fair shout Mat.

I think a lot of the ball stea/knock on calls in super league these days are 50/50 (though there are some blindingly obvious ones)

On sky the replays show that ref's get the majority right - though I'd think that as professionals they all practice "pressuring the ball" in some way to influence the decisions and force more lost balls.

I know exactly what you mean with that decision though, it'd be easy if the balls is covered to get away with reefing it - like I say, it was a 50/50 that went against you but I'd argue it wasn't a game-breaker

Beaten up front and it won't be the last time.

If we can cut out the stupid mistakes and playmakers use their brains a bit more we may scrape into 12th. IF we don't suffer any injuries.

Doesn't bode well. Losing Carvell and Sammut has significantly weakened us.

I listened to the game. My armchair summary is that Cas are mentally stronger, rather than physically stronger, which is understandable. Without a win it will only get worse for Bradford.

just looked at the round 3/4 fixtures and I'd say you really need a win on thrusday. If you lose 4 points then it'd be a massive struggle.

all the best guys

Their pack consistently made more yards and Huby was immense. We were definitely physically weaker, the Cas forwards looked bigger and had the numbers to rotate when they were tiring when we couldn't. Our quality up front dropped right off with Walker and Bridge propping. I'd say mentally we're fragile too, once we went behind it was inevitable we'd concede more.

Lots of Ifs and buts. What if Manoakafoa hadn't knocked on that led direct to Dixon's try? What if Gale had gone for a drop goal when we were 18-12 up instead of a crap end to the set that let Cas score on the next set.

If we get a points deduction it'll be even worse.

Quite! Doing the simple things right win games. Looking at the Wakefield reports, that is far from a easy game for us. They "sound" a pretty tidy setup. Should be a good game. Shame works getting in the way. Inconvenient or what or maybe

All in all, and taking the average of everyone's comments on board, it seems it is fair to say that Carvell cost us that game. If we had had one more top prop to compete with the Cas pack, punch some holes and take out some steam, it might have been enough. Carvell sing off a week before the first game was therefore probably the key. I don't think Sammut's absence was key, as once your pack is beaten and you are overtired from defending then what could he have added?

Agree with Gale's balls-up on the last, which indeed I mentioned in my original post. I am worried about him. I have always supported Gale as he clearly had something, he can control a game, his positional kicking can be very good, etc. But I'd hoped he would come out this season having worked all off season on his playmaking and getting used to last tackle decisions and plays. Yet now I fear that whereas everyone we played last year seemed to be able to put us under decent pressure with most of their last plays, we are again looking deficient in that respect. Is it just that he can't consistently do it?

And yes I know we scored from one of his crossfield kicks (Purtell) but I can't overlook his shiite punt into touch when we had an overlap on the right - if you choose to do the flash punt to the winger that's fine by me as long as you nail it. And also that ridiculous pen he gave away (they somehow missed the kick) was not what I'm looking for in him in pressure situations.

We were home to Cas. Did Gale force a single dropout? Maybe he did, but I can't remember one.

I don't think Cas are that big but Addy, O'Brien & Donaldson must be 3 of the smallest pack men in the league.

It does not sound great for you guys. Interested to hear how our old boys of Foster and Gaskell went for you, but it's a pretty depressive time for a fan when relegation looks so certain.

In 2013 it would have taken 20 points to stay up.
2012 14 points
2011 13 points

And that's the lowest it has ever been.

It's going to take a normal team 7 wins to stay up. If you get a points deduction that's more like 9 wins.

[code
Club M C TK OF AT DG TB MT CB FT E MI P DR
Bulls 1076 169 328 8 9 0 16 53 3 0 13 38 8 31
Tigers 1489 211 237 7 15 0 38 48 10 0 9 16 7 23[/code

To me those stats show we are missing match sharpness not fitness. As sharpness increases the squad numbers drop due to niggles etc. We need numbers to counter this, but due to our lack of numbers on the bank balance (assuming that incoming transfer money has gone towards our future) thats a pipe dream. I'm just hoping that the more games we play the more likely we are to score points, hopefully enough to suprise enough teams!

To me those stats show we missed just over 10% of our tackle attempts.

Nowt changes.

Oh, and Danny Addy is already joint 2nd in Super League for missed tackles with 7! (or 15% of his attempted tackles)

Donna and O'brien are fine. Great tacklers

Olbisons on the other hand is pointless. Sorry but he doesn't bust tackles, I've never seen him do an offload ever, and he misses tackles! I know we're skint but surely we can find a back rower in the championship who can do one of the above!

I'm dreading Thursday as I can see Kirkmond and lauatiti (spelling) running throug Olbison and Addy on Thursday.

Metres, Missed tackles and clean breaks tell the tale there...

400 more metres, 10 clean breaks... but 38 missed tackles!? good grief

]

Absolutely spot on assessment of yesterdays game