Seen as it's being mentioned are they as vital as us having

Ben Galea, Blake Green, David Hodgson, Craig Hall, Jake Webster, Ryan O'Hara & Scott Taylor missing? All 7 of those would be in our 17, Whilst 5 would have played the full 80 minutes tonight.

Not in the same league as our injuries.

No I didn't, their injury "problems" are none existent and a 17-man squad picked from Blanch, Pryce, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Casty, Mounis, Raguin, Baile, Pelissier, Gossard, Millard, Simon, Fakir, Paea, Baitieri, Duport, Fisher, Cardace, would push most full strength teams in SL.

We, Rovers, are far from full strength in most positions and this is not only due to injuries.

It's been a tough start to the season. In fairness though, only Bradford was a genuinely disappointing result and they look to be getting their poop together again, a little at least. Somebody said our backs aren't good enough, but when you're without your stand-off and three quarters of your first choice three-quarters, you're not going to be firing on all cylinders. Salter making his debut is a little silver lining.
I actually found last night's results more sobering. The top teams look to have really kicked on, and right now I can't imagine us picking up many points from them. Puts extra pressure on fixtures against the rest.
Best to try and focus on the positives, I reckon. Some more winnable games and hopefully players returning to fitness in the next few weeks.

Louis Anderson, Jamal Fakir, Cyrille Gossard, Clint Greenshields, Ian Henderson, Steve Menzies, Eloi Pelissier, Setaimata Sa, Frédéric Vaccari, Cyril Stacul

Those are the Catalan players who didn't play. Not sure which are injured. I'm guessing

Louis Anderson, Jamal Fakir, Clint Greenshields, Ian Henderson, Steve Menzies & Setaimata Sa would have definitely played if fit.

Good post. We've had a bloody hard start. 7 games in and we have already played Warrington, Leeds, Catalan all away and we now play a very in form Shudds side next week.

So earlier on when you said that their injuries were 'not in the same league' as yours you were wrong?

I don't think they are as bad. I certainly didn't think they where as bad as they are prior to actually having a look at the Catalan squad. Shock horror an opinion changes slightly when you look closer into a subject.....

Is your conditioning an issue? When Rovers present "High Performance Manager" was at FC he presided over the 2008 and 2009 injury crises which some on here suggested were to do with inadequate rehab/massage etc. Rovers seem to be hugely competitive in the first 60 but are rolled over in the last quarter, perhaps down to stamina and fitness training (or poor rotation).

As Mild Rover says, you've had the toughest of starts. And it appears accepted on here now that injuries [udo[/u compromise a team's ability to perform after all.

At times tonight we interchanged three forwards at the same time. Maybe trying to get an advantage but it must take effect later on with the lack of interchanges.

Very disappointed with the loss but I'm pleased they've stopped the rot and not totally collapsed in the last 20 even though they lost the game in the last 20.

The fact they only conceded 3 tries is encouraging but there's obviously some issues there.

Last season our back row played the full 80, this season they won't so that's more interchanges aswell. We really our props to do more minutes.
Looking at the list of players the dragons had out shows what great depth there squad has got, and the real lack of depth ours has unfortunatly.

our coach sandy said on tel text that their 2nd try was a knock on he said he saw it from the TV stream and he said again all matches should have a video ref

but

it might have been worse

The ridiculous sub plot undermines any serious point that you (are not) try to make.

Josh Charnley labelled our training as "too easy" and wasn't interested in staying with us should Wigan not want him.

New coach surely new ideas now though

Aye, But aren't all the back room coaching staff the same?

For me there seem to be a few too many Morgan ideas hanging around, possibly through Chester?

Josh Hodgson has the makings of a first class player but we're still playing him all over the park. Hooker is far too much of an important and difficult position to play to basically be doing a bit of it now and again and then messing about somewhere else, particularly at this stage of his career.

It's almost like the club held back on a 'fresh start' by keeping some sentiment.

Something I made a point of acknowledging in anticipation of our inevitably having a rough run at some point.


I mention (un)availability of players only to indicate that we shouldn't panic. In terms of our rivalry with Hull FC, if you finish above us it'll be because you were the better team over 27 rounds.
For its own selfish sake, a club has to be honest with itself. We shouldn't be blinded by what we want to believe. At the moment I see mitigation for our mediocrity, but we are pretty average right now, irrespective of whether Hull are on the up (and early signs look moderately promising for you from the little I've seen) or not. We're not one of the top teams and wouldn't be even with a full squad available. IMO, if we're patient things could well get better... up to a point. Without cash available for transfer fees and to stretch the cap 6th - 10th is par. SL, innit? Not meant to be easy.

You could call it continuity though - it's not like the last few years were so terrible that we were looking to start from scratch.
A new team takes time to gel and adjust. Signing Briscoe, Fox, Newton, Galea, Jake Webster et al. saw us climb from 11th to 7th, but we only got 3 more competition points in 2008 than we had in 2007. It was their second season when we started to look much improved. No guarantee it'll pan out the same way this time, but it might. Might even be sooner - last seasons late charge to the play-offs showed what a bit of a turn in form, confidence and luck can do.

FC injury crisis could be partly due to the fact that at that time you bought players into the club that were ageing and already crocked! Only O'Hara and Galea could fall into that category. As far as only playing playing for the first 60 minutes, I think that is more likely to be down to lack of concentration than lack of fitness. The game plan is forever changing due to the unsettled side and I think players are losing the plot at times.

I am hopeful that we will be able to play sides for the full 80 when our first choice team is fit and we will be competitive with most teams.

Concentration and fitness are not mutually exclusive.

They are not mutually inclusive either.

Indeed. Anyone who said as much would be wrong.

Just seen the Blanch try...not surprised Sandercock was upset