Couple of things about the fans yesterday. Most of the PS spent 39 mins of first half screaming for us to throw the ball around and the rest of the game abusing Sargent for doing just that. I just hope that they are now pondering whether more patience with the sensible tactics we had been employing would have made Sarge less prone to that blood-rush.

The booing at the end was disproportionate to the level of effort (which is all I personally demand of the team) but on this occasion I can sort of understand it. I suspect most of the 7000 crowd, having grown fed-up of one bad SL season after another, harboured hopes of something better this time around only to witness a repeat of just about every other opener since 2000. Getting that frustration out probably made them feel a bit better but ATEOTD it does demean us as a group and won't help the cause.

That reminds me, I think yesterday was the first time I've ever heard the PS stand collectively shout "Forward!" We didn't get anything for it though.

The number of times i hear things like that from Cas fans. The only conclusion i can come up with is that these people just don't think!

Righty – after 20 hours or so to reflect:

There were a number of frustrating things yesterday (in no particular order)

1) Mitch's rush of blood to the head at half time!

2) Dixon's apparent inability to convert from the touchline

3) Sione's short kicking game (but then, that's not why we signed him)

4) When the ball went to to right, Sione's apparent need to run to find space with sometimes meant he was nearly the furthest back of our players – so had no one to legally pass to

5) when the ball went to the left (which wasn't often enough imo) Rangi's mazy runs and dummies being followed by a pass behind the players outside him

1) is pretty inexplicable, but not something I'd expect to recur too often
2) we knew about going in to the season – but it is frustrating that with three players with place kicking experience ( Dixon, Westerman, Huby) we can't actually convert enough tries
3) As I said, that's not why we signed him
4 & 5) 10 new players in the first team – it's going to take time for them to gel and get used to each other: with Rangi for instance, I'm not sure whether it's a question of him getting use to the players outside him, the outside players getting used to him and not over-running him, or a mixture of both. But it is something I expect to improve.

But – it was a good defensive performance to hold Quins to two tries (one and intercept when they wouldn't have scored on their own) and remember: if we had someone who could kick consistently from the touchline, we'd have drawn.


And the booing was embarrassing – I get the impression sometimes that people expect teams like Quins (and Catalans in last year's opener?) to be a walkover because they're not 'proper' RL clubs, and never bother to actually look at their strengths.

A very good point! We were fielding 3 England internationals and an NRL championship winning player, yet some of the posters here seem to think Castleford deserved the 2 points before the game kicked off
It was the first game of the season and both teams were rusty. I have no doubt that castlefords squad is good enough to get you into the top 8 if your fans will just back them...

Oww yes

im not being funny, i dont post on here but im a cas season ticket holder but i have to say i hate the way cas fans jump on the player at the first opportunity!!! the defence was a massive improvement on last season, yes we were short in attack..... but we no we can score, tht was our strengh last year and on another day we wud have run in 4 or 5 on sunday. we lost because we missed conversions, simple as, not lack of commitment or desire
you tell westy he dint want it when hes holdin a heavier guy up and savin a certain try!!
Jus stop talkin and get behind the lads!!

That might be the best post I've ever read on Rlfans.

Good first post mate, welcome to RLfans.

Edited for accuracy

Fancy starting a Hackney clique? There's some reasonable eateries around EE2 …

We could do, although it'll have to be before Saturday so that I can stretch the clique down to my new home in sunny Tooting Bec...