Catalans (H) - 09/03/2023

Singleton: 32m - 6 carries
Cooper: 67m - 9 carries
Ellis: 39m - 7 carries
Havard: 87m - 15 carries
Mago: 65m - 8 carries
Isa: 24 m - 4 carries
Farrell: 70 m - 13 carries
Smithies: 66m - 10 carries

Catalans:
Bousquet: 55m - 10 carries
McMeeken: 96m - 10 carries
Garcia: 59m - 7 carries
Seguier: 70m - 13 carries
Goudemand: 50m - 12 carries
Chan: 45m - 4 carries
Dezaria: 43m - 6 carries
Manu Ma'u - 140m - 13 carries

Quote: jonh "Where do you get the stats please?'" Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793

Quote: jonh "Where do you get the stats please?'" Super League Website. Go to results and then player stats once you've selected the game. www.superleague.co.uk/match-centre/report/3793

McMeeken was enormous for them. Great player

We can and have won big games and even finals without our props making big yards.

What we cannot do though is not have our backs and secondrows who we rely on to make those meters come up short too.

Only Field and once again King posted good stats, Faz was way down on normal and Wardle really needs to improve in that area.

French is wasted in that role as it’s not the type of player he is which again for me champions the idea to move him to 1 and Field to 6.

Miski is a Wigan winger in regards doing the meters as is Marshy who like others came up short last night compared to normal meters made.

Faz has had a worrying start to the season for me. He seems down on his usual attacking numbers and defensively he is grabbing at people and they’re getting away from him. The lad isn’t a machine (although he’s close) and I just wonder if he has a knock or the captaincy is weighing heavy as he tries to settle. Maybe I’m just picking up negatives in what has been an average start to the season for the team.

Coming back from a serious injury means he will take time to get up to speed. But the only way to get up to speed is by playing.

I noticed a bit of arm-grabbing by Faz too. I suppose we rely on him so much. What concerned me the most was that, say what you like about the shortcomings of our forward pack, the truth is we had plenty enough field position to win the game, but our attack was so predictable and disjointed. And if you're coming off second-best in terms of forward power, why persist in trying to barge over from short range, as we spent so much time attempting?

whilst i agree that we have won and will win many matches by not utilising our props as metre makers, i feel there are times and places (one being last night) that the tactics should change a little

i dont think anyone felt that last night was a game to play open / expansive rugby. It was a night for doing the basics well or even dead boring rugby. 5 drives from the forwards and a good kick and apply pressure to the opposition. If we start our 6 in a decent position, then look to play a little then. It should all have been about controlling the ruck in both attack and defence with the pack, and thats what Catalan did. I dont think they played anything out of this world, but played the conditions / what was in front of them far better than Wigan did

I think where the way we use our props falls down is as mentioned when our backs and secondrows don’t make yards…but also when our props are not dominant in defence.

The idea of using the backs and edges for yards is to leave the middles do dominate the contact in the middle to win the arm wrestle.

For periods we did that last night but then failed to execute off the back of it, however for the most part we totally lost that battle which renders the props and the tactic pointless.

Salfords pack isn’t that big but their spine is playing far better than ours , and dishing up some fantastic RL