Disagree. Yes, it undoubtedly took momentum away from us and gave the Dragons (The Cat's are wakefield

) time to regroup but when it comes to player safety, it takes as long as it takes. No exceptions.

Agree with almost all of the above.



I do think the injury and the subsequent delay took the momentum out of the game and helped them more than us. My positives and negatives below, but 2 points the major bonus:



Positives



Wilkes

Burnett (who i thought was excellent)

Bailey and Ambler (less impressive but solid)

fewer stupid errors

better kicking game

defence, was exceptional at times and agree about the chase down, we would not have done that last season

Gale - was brilliant for 10 minutes, then the dealy and he seemed to lose focus)





Negatives:



Koulpartis - didnt look great but prepared to wait

Still too many penalties

not enough imagination

lack ideas on 6th

Melling O'Callaghan - i like them both and thing Melling is vital as he covers virtually every position and is a great team man. O'C has come on a lot. BUT they dont offer a lot on the wings in terms of finishing. Claderwood, Lucas, Pryce - wouldnt they offer more?



Overall i am feeling better with game under belt. Crusaders now look a tough test so lets see outcome of next week - it may be that we can then judge where we will end up?

Curt



Shocking comment mate, an injury is an injury, what ever time it takes to get the bloke sorted then take the time. Agree it took a while to get the stretcher out there but if it was needed then it was needed!

Comments like ("I'm all for player safety but the Cat's medical staff was being very "professional"icon_wink.gif do not do us a set of supporters any favours

As for Cats being the cats Ar*£ Cats! Catalan. The Wakefield Trinty! nickname is Wildcats not Cats you could say same about cas, are not tigers a form of cat

It may be a better indicator, yes I agree. Hopefully we'll look fitter and be a bit more comfortable on home turf. Crusaders looked decent from what I saw yesterday, helped by a pretty shambolic Salford effort.



I really hope we can get a good crowd for this game, 4,000+

Apologies on the Cats. I know I should have said Dragons.



With what I know that goes on in professional sport I was just surprised it took so long to get the stretcher on to the field.

I thought we looked a well-coached outfit against uninspired opposition.



Was especially impressed with the wider defence. I think Clubb defending at right centre resolves most of his frailties at 3rd and 4th man in where he can mis-read the play horribly. Burnett-Howell-Randall-Melling were asked more questions down the left and looked great on their side of the defence. Having watched the Leigh and Catalans games, I think the big worry for our defence is down the middle channel: Wilkes, Ward and especially Kouparitsas have poor footwork/lateral movement. That said, Ellis and Bailey looked strong for smallish forwards in the middle third.



With ball in hand, I thought we looked pretty smart, if conservative. Contrary to everyone else it seems, I thought our last tackle options were fantastic - the kicking game was great, both for field position and attacking wise. We really didn't have many tackles in the oppo's half and so I can accept that people were frustrated not to see Gale and Dorn get the ball in their hands very much after the first 15 minutes. But that's not their fault.



I don't think our performance will have scared anyone but I'd go with the same starting 13 next week. Like Kelvin's Ferret said, I think that if Randall is a 7 he needs to direct play more - he tends to start games demanding the ball at first receiver and then he drifts out of the action. For this reason, I'd go for Mellor on the bench and, to start with, give the youngster 10-15 mins at either side of half-time, allowing Ellis and Randall to share 9 before finishing the game with Randall at 7 and Ellis at 9. For me, this would have the added bonus of keeping Kouparitsas well away from the DH role.



I think Purdham and Burnett gave us 160 minutes - which is a great sign because both these fellas will create space for others. Bailey looked like he had great hands and he looks like he reads the game quickly too - was impressed. Kouparitsas is getting hammered - and, true enough, he was poor at Leigh and Cardiff - but I'd like to see him come on for Bailey at 13. He's not a DH, and his defence in the middle is a concern, but he might go better as a backrower.



Our options at prop remain limited. Plenty of effort but a lack of size re. Ward, Ambler, Bryan. I'm hoping Krasniqi or Thomas will have a breakthrough year.



Finally, do we need all of Pryce, Calderwood and Latus? Two of these can go now in my (heartless) IMO.

Just on this.



I thought Melling was excellent. He had one and a quarter chances and he finished well with the first and hit the corner flag for the other.

I was quietly impressed by both wingers. I think if the alternatives are two players who are bigger names but clearly unfit the choice is an obvious one.



I was a bit sceptical about O'Callaghan last season but I really hope he pushes on this year, he's still only 20.

Top Post!!!!

Melling's a solid player, and I've no doubt [uif[/u he gets service he will finish off chances from 10 metres out, but how many of those chances will he get on the wing? What I don't see is him making a break and going 50m+, nor do I see him busting tackles and sweeping us down field, Pryce if he's fit and can show some effort might just give us that type of strike.

colly 2



you're posts are spot on....you certainly understand the game

unlike a few others on here!!!!

I thought for the first game of the season, when everybody is a little ring rusty it was a fairly decent stab of things. Rob Powell has definately lifted the air of insipid performance we were getting under the previous regime and the players seemed to want to play for a) each other b) the new coach and c) Quins RL.



Wilkes (including flattening Sa) and Burnett's performances and 2 smart tries from Gale stood out for me.



The old cliche "One swallow doesn't make a summer" ( especially in February) does spring to mind but I'm quietly confident that whilst many pundits (including Sky's "3 Amigos"icon_wink.gif have written us off before a ball had been kicked in anger, I reckon we could be giving a few teams rather more than what they bargained for this summer.



That put's us 6 - 8 points beyond Wakefield and we still maintain a 4 point advantage over Crusaders which come Sunday 5pm will I believe be 6.



At this early stage I'd say that's a good start and nothing more.