Quote: Bullseye "Did anyone seriously expect a win for the Bulls yesterday? I predicted Cats by 20 on their board and wasn't far off.
As has been said we were outgunned up front. That meant we had few attacking opportunities and we managed to make a mess of the few we had. We didn't get a repeat set until the 50th minute IIRC. We were always going to struggle against the likes of Paea, Fakir, Ferriol etc but losing the ball without putting in a decent attcking kick is unforgivable.
We did managed to salvage some semblence of respectablity in the second half but a lot of that was down to Catalans going off the boil then anything particularly good on our part. We seemed to fall into the familiar theme of brittle defence, ill discipline and that awful habit of making a mistake and following it up with a penalty.
The return of Elima is massively important given the lack of power from the likes of Scruton and Hargreaves. Sibbit did his best but isn't good enough. We were unlucky to lose Bateman. Langley had a nightmare and I thought Burgess was anonymous. Our hookers and halfbacks struggled with the lack of quick PTBs but that was down to the Cats having the dominant forwards.
Hopefully our weak pack isn't going to be our downfall this season, but I have my fears. Catalans looked very good and with Pryce in the side will be even better, I shudder to think how many they'd have won by with him in the side yesterday. As for Menzies, well I still can't believe we let him go, he was the best player we had in 2010 and is still better than any of our current backrowers.'"
Can't argue with much of that, except the "Catalans off the boil" bit, but when the opposition is 20 ahead at halftime it's a difficult or impossible cliche to disprove. But we WERE a significant amount better in the second half. It could be because Catalans took their bat home but it didn't look like that to me, I do think Catalans were not as effective in the seocnd half, but a lot of that must surely, in fairness, be down to us. Of course, it was always too little, too late, but let's not be unfair in how much we take away from our team. There wasn't much to give, and being competitive in the second half is hardly major size wraps anyway. But I think we were.
It isn't rocket science but still true that losing Lynch, hard on the heels of the colossus that was Vagana, has left us with the softest pack in the league. This may improve when most of those available are fit, but as I said before, it was not lack of effort, ideas or organisation that was the major problem, it was our pack being eaten alive by the Catalans pack, and once that happens to any team then they are royally fooked, which we were. It is a major problem for Potter (who didn't want to sell Lynch of course) and we have to accept (since we are up to the salary cap) that we won't be seeing any more new faces in the pack save injury returnees, so let's hope against hope that our existing pack members can find a way to raise their collective game and give the team at least a chance.
