Hopefully with Tomkins back in the Catalans squad it gives our players a boost and bigger incentive to get one over him for his constant bagging in his punditry. Whilst some may have been justified, a lot of it has seemed more about just bagging them for the sake of it.

The thing with Sao is he’s a competitor and tries so hard. When the clubs getting whacked every week and there’s no confidence he tries too hard and gets through a mountain of work hence the errors.

Put him in a decent team and suddenly he will look class

Abdul out which gives us less to think about in their attack - 3 more assists last week vs Cas? Two from his left boot.

Surely Tomkins will score, he always seems to play well vs us.

The lads will be high on confidence. Would love to see another win, but think they might have too much in the end. Looking forward to it, which is a positive!

I agree. I've never watched Sao an thought he didn't care or wasn't putting any effort in. Generally the opposite as you say. Not a 2nd rower though

I think running out wide he seems to find himself in a bit more space or in 2 on 1 tackles, rather than 3 on 1 tackles straight up the middle. This seems to make him force an offload a bit more and often he does it at the wrong times and just hands possession back. He's a very good player at just running straight and hard, and recently he's become more disciplined with his offloads and his performances have improved because of it.

He also gets caught out defensively out wide

The squad flew out this afternoon. I guess we all agree this is the best policy as opposed to flying out, playing and flying back on the same day?

Just waiting for our travel and jetlag expert to update us all.

I'm generally one of Sao's bigger critics, but I agree that he has been very good for the past month or so. If he keeps up that form and keeps the stupid stuff out of his game then absolutely I would keep him. He has had purple patches before though and then reverts back to being a liability. Hopefully this is the new Sao and that isn't going to happen.

I do wonder if he was getting frustrated and trying to do much himself, bringing in Aydin and Ese'ese, takes some pressure off him.

Sao was injured or unfit up until last 2-3 matches
He was very poor defensively

Hoping we can stick with Catalans and carry on our new found resilience, tough trip for any team this fixture, good luck lads.

He's been playing with rib and ankle issues. He's definitely not unfit. Probably one of the fittest players in the squad.

Team news

Walker; Barron, Tuimavave, Sutcliffe, Martin; Trueman, Charles; Ese’ese, Smith, Aydin; Chamberlain, Lane; Sao.

Interchange: Balmforth, Gardiner, Fash, Vuniyayawa.

No Briscoe?

Not travelled due to personal reasons.

Catalans look on it tonight.

This ref repeatedly shouting at Chamberlain to play the ball when he clearly took a shot to the head. How did he even miss the head contact in the first place.

Correct call , Gale got 7 games for that.

Absolute disgusting refereeing.

Fucking hell, Sao.

Fuck sake

Said it for seasons, Sao is a liability.

Give over. He may not of seen it but once he had it explained to him had the balls to issue a red.
Sao is a pillock.

More cards to come in this game. Ref looks to be losing control already. Granted he's done all he can so far by issuing cards.