I'd have gone with Brown too, but this Cas team is old and slow and maybe Smith tactically wanted a more mobile team to run the legs off them rather than it being a case of Brown being out of favour.

Hola senor Wiz
Que Tal?

we are playing well,still a bit of indicipline, but thats still an unbalanced bench and i dont understand bringing in Houghton when we have also have Lovodua on the bench and even Cator can play nine if required.
My opinion but Brown would have been a better option

Make the most of the sun as you have plenty of rain next week

FFS!

At least we won't be too over confident next week. When I saw our side, I'd have taken any win, we were excellent for 60 minutes, just collapsed.

Happy with the two points, hopefully a couple back to change it slightly with the short turnaround.

Got to go with a bigger bench.

Good to see we haven't changed too much


Decent going forward, dreadful defensively.
Thought it was odd that we had all 3 of Evans, Taylor and Satae off at the same time for a bit.
2 points to get off the mark I suppose.

Well I’ll take 2pts but we should face killed that game off. Cas were always going to come out strongly in the 2nd half and we seemed to drop our work rate and the intensity. Not sure why we played Houghton for 60 minutes either.
Some good points but some bad ones too and still much work to do.

Easy!

Very frustrating, but also relief, we definitely need more size on the bench next week. We just put the cue on the rack after an hour thinking we'd done enough and gifted Cas countless chances to get back into the game. Hoy and Clifford look like they'll be good for us.
Dont know why they were allowed to wear the same colour kit as us.

Well that was fun



Horrible last twenty minutes but Cas to be fair were really throwing caution to the wind.

First half though was very good and hopefully we'll see that sort of rugby this year. Some cracking tries. Dwyer was very impressive in that first forty.

At least Smith has a idea what needs working on.

Its two points Chris but i think we will have to get used to what we see as seemingly questionable selection decisions by Tony Smith.
I agree playing Houghton for 60 mins was crazy.He tried to play at a faster pace but was still much too slow but i think he will go with this Dwyer/Houghton combo for most of the season if they are fit.
Didnt help us either to have Taylor,Satae and Evans all off together.
You have to wonder sometimes what goes through the heads of coaches.
Thought Griffin and Lane were ok but i think we need more than OK in this position and just hope Savelio gets some form back
Carlos hopefully back in for Cam Scott and he may help Ben McNamara with a bit more on field talking and we shouild have Ligi Sao back to give us a bit more size and punch down the middle.

I’m not particularly concerned. We did look a bit shaky in D but new structures should and relationships should become second nature soon.

I also think the edge of Mcintosh, Scott, McNamara & lane really struggled. If you suddenly replace Scott and lane with Carlos and savelio we probably concede 3 less tries.

The lads will be better from the experience and Leeds looked poor. Should be able to win there and then move into round three/four finding some momentum and continuity.

I’m not particularly concerned. We did look a bit shaky in D but new structures should and relationships should become second nature soon.

I also think the edge of Mcintosh, Scott, McNamara & lane really struggled. If you suddenly replace Scott and lane with Carlos and savelio we probably concede 3 less tries.

The lads will be better from the experience and Leeds looked poor. Should be able to win there and then move into round three/four finding some momentum and continuity.

Not sure what to make of that hope I'm wrong but looked like 2 sides who will bottom half

Clifford looked impressive we scored 32 points but cas defence was horrendous and think they'll deffo struggle

We need to get mcintosh out for Mitch so much better

Dwyer was class needs to start every week

55 minutes, total control, some excellent tries, stopped Cas offload game.....then the sloppy penalties crept in and stupid pass from McIntosh gave them the momentum, just hope its a bit of first game fatigue as Cas' bench looked stronger than ours, Sao and Savellio play, that score doesn't happen, i think we made them look better than they actually were imo

Excellent attendance of 15,383.

Have to say the Westerman stuff went on far too long, it got tiresome and was hardly having a negative effect on him.

Disappointing not to keep our foot on the gas and really run some points in. Think we would have done if we scored when McIntosh was held up near the sticks. He handed his own player off when just a little pass would have seen us in under the posts and 30 points ahead. Cas should have worn their home strip.

Plenty to still work on but in week 1 you can't ask for anything more than a win really.

For me the bench selection was suprising and no real need to accomodate Houghton at all at the expense of go forward in brown.

Looked very slick and orgsnised with Hoy and Clifford and Dywer pulling the strings, doon as Houghton was introduced it totally threw it out with the lack of props, and also Houghtons needs to take charge away from.Clifford.

Watched Clifford and Hoy get set for a play ,only for Houghton to totally ignore go the opposite way resulting in a very disjointed off the cuff attack which broke down. Running theme between Connor and Houghton last season for me.

im sure Smith saw the same and with carlos, sao and savelio back wel see the same mistake not repeated.

Thank you danny but time to take a step back and let the new kids on the block take charge

Tend to agree, thought we were very good early on, scored some lovely tries and definitely signs of more variation (e.g. short dropout to reclaim possession). But, and it's a big but, our pack is a concern. I just don't think our props as a group cut it unfortunately. We need Sao back sharpish and Taylor to show his pre season form.

We just dont do boring do we?

Opening games are often odd, we raced out of the traps whereas Cas didnt wake up til the 2nd half. So glad we clung on for the win as a shock defeat would have really hit morale.

Saw a lot of promise in that 1st half but consistency has long been a problem and it will take time. I also still feel we are a big prop short, even with Sao fit.

Great first half, passing was crisp, had structured plays, looked enthusiastic, mamo and Kenny Edwards kept finding gaps on our right in the second half...we shouldn't have had lovodua, Houghton and Dwyer all on at once, that's where things went wrong. As others said, think the pack looks a bit lightweight, lane, Griffin and fash as the back 3 isn't the long term answer

Glad we finally managed to rid ourselves of the big crowd curse too! (Although we almost reverted to type)

15,383, that's really excellent.

As others have said, having Carlos, and Savelio back on that right edge will be a big plus and also having Ligi back will help our go forward too. I'd also have Mitch on the right wing too as think he's better defensively than Mcintosh.
No surprise they started getting a roll on when we only had one recognised prop in Fash on the pitch but the positive (apart some outstanding rugby in the first half) was that we would definitely have lost that game last season.

Didn't see the game but listened on Radio Leeds.

They thought that the first half was more a case of Castleford being woeful rather than anything exceptional from Hull. Obviously they favour the West Yorkshire team so maybe that coloured their judgement.

But what a typical effort from a Tony Smith team. His teams love to play expansive rugby but are not nearly so keen on defending, He's been away from Australia for so long now I do believe he is out of touch with modern coaching methods.

Castleford couldn't quite pull off a remarkable recovery but had the game gone on 5 or 10 minutes longer they surely would have.

2 mistakes in that second half nearly undid all the good work in the 1st half. Firstly, Smith taking Evans off and not putting another prop on. We had a pack of Cator, Lane, Fash, Lovodua, Houghton and Griffin, and we lost our control of the ruck, as a result they then scored 3 tries I think...before error 2 of the half...McIntosh pass to Hoy after collecting the kick. Absolute shocker and think they then scored twice.

Hopefully Smith thinks again about his bench, today it wasn't good enough. Brown must have been fit to be down as 18th man (HIA interchange)