I thought AJ was caught out a couple of times last night. He kept jumping off the wing to help Crookes when Crooks clearly had Shenton covered. He let his winger have a walk in for a couple of tries. Crooks was clearly not happy with him. Last season in the championship he had a habit of doing it and it paid off for him but at this level he has to trust his centre to do his job in defence. Which Crooks is clearly capable of doing without AJ's help. Leeds will target that next week.

Our kicking game was poor early on which meant we turned over too much ball which led to a nightmare twenty minutes in the first half. We need to be able to prevent those situations developing. I'm surprised nobody has suggested we were hard done to in the second half: two of Cas's tries should have been disallowed and we could easily have had another. Would have given us a bit more respectability. I thought a number of individuals did well but can't help thinking we could have done with a couple more trial games. Forty minutes pre-season against super League opposition is surely not enough.

I agree with Hock going well, also Stewart. Riddy was smothered and Pelissier seemed a little lost and ineffective and then with about 15 mins to go something seemed to switch on in his head.

Maybe I should feel a little deflated but it was a good match, we weren't horrible and it was a great atmosphere. ~8,500, good chats with many Cas fans around the ground all night and the realisation that I'm going to need triple socks for some of these late night summer rugby fixtures.

Brilliant to see the Leigh shirt back in Super League. No reason to be negative whatsoever. 1 goal for the season, stop in Super League and Derek will make that happen. I'm sure the boys are already targeting and speaking with new players so survival is achieved. 12 years since they were last in Super League the lads did us proud - I think you would be nervous and a bit too try-hard with that pressure. Give them time to learn and grow as the season progresses and enjoy the ride as you watch that growth. Looking at the Leeds game last year and the Cas game last night, it's clear that Super League teams know how to niggle without getting penalised.

Gaz Hock was superb as always leading from the front and with ball in hand and some possession, Leigh can score points, absolutely no doubt. Think we missed Fui (absorbing 4 tacklers each drive) and personally I'd liked to have retained Lee Smith for the experience he showed last year - maybe there was more than disclosed on that one. The jury is out on Hampshire, seems a bit frenetic.

I think we can do Leeds next week. Stay positive and remember, if they can successfully learn to be runner-up last night, they can learn to win next week.

Agreed.. Hock getting penalised for obstruction is ridiculous.

Having watched it back over , not as dissapointed as last night

The spear tackler should have been binned , obviously Powell as all other coaches will do is tell their players to niggle Hock , but Hicks should have had the card out before Gareth hit the floor , spear tackling isn't ' niggle '

We held our own for 20 minutes but didn't execute either a score or force a drop out despite having opportunity to do so , Cas did and we started to tire , they will punish better teams than us if they aren't matched early on

We must offload the ball , we cannot just keep battering away at SL defences , the stats showed we matched them in completion and field position , but they offloaded and built pressure which tired us out , also I have to say they did get more than their fair share of ' bounce of the ball ' last night

But we re group and go again , for me Hock was our MOM , we did our best work with him on the pitch

Good post Gubby.

The new rules we seem to be missing.Drinky was kicking old school rules,when simply just keep hold of it, is the answer.

Hock's go forward was excellent last night, especially during his second spell. Stewart went well too. For me the problem was that too many players looked exhausted after 15 minutes. I wonder if this can be put down to adrenaline more than lack of fitness. Evidenced by the way our "escape" sets from within our own 20m were often not gaining more than 30m, however Cas regularly making 50+. Castlefords interchanges were superb too and we couldn't live with their bench. There will be more than a couple of sides who'll lose by more than 28 at Cas this year, they look an excellent side. Onwards and upwards.

Yes,our kicking game was poor. We will put that right next week.On the last tackle you need to choose the right option,we chose the wrong decision too often. I don't think keeping hold of it on the last tackle is the answer either.Maybe a grubber kick inside the 10m, or further away, do an up n under, but make sure it's not too near the try line,or alternatively,kick it into touch and grab a breather if necessary.

They went for goal to ensure that Leigh had to score 4 times, which was pretty much out of reach,Irrespective of going 70 meters to score again.