Very bizarre stuff at Saints tonight. Great game - not sure what the fuss is over the supposed shoulder charge - the defender's left arm was around the attacker on contact. The normally pleasant Konrad Hurrell kicks drinks bottles all over the place after a red card for direct contact to the head, Walmsley has to drag Percival off the pitch and a few fans shouting all sorts at Rohan Smith at the end.
Saints probably a little emotionally drained after the WCC and lost a close one - not sure why it led to all of the anger given their recent success. Though I guess when you get used to winning then losing becomes harder to stomach.
We earned that tonight. The scoreline doesn’t tell anything like the story. We were pinned in our half for the first 30 minutes (mainly due to silly errors and a ref who closed his eyes whenever we had the ball) and the first try broke it open for us. The ref was the best player for Cas on the night, including the tackle of the season on Marshall at 0-0 to stop a certain try.
I didn’t feel we had any real standouts bar Marshall, it was just a gritty team effort and after we ground them down, you could see the difference in class. I’d still love for us to sign another forward but it was a pleasing night.
The ref blocking Marshall when he had nothing but open field was horrendous! Not one for putting refs down as it is not an easy and often thankless job, but i hope he see's some disaplinary action for that and his overall performance at times. A few weeks off being the main ref is in order i think amd some positional training.
You are correct in the scoreline not painting a full picture of the game, some heroic defensive efforts in that first half which was the most pleasing part for me, particularly when you take our Hull KR defensive display into account. Coming from a slightly clouded memory, Marshall, Field, French and King all had some great try saving tackles and there are probably numerous more i am forgetting and missing.
Came away from the game last night a very happy fan, and hopefully we keep up the momentum. 96-0 in the last 2 games, not a bad stat eh?
The ref blocking Marshall when he had nothing but open field was horrendous! Not one for putting refs down as it is not an easy and often thankless job, but i hope he see's some disaplinary action for that and his overall performance at times. A few weeks off being the main ref is in order i think amd some positional training.
You are correct in the scoreline not painting a full picture of the game, some heroic defensive efforts in that first half which was the most pleasing part for me, particularly when you take our Hull KR defensive display into account. Coming from a slightly clouded memory, Marshall, Field, French and King all had some great try saving tackles and there are probably numerous more i am forgetting and missing.
Came away from the game last night a very happy fan, and hopefully we keep up the momentum. 96-0 in the last 2 games, not a bad stat eh?
I thought maybe the ref tackle wouldn’t look as bad on tv as it did live but no, it looks even worse.
What pleased me is that 4 players who are roundly criticised by a section of fans had very good games.
I find it interesting when players like Singleton, Isa, Powell and King (the pre season scapegoats) all have good games that the praise is generally very low key.
It worries me a little that we are so reliant on Isa but at the moment he cannot not be in the starting 13.
I still hope in the background we are making moves to bring in another secondrow mid season as I think it may be a push for him to maintain his current level of performance for a full season, but if this is to be his last season with us he has started it off fantastically well.