It was an extremely disappointing afternoon, and on the face of it, not much to be optimistic about. And yet.

First of all, for practically all the game, we never did anything. At all. Yes, we went through the mechanics of the game, much of the tackling was not bad, some of the basic attacking play was not bad, but it seemed as if we could never rise above the "not bad".

Nothing happened. Ever.

The most excitement was Langley's diagonal run for his try, apart from that, it reminded me of one of those old fashioned wrestling matches, where each week they put in one of the blokes you had never heard of to be the whipping boy, and told him he was only allowed to go through the basic motions, but don't do anything flash or detract from the main man, until the xth round, when you go down.

Catalans looked in a decent groove already, and one very big difference between teh two teams was that they looked and are a team where they all know each other's game, know where they'll go and what they'll do, and are now working on the finer points. Whereas we look like a bunch of strangers, which largely, we are.

Someone asked me before the game how I thought we'd go. I said that I thought we had bought well enough, but because we are a brand new team, it would take at least 2 months for me to expect the team to have developed anything like an understanding, and to start to gel as a team. After the game, I am not sure 2 months wasn't optimistic.

Gale was a bit of an Awfor, he showed some good touches, but was never near dictating any play, yet I feel I can hardly criticise him when he was behind a pack that was utterly dominated from start to finish. It was men against boys, and this is where our season may get stuck. We haven't, on today's showing, got a competitive pack. Kopczak showed some dog, the rest were pretty ordinary. Sammut was Sammut, in flashes, but again there's no opportunity to shine when your pack is being paggered, and I also liked the look of Kear, and Purtell did some good things.

The scoreline is not a fair reflection of the game, though. We deserved to lose by far more. Probably only the conditions kept it down.

Despite a bit of the headless chicken syndrome, I would not fault the team for lack of effort. I kept an eye on them after each score, and you could see that it was hurting. And there is no doubt that we did slowly improve as the game went on, and again, I have no doubt that we kept on trying to the end. And that is itself a major improvement on some of our recent performances.

If it has not dented the confidence too much, I think we will have come on a lot for having had a fully competitive and adverse 80 minutes. I genuinely believe that there is a lot of potential in that side, but I had hoped for much better for their first outing. I hope they all spend a lot of time watching the video.

What's the point in having wingers, we never pass to them. We don't support in attack and our defence was shocking.

Chev Walker offers nothing, Langley had a nightmare apart from his try.

We've changed most of te starting players from McNamara's time, so what's the excuse?

So it's come to this, aiming to not finish bottom of the league.

Jeez, if all we get is one line hyperbole all season, then it ain't gonna be much of a discussion forum. I blame Twitter.

A one line post is not as valid as a longer or rambling message because?

We seemed to start this season off exactly as we left off last season. Groundhog day.

Pretty disappointing, even if we were up against a combination of a likely top-4 side and Child and with some key players missing. Slower and seemingly less enthusiastic in all departments. Camped on their line and we couldn't score. Trying to barge down the middle when up against a huge pack like theirs...smart tactics. And Beaver showed us once again how you play the game. Mind you, he's only 47 or thereabouts.

Sammut and Kear gave hope on the enthusiasm front, sand you could see the team was gutted every score they conceded. Looked worrying for Bateman, just hope not as bad as it looked.

But I really saw nothing today that was very much different to last season. Maybe more enthusiasm, but the execution remained the same.

That said, Pies are not happy chappies tonight and Wire not too chuffed either - so maybe its a fair call not to read too much into one match against a strong opposition.

If anyone cares what I've got to say about todays game.. you can read it .[url=http://bradfordbulls.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/the-case-for-the-defence-mlord-bulls-12-34-dragons/here[/url

WTF was that? New season, new players, same old sh11t. Dire.

Disappointing after yet another promise of a new dawn

Yeah OK, we had a few players missing - but then so did Catalans, and they still dominated us from the start. The problem, it seems to me, is that our pack just doesn't look dominant enough. Kopczak seemed to be only one that had a bit of 'go forward' about him. Hargreaves: what does he do? Scruton: nowhere near the player he was a couple of years back Burgess: 15 minute cameo then disappears never to return Donaldson: nothing in attack Sibbit : Why is he even playing for us?

I though Gale and Sammut showed nice touches, and there was promise from Kear, but who could really judge any of the back line when the forwards were battered from start to finish.

I don't see what we can do to address this until we get Elima - and to a lesser extent Whitehead - back. And hopefully Manu will have a bit of devil about him....

Looks like another long season of struggle from where I'm sitting. Sorry to sound negative....

Why can't we defend - our one on one tackling was embarassing - how is it not possible to have improved in the off season?
Why do we bother having a backline if we never use it?
What exactly is our game plan - give it to Burgess?
Two exciting half backs - played off the pitch by Catalans pair.
All that early season optimism gone in one home game once again.

Thats what you get with him

A big blow out suggests your pack was out-muscled, which is something lots of pundits have been pointing out throughout the pre-season. Most of your new & improved signings are in the backs, but unless the forwards can match other teams then you won't see the best from these players, and Angela Powers will probably end up being proved right.

Elima is definitely the sort of player that would have been missed, but who else is there? How did Scruton and Langley go?