I’m not so sure it was gripes from the PRC, just that Powell doesn’t do cliques. Nor does he want senior players treated any differently from those below them, business interests or not. It’s clear from the introductory video at the end of 2021 that he wants a one-for-all and all-for-one attitude. Remember the ‘next available seat’ policy at lunch that he borrowed from Graham Murray? And the quotes about humility from the All Blacks book? Leaving work early because you’re a senior player, getting off a coach early instead of sharing the blame with the whole team on the way back from a heavy defeat, pushing back against a new style of training. And so on. You can see on the pitch just how excited the players are now compared to the last few years.

I hope this is something that stays with us long after Powell moves on, engrained in the mind of our good core of academy graduates coming through.

No, I wasn't suggesting that the PRC had gripes - just that in 2021 they were maybe trying to create a more positive atmosphere because certain other members of the squad already had negativity creeping in at that point. But anyway, it's water under the bridge now, because the spirit in the current side is there for all to see, thankfully.

Let's not get too carried away. It's easy to look like a happy camp when you have won 6 on the bounce. The real test for this new found spirit is when we lose a couple of matches, in particular if we take a bit of a heavy loss, and we'll soon see the character of the squad (& probably goes for our spectators too, who showed last season they can soon get on the team's back given half a chance).

Yes, that's a fair point. Spirit is best shown in adversity, so let's see what happens when that time comes. In the meantime, let's hope we all manage to stay aboard the happy train a while longer yet!

I think we can see a difference already. Would last season’s team come back against Salford? Dug in against Huddersfield? I very much doubt it. How we respond to defeat will show us a lot though

Good point Captain, I too can see a different energy. ,

Whilst I agree with others that we are looking at a small sample, (pardon the expression) and some might say that the real 'testy' teams are yet to be played, but last season's team wouldn't have been coming from behind like they have done this.

I always hark back to the Kipling quote UR…not the one about how good his cakes are.

DSM

We both know fans are extremely fickle.
If we lose a couple of games - especially heavily - there will be calls for 'Powell out'.
I can hear it now.....

Some of the small things are telling...

Ratchford celebrating a call going our way like we'd scored a try (he is really energised this year) was an example from last week.

But last year and the year before I always found it frustrating that when a player made a mistake you got all the players giving 'pats on the back' to the guy who made the error - almost the same as if he'd scored a try.
I always thought that was over done.
Clearly you'd want to show support and say 'never mind' or 'put it behind you' but more than that doesn't do it for me.
I thought the good bit about Ratch was he fluffed the 'easy' conversion, then when he scored the nest one he shook his arms in the air to celebrate and laughed.

I'm not sure you know. People can tolerate a few losses if the effort in the players in there and it's clear we are building in the right direction and have some good results already in the bag.

That's different from last season where we lost 10 in 12 games at one point, and having near 40 points put on us by Wakefield at home. In my opinion fans were perfectly justified in calling that out as unacceptable, because it was.

A lot of fans on here were quite patient and adopted a position of "let's give Powell the benefit of the doubt, but if this crap continues into next season he should be replaced". It hasn't continued and he remains in place.

Absolutely.
To add…
It was clear before 2022 kicked off we were going to struggle with 1 prop (at any one time.).
The first win vs an 11/12 man Leeds team for 2/3s the game was the evidence.
I left that game already knowing we were going to be fighting relegation.

Few are going to start saying sack DP after 2 defeats like Fez1 says. It’s fortunate we’re playing Hull this week and not Catalan, as we are probably at our weakest we’ve been since last season.

I expect us to beat Hull, but I also expect a closer game than I’d like. I don’t see another performance like we did against Cas coming.