Cas although took 20 min to get into their attack, I thought their defence was the best I have seen from any team this season. Easily deserved winners (even though as a Wigan fan I had some issues with the ref

)

Would just like to dispute the "packs lay the platform" adage. I think in the modern game and more for some teams than others its the work of the backs on tackles 1, 2 and 3 that really help the pack. Look at how many meters Gelling makes, how much better Warrington are (were) when Russel got them on the front foot. The work Ryan Hall/McGilvery does out of defence. The young lads on the wings were quality in the opposition half but coming out of our 20 we really missed the back 5s size and strength imo. Pack was still a little off but I think that is mostly due to the Cas D, they put an incredible amount of effort into stopping our pack knowing we couldn't use plan b which was the quicker backs to make yards

The kicking game last night was woeful. Probably the worst for many a season. If it isn't dawning on people yet that Tommy is a poor replacement for Smith then I don't know what you are watching.

People counter with "Well Tommy takes on the line". Yes he does. And how many breaks has he made? His tackling is certainly better, if that's how you want to judge your half backs, fine. For me I want a runner and a kicker. Williams is the runner and because Tommy can't kick there is too much pressure on George to do everything. We saw the outcome of that last night when they had completely run out of ideas by the end. Tommy was supposed to be captain but there was no organisation at all either.

There were still good performances last night from the back three, Tautai and Joel who was my MoM

I'm starting to think that swapping Tommy with Sam Powell might be a solution. Because last year, when we had loads of injuries too, we were winning tight games, because we were organised and effective. Boring true, but give me boring if it comes with two points.

I agree entirely with this. As much as I'm enjoying seeing the kids get a shot they simply aren't adding as much as our starting backs. I'm also of the opinion that both Escaré and Powell have dipped ever so slightly recently. I've always said Sam should walk straight back in and I now think the same applies to Mickey Mac.
One final point. Did any else think Wane's pre match interview was a little "off"? IIRC it was along the lines of "I'm fairly happy even though we haven't trained or practiced much". Are we playing some busted bodies? Not to take anything away from Cas who, after a very slow start, put us down with ease and will do so again unless we get some troops back.

Was waiting / expecting this post

Tommy was poor but Smith wouldn't have won us that game last night. As much as I've moaned about it in the past we need at least a couple of our starting back five fully fit and taking the ball up. Our pack is used to that help and looks lost without it.

And?

Do I have a point or am I missing something? Because to my eyes the half backs are not working as a pair. Last night all the expectations on George got to him and he was poor. Last season Matthy organised and kicked and George did the rest. This year George has it all to do, and IMO he is struggling because it is unfair to expect one man to do everything.

To be honest I don't think you have a point.

Comparing Smith to TL, I think Tommy is a superior player in all aspects except place kicking though a Smith is not as good as some make him out to be in that either.

Last night we came up against a Cas team who are on form, top of the league, and averaging over 40 points a game. Powell has said it was their best performance of the season. Given that we had 8 of the preferred starting 13 and some of the first choice backups missing plus Powell playing with busted ribs losing 27 - 10 is far from a disaster.

Others have talked about a near full strength pack, that's nonsense, the only position we are at full strength is prop and imo that's the weakest area of the team. TT made a few good runs which catch the eye but was very suspect and slow in defence

This is not a criticism of the kids as they are finding their way in the first team however we had no go forward at the start of sets which lays the platform for the big guys to take over. Our kids were unsurprisingly dominated and the fist play the ball was consistently slow. Manfredi & Burgess were sorely missed in that respect. Forsyth has talent but is demonstrating he is not ready for the 1st team this year and the other centre is a back up SR who lacks pace.

Williams looks to me as though he is trying to do it all himself, Cas did a good job on him though I think he helped them a bit last night by not having faith in those outside him. Let's not forget, though a fantastic talent he is still young himself.

In short, losing 3 in a row is far from pleasing there's plenty of life in this team yet. I'd expect to have 3 or 4 out injured at this stage of the season. We simply have too many. That number kids can't be expected to perform week in week out in the first team.

A fair assessment IMO.
EDIT: What's the story re Powell?

Do you not remember our god-awful attack last year? We lost IMO because we were trying to go around a team that was mullering us down the middle. We needed forwards to run with purpose, win the collision, get a quick ptb with defenders drawn in, then the halves have some space and momentum to work with. I fail to see how Matty Smith would have rectified that. The pack was to blame, and I'm not sure Bateman and Lockers would have fixed it either, they are hardly heavyweights.

I think what you are missing is that last season Williams was often closed down because the opposition ignored Smith as an attacking threat. Williams had to to do it all[i last[/i season because with ball in hand Smith offered very little.

The issue in recent weeks has not been the half backs or injuries to the backs but that Flower, Clubb and FPN are not worth their pay packets.

Would the return of Lockers, MM and Batemen make a difference? Absolutely because all three are tough uncompromising players which just shows up the three mentioned above as needing to pull their weight more than they are doing.

What about the players Cas had missing ?
They had their captain and international centre Shenton out.
They were missing there best prop forwards in Millington and Lynch and also still have Larne Patrick on the injury table.
There is not only Wigan with players missing