I thought Drinkwater tried and did ok.
It was clear to see that we were second best in pack weight and the backs always then suffer for it and look bad.
I expect Drinky & Williams to look like world beaters against a decimated Hull.
I won’t get carried away with a big result though because of the suspensions.

I didn’t notice anything different from last season.

Same guff attack options when in the final 20m.

Same soft defence in the middle.

Big holes in defence on both fringes.

Currie, Walker and Drinkwater offering up the usual ordinary performances.

Same structures.

Can’t play against 12 men.

I didn’t get a sniff of anything new or innovative, in this or the Leigh game.

This what a completely rebuilt Catalans team, worryingly.

Whilst watching Tariq Sims put that hit on it made me ponder when I had last seen a wire hit like that.

Likely not since Benny Westwood.

Sort of alarming that a former prop as coach couldn't see that our pack is featherweight. Or even that Chambers couldn't see it at the back end of last year and push for a big signing in the off season. Cue another year of being bullied by the bigger boys and we all keep coming on here every week to say how we couldn't dominate up the middle so our backs couldn't flourish. Even a resounding win on Friday against a depleted hull will be no indicator of where we're truly at.

Think the coaches know that. There is still quota and salary cap space available for a prop. Just need to find the right one.

I don’t think the pack will be that much of a problem, the more we can get Vaughan, Musgrove and Harrison on the field the better.

For me, the issue keeps coming back to the way we finish and start our sets. Our kicking from deep just always seems so panicked and unprepared, and when we are near the line too often we come up with an awful kick in hope rather than expectation. I sometimes think it would be better to just run the ball in on the last simply make sure we don’t kick it dead, every week we struggle to keep the ball in the in goal area.

And on kick return, Dufty is hesitant on catching, and often stalls to hand off to a winger. We’d be much better served if he just got on with it and got us up the field. I don’t want to be too negative on Dufty, but watching Sam Tomkins do it is one thing, he is essentially a half back moved out of the defensive line, but Dufty wants broken defensive lines and a bit of space to run into, this is the exact scenario where he should thrive. At worst, the threat of him running the ball back would ensure that the kick chasers can’t get lazy or have a break.

If we could get on the front foot, get Dufty, Ashton and Thewlis on a roll coming away from our line, the packs job becomes much easier. But they’re constantly being challenged to start against a set defensive line.

+1
We’ll probably have an indication away at KR.

I suspect they would have loved to have done a 'Kasiano out/Mikaele in' move but I suppose Kasiano took longer to sort out meaning Mikaele had to look elsewhere to sort his future out.

No offence to Mikaele who did ok for us but I think we're going to need better if we want to challenge the big boys. We could, also, really do with adding some size to the second row by replacing Currie with some raw-boned beggar like Louis Anderson.

For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.

Currie should never have been given his recent contract extension by Wire.

We are now stuck with him, or we will have to give him a huge pay-off to get shut..

When I saw that 3 year extension last June I was left scratching my head at both the [itiming [/iand [iduration[/i. A legacy of Powell.


I was hoping that things had changed under Burgess but the same approach to Phibin recently has led me to conclude that not much has changed behind the scenes.

Quote: Moe syslak "For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.'" Thing is we are top (after 1 game admittedly) of the off load stats. https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club-stats

Quote: Moe syslak "For all his faults, having Kasiano and his offloading game is what we currently need with our speedsters like Ashton and dufty. It's not like we are the most creative side. It's a much bigger blow than people realised, him leaving the club.'" Thing is we are top (after 1 game admittedly) of the off load stats. https://www.superleague.co.uk/stats/club-stats