 2 games? Bowden is good, but not a world beater, and he has had a very serious injury, will he be the same player? Paea is garbage, he can leave tomorrow for me. Masi doesn't make any yards. Minichiello doesn't offer any threat any more, Manu isn't much better. Thompson tries but is too lightweight, in fairness to him he should go better when the pitches firm up. Washbrook is a handy squad player because of his versatility, but again, he never makes any impact.

Then you have Fash who is a grafter but is again too small and light. Lane who has a lot of potential but is years away from reaching it. Hadley is probably our best second rower and that says it all because he is Mr average. Beinek is yet to prove himself. Brown hasn't played a first grade game yet, and Levy hasn't pulled up any trees at his other clubs.

It's an awful group of players really.

Last night has shown where our biggest problem is and our weakest area and that is the forwards. Taylor is the only one that gives us any go forward. Paea for me is a total waste of a quota spot but also a spot in the 17 as he offers us nothing, Masi is still progressing but is not yet there. Mini & Manu for me offer little now which is a shame as Mini has been one the clubs best import signings on the whole but sentiment won't win us games, neither should have been re signed.
Bowden has been out for so long after a horrible injury its hard to say whether he will be as good as he was and will take him time to get back in to things even when he does make a return. Green for me can be good but just doesn't use his size enough and is rarely on the field.
Thompson is not a front rower and would be better in the 2nd row and have more effect than Mini but at present he is the best option which says an awful lot about the poor state we are in with front rowers. Hadley, Thompson and Lane for me would offer more than Mini & Manu.
Bienek as yet is relatively untried and untested at this level and Brown who impressed in pre season is yet to taste SL action.

We need 2 front rowers who can take help share the workload of Taylor and give us much needed go forward, unfortunately that isn't going to happen this season. So we are stuck with what we have this season due to very poor recruitment and retention.

We can only hope for big changes next season but sadly can't see anything changing or improving much this season, just hoped I'm proved wrong.

Learned last night Kelly is not in the country, as he’s seeing a specialist re his brain injury. Concern re cognition.

I thought he was playing Playstation with the kids?

This sums up all that's wrong atm

Funny that he was stood in our dugout last night.