positives! Its a win! we got two points



Negatives! dont care we won!



Ok Serious positives! I was pretty worried about the defence after the Skolars game, yesterday we stood up and defended the line despite Menzies causing us problems

Some sensible play, that 1 point was worth its weight in gold

Dorn pretty solid

Burnett worked hard and looked enthusiastic every time he got the ball

Gale good most of the game

We kept up nil for most of the game

we did not lose our head and throw the game away



negatives



Too many free mtrs with penalties

Koops hmmm not sure yet

we tend to panic a bit on the last tackle

we let them in at the end (silly penalty from inexperience)



thought the ref was pretty poor

The main thing was it's 2 points in the bag and a realistic chance of getting another 2 next Sunday. Tony Clubb continues to worry me greatly. The more weight he puts on, the worse he seems to play. Good defence, but plenty to work on.

Menzies was on one leg, but what a great player. The game was poor the injury early on killed the game. both sets of players got cold

but the game was still worth the trip from dublin

Our kicking game was a postive as I was expecting it to be a negative.

Firstly I don't think it was a terrible game, I think RL fans have lost some of their appreciation for solid defence so low scoring games are judged worse than they really are. I'm not saying it was a classic, but as first competitive game of the season with some significant line up changes it worked pretty well. I just think if it had been 31 - 24 with softer defence on both sides people would be happier.



I think the prolonged stoppage for injury in the first half hurt us as we were running hot at that point, and we lost that momentum.



I was impressed by Burnett, particularly in the first half, we defended well, and held it together for some prolonged periods of pressure. I also thought Ellis played well considering he didn't play much last season and isn't a hugely experienced player at this level. We also didn't make too many unforced errors. I thought our backs were pretty tight despite the lack of strike, I thought Clubby had a solid game with just the one rush of blood pass to touch, but that would have been hailed as inspired had it come off. JO'C worked hard, and Howell was perhaps the quietest of the backs, although I don't think Melling is going to give us much from the wing and expect to see Pryce there soon.



Weaknesses, I don't think Randall is a credible option at scrum half for the rest of the season, although he did okay we need something more in the halves if we're going to create. We do lack size up front, we really need Temata back, but Ambler had a decent debut and Krasniqi doesn't look fazed. Wilkes had a good game and we'll need him to lead till Temata comes back. Maybe our loan signings from W***n will give us a bit of strike and creativity that we're missing?

Looks like we can add Salford to our little band at the wrong end of the table! I think SL16 may be closer than some think. Crusaders have started where they left off and that makes next Sunday even more interesting. If we really have sorted out our defence, when the firmer pitches appear we may be able to compete. We lack some grunt and a bit of nous but nothing that can't be fixed.

i do have to agree with KF the stoppage for the injury stopped out momentum and gave the cats a bit of time to compose themselves, they were not at the races until that point, what was the injury anybody know?

I hate knocking refs but i dont think mr Hicks had the best start to his season! What was goign on at the scrums? first time tell the players, second time warn em, third time sorry its a pro game blow the whistle and penalise, altho I do have to say at least he was doing summat, Leeds Bradfurt scrums a joke loose fwd from both side making no attempt to pack down and just leaning hamnds on

I really do wish they would watch the Off side at the scrum as well, Cats 14 stole 5 mtrs every single scrum



Cant agree with you Kelvin on the standard of the game, after the first 10 mins, it was a very dour affair and only real flair shown was one legged menzies



Ah the one thing I did forget was the chase after the Cats break, last year we would have given up but nope we had pace and will to keep chasing

Not seen the widne oops crusaders game yet so

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm enjoy it while we can!

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... efault.stm enjoy it while we can!

Wilkes was excellent. He seemed to start hitting his straps towards the back end of last season, and I thought he was the best player out there yesterday on either side. Great to see players who I don't (or rather didn't) rate prove me wrong.

Wasn't a classic but the big positive for me was the fact that we defended our line for 75mins without conceding. Granted Cats were missing Thomas Bosc and weren't at their best but nevertheless if we can defend better than we did last year it won't all be doom and gloom this season.

After seeing us concede five tries at Leigh a couple of weeks back I'm encouraged by the low score and the fact we almost nilled a side that seems to be fancied by many to be much stronger than last year.



The Crusaders v Salford result today was a bit startling as Salford looked likely to be the most improved side on paper whereas I thought Crusaders would be weaker than last year. Should be interesting next Sunday and I'm looking forward to it.