Is it really McNamara's fault that his team blew a 16 point lead or is it the players' fault?

Well, when that lead was erroded to 10 points he should have made some attempt to get the team focused to not allow Cas to get a roll on and get back into the match.

There's only so much a coach can do. Most of his work is done off the pitch and he put a team out there who built up a 16-point lead. There was only a 2-minute gap before they scored again, what miracle could he have performed in that time? These are professional rugby players after all. They blew it, not him.

Uh huh. So he couldn't send any message on to the field? Something like get a tighter marking on the play makers? Hold on to the ball? Something resembling coaching? No? No, you're totally right. It's not his fault at all. He's completely blameless.

Sorry Sam but your missing the point. It's the fact that a 16 point lead was blown in an 8 minute spell. The ability to defend is the main issue.

How can you be sure that he didn't do this? Not that the message needed to be sent, it's obvious to the dimmest of players.

Well TBH I didn't expect us to get the result today. It's disappointing we blew a winning position but I'm not suprised. Cas are more than a match for us in the backs and have been playing well. Our defence hasn't been very convincing at all yet so it would have been an upset if we'd won. I guess that makes it more disappointing in some ways that we came so close.

I guess I've just psyched myself up for it being a very long hard season.

Well if he did then it's clear the players refuse to listen to him. That's a BAD thing.

If the players can't see that sometimes they need to stick the ball up the jumper and play more conservatively then they're the ones who need criticising. A coach can't control [ieverything[/i on the pitch, some of our players are experienced enough to know what to do and shouldn't instructions from the sidelines.

Well clearly the players don't know what they're doing. But tbh that's something that's clear to a blind man.

Just back from the match. See we have some of the usual suspects.

Bulls were in control with about 15 mins to go and there was some really good stuff played. Trouble is, so there also was by Cas, who are a much better team than many are making out. But we were still well in control.

And blew it.

Simple as that. Tried to be bit too clever when should have stuffed it up the jumper. Even then, we came really close twice near the end. But didn't.

Oh well. What should have been a good win wasn't...credit to Cas for the fightback. Think I'll go away and be a bit gutted in peace and quiet for a bit.

ps. Pretty damn good Bulls fans turnout today.

The Bulls were the better side today but unfortunately being the better side for most of the game doesn't always win you the points. I think Matterson summed it up best by saying 'we suddenly stopped playing after 65 mins'. We stopped doing everything we had done so well all match. Up until the last quarter our defence was superb, Platt and Semi made some excellent catches for bombs. We looked the far more likely to break from our own half and Nero and Platt caused Cas no end of problems all match. I was stood thinking what a great effort we had put in and how great it was to see such committed and well organised defence.

And then... we just capitulated. We looked panic stricken despite having a 10 point lead after the first of 3 Cas tries. Perhaps we still lack a bit of self belief but we shouldn't and can't afford to throw away 16 point leads.

I am not totally disheartened because a lot of our play was very good today and we looked a lot more dangerous with the ball. But we still have some big issue to address in defence to concede so many after being so dominant. Great to see Platt have a good game, he was everywhere and didn't put a foot wrong all match. I thought Nero once again looked dangerous and continually asked questions of the Cas defence.

So now to the CC, we seriously need another victory in France otherwise our season will look very bleak come Sat.

Just back from the match

Still can't believe how we ended up losing - the only time we were ever behind on the scoreboard was the last three minutes. Unfortunately, they are the minutes that matter most

For most of the game, I thought we had it well in hand and we're dominating a very good Castleford team. Some bloke behind me was telling his missus that there was still time for Cas to come back - I didn't say anything but I inwardly thought 'no we've got this in the bag for sure'. Hmmm. How wrong I was

And I hope people will lay off Platt for once - I thought he had a great game, always willing to take the ball up and some excellent runs out of defence.

But where do we go from here. We played our numbers 1-13 today - which suggests that was pretty close to what the coaching team feel is our best starting line up. Solomona is a possibly an exception - but is he going to make the difference?

Ok then...

Summary of last 10 mins

1st try . We swung it out wide, Dixon went in at the corner not a easy try to stop although you could obviously see so far away.

2nd Try : Defending well then Sherwin grubbered it and it was picked up by McGoldrick that then swung it out wide to Shenny to go in at the corner, yes really bad defense there OR maybe it was quality from Sherwin


3rd and final try : Widders took it up...offloaded and then gave it to Chase who, in my opinion, scored one of the best try's this season. WORLD CLASS.

So maybe you did throw it away ? or maybe we were just world class in that last ten minutes, watch the highlights I'm sure you'll know.

Thanks for the 2 points, don't worry you won't be the first or last club we take 2 off.

By the way well done on the Support.

I agree I thought Platt was excellent today.

TBH i thought it was close all game playing wise, they targeted our left side at the end and didn't it work a treat for them. I was level with the line as the bulls attacked our end in the 2nd half and Halley was never put a foot on or outside the line when the linesman flagged...however

I think Cas played faster ball then we did and wanted to keep the pace up going, I felt we were rightly penalised on a couple of occasions for holding down trying to slow it down. I was surprised Deac's came back on and i guess the 2 point conversion misses cost us, I thought the last one was an easy one by his normal high standards.

If we'd have won that I'd have gone away happy as i thought Cas really did have a good game but losing from that position...to see it all fall apart in front of your eyes is horrendous.