Totally agree about Maria frank, he looked good in the 2 friendlies, whilst Vea has had little impact so far......

Naughton is a very good fullback who is good under the high ball and is rapid.

To be honest Keith I've hardly seen Vea play before, but because we signed him from Saints, was expecting more. Yes, it's 'early doors' but he's hardly Fuifui Moimoi (impact wise)

All will be well.
Let's just hope for warmer weather - took yonks to thaw out last night

The run of fixtures are perfect for us. We could play to the very last round to get up to speed and we will still not be going to Castleford and taking the points this year. It is time to lower the expectation levels a notch. There are still plenty of fixtures where we are extremely capable and perhaps fancied of picking up points and they come further in the campaign. By then we will have learned and be more hardened to this level.

Castleford were superb in flashes and not many will come away with a victory in their own back yard including our Trinity supporting friend.

I would be inclined however to mix it up a little. Brown needs to move to full back, and I want to see Hampshire's elusiveness in the halves as Riddy is clearley not fit. Hopkins in for Vea and yes time to put Acton on the bench, who I do believe is playing for Sheffield tommorrow.

It is okay putting in defensive players and tackling your hearts out but to win Rugby League matches you have to also hit the line and score tries.

Over all Friday night was not the end of the world. MOM for Leigh ? Josh Drinkwater. He was pivotal in what we did well. A good scrum half and not out of place at this level.

We are not SL top 8, but if we remain relatively injury free we will not be going down either and that would be job done this year.

Keith ,I agree with most of your post , but for the Danny Tickle part,I think Danny still has a lot to offer, he puts in plenty of tackles and always supports the ball player,deffo in my 17 .Charlie knows.

Fui wouldn't last 5 mins at SL these days

Tickle the unsung hero in the M8's and plenty to offer this season also.

The forwards are not our worry IMO, reckon they will hold there own, Tonga to centre, Brown to FB, defence is massive at this level - can't get away with the mistakes of last night

I tend to agree, Fui would most likely struggle in SL this year.
However, we could well miss the lack of a big impact front rower coming from the bench, which I what Fui offered in abundance. Castlefords interchanges were awesome Friday night. Which leads me to ask, what would our best option for a "high impact" interchange bench? For me:
Hood
Hock
Acton
Maria

I agree with ever bit of this post ..
For me vea is a crap Fui (saints fans we're glad to se the back of him)
Drinkwater was the mom for us followed by green who made some good yards.
All in all it's one game I think all us fans like DB should have one goal this year and that's to be in super league in 2018 hopefully with out needing the million pound game.

Just watching again , counted at least 4 flat/forward passes from Cas in the 1 st 10 minutes , this is what appeared to give Cas better go forward than us , something we need to copy

Matty Dawson should have made a better attempt at scoring on our 1 st attack

Ref missed Chase dropping onto Drinkwaters head causing the knock on , should have been a penalty

On 10 minutes the kick by Hampshire was excellent , but too much enthusiasm by Higson in the chase left a gap for them to escape a drop out

Missing touch , criminal

On 14 minutes Drinkwaters put a good kick but again poor pressure allowed them to escape

19 minutes Cas s 1 st offload = try

24 minutes Cas s 2 nd offload = try

27 minutes we batter at their line after our kick off but poor final play pass wide rather than a grubbed into the corner

Lots of pushes on defenders as they chase their kicks

Lots of work on tommorrows video to look at

]


Was waiting for someone to mention the Matty Dawson incident. He seemed to just freeze. It definitely looked a scoreable chance on TV.

Quite right chris,he made no attempt to go for it.

I think Darryl had done his homework and exposed some bad defensive habits from the players that stepped up. Whilst it was entertaining last year to see Higson big hitting the centres Cas simply made him look a mug when he pushed in too quick, players like gale will just fire it out to the winger or kick into the gap left behind.
They also targeted ridys left shoulder
I think we've got to give brown a shot at FB it was his preferred position in the NRL, be good to get Micky back, and I would definitely bring Hopkins in.
On another note I'd give Tonga 4 weeks and if he can't play he's got to go.
In the positives I thought Green, Hock and Crooks went well, and with a bit more go forward Drinkwater would've been hard to handle.
Nowhere near the end of the world, we need to start working on what's between the players ears now, in this league effort will only take you so far, being smarter will win us games.

Tonga is fully fit. A bit harsh saying get rid if the coach doesn't pick him!