Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:12 am  

Ellam wrote:

Right my take, everyone stood up and put their bodies on the line, defence fantastic(all hail Lasty), team spirit the like of Hardaker and Rapana hugging Barron and Martin when they did something well was great to see it's what these young lads needed after last season(masterstroke Richie), Spine was massive Rapana quality always makes yards, Cust very good, Sezer amazing what you can do with a kicking game, Amir good at hooker loved Mint but what a difference at hooker with good ball and pace, Asiata warrior and moves our team around the pitch. Only one game but we've waited nearly 18 months for this so let's enjoy. Negatives Jed's hammy hopefully just a minor and a few weeks. Hopefully Amir pass protocols to play against Wigan. Holmes hopefully play to replace Jed and that be my only change. Final point someone's gone MIA amazing that isn't it he be gutted.

Pretty much sums it up for me. Gutted for Jed as he was outstanding before he went off. Just hope Holmes is fit for next week. Be interesting how they go about dummy half with Amir failing his HIA. Too early for hutchinson to have a stint either side of HT to give Balmforth a breather?

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:18 am  

Great result, and as has been said looks to be a bit more team spirit.
Anyone else think Cust's second try should have been a penalty try? Looked like head contact to me.

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 11:42 am  

Fantastic effort from all last night especially in defence , I thought both halves gelled well together also .
Not a fan of captains challenge , Sorry Aussies you can have it back .

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 12:03 pm  

B0NES wrote:

Fantastic effort from all last night especially in defence , I thought both halves gelled well together also .
Not a fan of captains challenge , Sorry Aussies you can have it back .

captains challenge in theory is fine, but it shouldn't take forever, id put a time limit on the review, 2 minutes maximum, if no conclusive evidence, call stands...can't have games taking over 2 hours to complete!

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 1:42 pm  

Ellam wrote:

Are we allowed to be positive or will we be shot down, just going to read through the comments then I'll see if I can be positive.

Good lord don’t be positive. I think prior to the game we were hopefully positive now we can be realistically positive. I see someone showed stats that mean Wigan will beat us if we don’t improve Ptbs in opposition territory. I’m sure Cartwright will be on these figures and address in training. So let’s remain positive. We beat Wigan last season remember!

[Chris71]

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 1:50 pm  

number 6 wrote:

B0NES wrote:

Fantastic effort from all last night especially in defence , I thought both halves gelled well together also .
Not a fan of captains challenge , Sorry Aussies you can have it back .

captains challenge in theory is fine, but it shouldn't take forever, id put a time limit on the review, 2 minutes maximum, if no conclusive evidence, call stands...can't have games taking over 2 hours to complete!

I’d say 30secs max for the captains challenge as if it isn’t clear & obvious then refs call stands.

Also pretty much the same with try’s, should take no longer than a minute, again if it isn’t clear and obvious then refs call stands.

As last night was just painful and detracts from the game.

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 1:55 pm  

Reviewing last night again, think it was highly significant that each of the experienced players brought into the club since last September (Rapana, Hardaker, Cust, Sezer, Asiata) all made telling contributions to the win.
That is a very experienced spine, from 1 to 13, and if we are to have even a reasonably half-decent year then I think a great deal of it will revolve around those five.

Not only are they the type of players who have a winning mentality inbred into them but, possibly more importantly, they are the kind of players who can make others around them look better.
This should take a large amount of pressure and responsibility away from the younger lads, thought both Martin and Barron last night were able to play their natural game without feeling everything was on their shoulders. There were times last year when it looked as if these young kids were being hung out to dry, without having anyone to lean on for support and experience.

Obviously, it's only one game, and there is still a long year ahead with all the usual bumps, twists and turns to come, and I'm sure we will most likely still have the odd bad night when it doesn't quite come off for us, but it was difficult not to come away from last night without feeling that, at the very least, we will be in most games this year, being competitive and earning respect from other teams as a credible professional outfit. After last year, when I suspect the club had become a standing joke within the game, that will be no mean achievement.

As the saying goes, one swallow doesn't make a (RL) summer, but I would be amazed if there was any black & white who wasn't walking around this morning with that little extra spring in their step. It won't be all wine and roses over the coming months, so let's enjoy the bright new dawn for at least the next few days!
Really hoping for a cracking atmosphere now on Friday night. Wigan at home always feels like a bit of an event in the calendar, let's hope we can rock the place under the lights.

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 2:00 pm  

I'd have no issues with Hutchison against Wigan, why not? We boast about all this young talent coming through, we can't be afraid to give them their chance when the opportunity arises, and we are likely going to need him as the season goes on. The difference between this year and last is anyone making their debut will be surrounded and supported by the experienced guys in the team. Just give him 10 to 15 minutes either side of half time to let Balmforth freshen up a bit. My preference would be for Moy though. Just because he can cover the backs too.

If Cartwright is missing I'm assuming Fash will be at second row. Not what I would do, although he was solid enough last night. Salabio onto the bench.

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 2:03 pm  

UllFC wrote:

While yes we need to be cautious the key thing for me was the foundations of a good defence where there. RL is a possession sport and if you defend well and keep the ball you will come up with the win more often than not.

The biggest risk is how we cope with injuries and bans as we are weak in some positions. But we have money and salary cap space and I can forsee we will sign players for 2026 and pay to get them to come mid this season instead.

We spent too much time defending our line last night. Catalans aren't the best attacking side and we're missing some key players. We'd struggle to hold out the top teams in similar circumstances

Re: Catalans Away - 14th Feb : Sat Feb 15, 2025 2:05 pm  

Large Paws wrote:

Great result, and as has been said looks to be a bit more team spirit.
Anyone else think Cust's second try should have been a penalty try? Looked like head contact to me.

I called it at the time. Ridiculous it wasn't when they gave catalogs a penalty for rapana fall8ng over makinson